Sacha Baron Cohen’s hilarious Golden Globe acceptance speech

Cohen, a.k.a. Borat, Ali G, and Bruno, is a comedic genius. As evidence, I submit this video of his acceptance speech after he won a Golden Globe award for best actor in a motion picture musical or comedy.

Sure, Cohen almost certainly gave some advance thought to what he was going to say. But he’s speaking spontaneously here, only glancing at the piece of paper he brought up with him when he gets to his “formal” thank you remarks.

The scene he’s talking about, the nude wrestling encounter between Borat and his rotund Kazakstan comrade, is the most gut-splitting bit of movie-making I’ve ever seen. It even had my normally restrained wife laughing out loud in the movie theatre.

Here’s Cohen’s Golden Globe appearance: [Note: the YouTube video I originally linked was removed at the request of Dick Clark Productions. This is ridiculous. Broadcast over the public airwaves, the producer of the Golden Globes should be happy to get more air time. Here's another version. If this gets deleted also, search on YouTube for another video. Hopefully copyright holders will get the message that they can't censor the public airwaves.]

Comments

[Sponge]

"Borat" was one of the stupidest movies I've seen in years, due in large part to the very scene you praise. Cohen is a comedic genius, but this movie simply wasn't funny; and not because it offended me in any particular way, I just found it crudely juvenile in its rambling search for sporadic sight gags. The only thing I found remotely amusing was when he reunites with his comrade, and his friend tells him their pet bear ran away; we then see the friend open the refrigerator door, and get a glimpse of the bear's head on a plate in the frig. The movie is a waste of talent.

[torridjoe]

Talk about nervous laughter! I was pretty shocked (and amused) about how graphic he got.

Cohen beat out Hugh Laurie for repeating with the funniest acceptance speech; last year he said he knew he couldn't thank everyone, so he cut everybody he could think of onto individual strips of paper and put them all in his pockets. He drew two names at random to thank. (It was funnier than I describe it, of course).

I thought he was going to thank everyone for completely killing the Borat character. At this point, not a single person in the US would fall for it anymore.

[torridjoe]

Sponge, I think you missed the point. The stars of the movie were the American public. Most of the "stupidity" in the movie is largely our own fault; Cohen was brilliantly clever in finding a way to show that to us.

[Sponge]

"Most of the "stupidity" in the movie is largely our own fault; Cohen was brilliantly clever in finding a way to show that to us."

I didn't miss the point of anything; I knew exactly what to expect going in. I just didn't find any of it particularly funny, or clever. You can find that kind of stupidity in any coffee shop. Cohen is a funny guy, but I found this movie a waste of his talent. The schtick works great for a skit, but not a feature length movie. Just my opinion.