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After the Kim Jong-il ashes-spilling stint at the Oscars, Sacha Baron Cohen is getting more free publicity for his upcoming comedy The Dictator. The spoof Kazakh anthem from Cohen’s 2006 hit Borat instead of the real one played during a medal ceremony at the Arab Shooting Championships in Kuwait. A Kazakhstan official called the incident “a scandal”, demanding an investigation. After the mishap was discovered, the organizers apologized and the awards ceremony was repeated with the right anthem, but the the clip, showing baffled winner Maria Dmitrienko listening to lyrics like: “Kazakhstan, greatest country in the world/All other countries are run by little girls….Kazakhstan, prostitutes cleanest in the region, except of course for Turkmenistan’s/Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan, you very nice place, from plains of tarashenk to northern fence of jewtown/Come grasp the mighty phenis of our leader, from juction with testes to tip of its face” has gone viral. As a bonus, the incident took place in the Middle East which, of course, is the setting of The Dictator.
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This was hilarious. Pity the Kazakhstanis don’t have a sense of humor. If this happened to one of our athletes, I imagine there would be laughter all round.
clearly you’re not familiar with how everyone take themselves too seriously nowadays. i don’t think American would take this kind of thing lightly if it happened to US athletes at all, especially if this happen in the middle east.
the clip was funny though, she was clearly baffled. My college friends from Kazakhstan all thought Borat was funny, but completely ridiculous, they know it’s just a parody.
Why should they have a sense of humor about it? It’s easy for people sitting in plush, western countries to poke fun at themselves and others, but elsewhere, things aren’t so chipper and easy so when they have something to be proud about, such as athletics, perhaps it’s not too much to ask that they not be trolled.
Are you kidding?! Americans are relentlessly humorless when it comes to their jingoistic brand of patriotism. A drone would be sent to punish the transgressors. At any rate, the Kazakh girl was a good sport about it.
Maybe the most uninformed comment I’ve ever read on this site.
Would have been more hilarious if I understood the lyrics. Everyone laughs at Americans and everyone can’t say boo with out being offended and outraged with cries of “DEATH TO AMERICA!” The rule is, you catch it while it is happening and stop it then otherwise…Americans get to giggle.
Those athletes probably trained their whole lives for that competition, and earned respect by doing so, including an awards presentation that wasn’t an offensive joke. When Roseanne mocked our anthem at a sporst event, much of this country was in an uproar. But when it’s another country we laugh and act like we’re the only ones who can take a joke.
Agree!
The great irony is that Kuwait banned BORAT since they were sure that they’d be offended by it. They hadn’t seen it but were absolutely certain it was no good. Since they never saw it they didn’t realize that the Borat anthem wasn’t the right one. Karma is a bitch.
Except for the fact that maybe this was a big moment in the life of that young woman, something she has worked hard to achieve, and then her victory is relegated to nothing more than an opportunity for someone to take the piss out of it and promote their movie. It’s SBC’s world and we’re just props in it.
Uh, you do realize that the anthem wasn’t replaced to promote a movie, right? It was either mistake or joke by someone. And while that person should probably be fired, anyone who doesn’t see the humour in this situation, should probably have their medal taken away for being a humourless curmudgeon.
And people don’t train their entire lives to listen to their national anthem being played. They train their entire lives to win, which she did. Plus she’ll have a funny story to tell about when she won.
Well said, DA.
Clearly an accident. A very very funny accident.
Wonder if SBC had anything to do with this?
No this was clearly some idiot who worked for the Kuwait Athletic Committee and was told to “get every country’s music for the awards ceremony” and he or she did a Google search for “audio of Kazakhstan national anthem” and they clicked on the link and downloaded the music not realizing what it was or where it came from, they were in a hurry and quickly moved on to the next country on their list, they probably had 50 countries to do in one hour. This was nobody’s fault but it’s hilarious that it happened.
Awful. This is like replacing our national anthem with the Benny Hill theme song at the Superbowl.
High five!?
No one on the planet takes themselves more seriously then fascist islamists. Who else would kill scores of people for something as minor as burned books? Anything to mock and expose these monsters is a good thing. I do feel bad for the girl, however.
Except of course for the Christofascists who invade foreign sovereign nations and kill tens of thousands of their citizens in order to steal their oil. But don’t let the facts get in the way of your hatred. You can always buy absolution on Sunday.
Kazakhstan is one of the most liberal islamic-oriented societies in the world. They live in peace with around 25% Christians and have a small Jewish community along with dozens of tiny religious groups. Please, go back to school and learn something.
Maybe I’m weird, but not only did I think this was pretty funny, I’d also find it amusing if someone trolled the anthem here in the states. Mind you, this is the sort of thing that’s really only funny the first time, but I can get behind a little anarchic comedy. I suppose there’s a point to be made about how hard that poor girl worked to get where she was and then the disrespect of that fake anthem being played, but hey, humor isn’t always safe or friendly. Remember, tragedy is when I fall in a manhole and break a leg. Comedy is when you fall in a manhole and die. Everyone takes themselves too seriously, whether it’s American patriot rednecks or middle easterners. Fuck ‘em all if they can’t take a joke.
So, is this one of those things where the culprit ends up getting hanged or beheaded for this?
Hahaha. ‘Islamic Fascism’ is right! Kuwait is such a travesty, look at the list of banned movies (including ‘Borat’ of course):
This Means War, 21 Jump Street, My Week With Marilyn, Act of Valor, Footloose, Ghostrider 2, A Dangerous Man, Crazy, Stupid Love, The Adjustment Bureau, Sucker Punch, Arthur, Solitary Man, Paul, Bridesmaids, Valentine’s Day, Cyrus, Act of Valor, on and on…
They banned ‘Passion of Christ’ and ‘Fahrenheit 911′ a few years ago as well.
Link: http://webserver2.kncc.com/bannedmovies.php
This is a country that edits heavily, doesnt have a ratings system and bans every other Hollywood flick.
I wonder if Jimmy Fallon’s band leader picked the song?
I wish people would stop responding to Cohen’s pathetic characters. Let’s be controversial for the sake of it.
Actually this is probably the best thing that could have happened to this girl! Instead of just a handful of Kuwaitis giving her recognition, now the entire world knows and celebrates her win… Small price to pay for her 15 min of fame
)
Think of the poor woman who worked her ass off for years trying to be good at something in an oppressive and poor country, then finally winning an international competition, only to get to the podium for her honors and have it turn into a stupid publicity stunt for some Hollywood dipshit whom she probably doesn’t even know exists. Hilarious! We can all laugh, knowing her family is delighted.
Of course it’s offensive, even if accidental. Just imagine if, say, Roseanne sang “The Star Spangled Banner” or Christina Aguilara forgot its words. Oh wait.
The irony here is that, as the song plays, the girl doesn’t seem to register emotion either way. The lyrics are in English which she may not speak. And, could it be that she doesn’t know her country’s actual anthem?
With a few exceptions above I’ve never read a more ill-informed and mindless series of postings on DH. It’s not funny; it’s juvenile. It is disrespectful to her; you presume she should “get the joke” or just laugh it off — …because she should think/be like you. How about this: Why don’t you work your whole life to receive an honor/give an Oscar speech and thank people whose love and devotion and professional faith has brought you to the summit of your working life, and then have SBC (or just some idiot goofball — with a 13 year old sense of humor) mess up your moment or pull a Kanye on you, and see how you like it.
Word up.