While “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” was easily one of the funniest movies of 2006, the laughter didn’t stop in the movie itself. Sacha Baron Cohen as the misogynistic and anti-Semitic Kazakh television reporter Borat Sagdiyev left a wake of hilarity in the path of the movie.

The hilarity began in the promotion of the film, with a screening at the Toronto Film Festival where Cohen showed up as Borat and threatened to crush whoever was running the projector. It continued through the talk show circuit and would have culminated at the Academy Awards if the Academy wasn’t so stuffy and would have actually let Cohen present an award in character.

One of the funniest moments in the wake of the Borat phenomenon was when it was nominated for two Golden Globes. Although I don’t normally watch award announcements, I happened to catch these, and it was hilarious to watch Jessica Biel stumble through the entire name of the film twice to announce it’s candidacy. I’ll bet after this was done, she wished she got the dramatic categories with short titles like “Babel” and “Blood Diamond.”

These ancillary and resulting incidents are what make “Borat” such a great film beyond it’s own existence. And this is what makes the DVD even funnier than the movie.

Normally, DVD extra features can be somewhat lukewarm. How often have you watched deleted scenes from a movie and said to yourself, “Yeah, I see why they took that out.” The beauty of the deleted scenes from “Borat” is that they don’t need to fit into the film. The movie itself is just an assortment of wacky scenes with Borat making an ass of himself and everyone around him.

The 30+ minutes of deleted scenes feature Borat in other situations that don’t necessarily work in the movie itself but are still hilarious. He tries to adopt a Jew-killing dog that he plans to later eat. He gets a massage in a hotel room and begs for a happy ending. He even creates his own Kazakh version of “Baywatch,” inspired by his love for Pam Anderson.

Going through these deleted scenes are like getting a bonus 30-minute movie. Additionally, the video of his global press tour is another hilarious bonus. While these tend to be self-congratulatory and nothing more than marketing fluff, we get to see Borat unload on people like Conan O’Brien (by trying to steal his pubes), the audience of SNL (whoring out his children) and Jay Leno (where he strips on stage in order to bed Martha Stewart).

Last year, Sacha Baron Cohen emerged as the comedian to watch in the future. His Andy Kaufman style of immersive comedy makes him both a novelty and part of the establishment. In the day and age of digital video, this film managed to redefine the mockumentary without having to compete with the hundreds of indie filmmakers trying to do the same with a cheap MiniDV camera.

Yes, “Borat” is a funny movie, but this DVD is even funnier. Every aspect of the DVD – from packaging to encoded – is in on the joke. There’s an American sleeve with a Kazakh knock-off inside case written in the Cyrillic characters. The menus feature the blocked, rough translations. Even the FBI warning at the beginning of the DVD is part of the joke.



Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.85:1) – Enhanced for 16x9 televisions. French, Spanish, Russian and Hebrew language tracks. Spanish subtitles. English subtitles for the hearing impaired.