1. When Borat goes to an electronics store and starts watching hardcore porn on the screens, as a hapless employee looks on.
At one point, Borat needs to buy a phone, so he visits a local electronic store. There, a clerk named Brian tries to help him out, only for Borat to type in some truly NSFW searches on a phone, which also get displayed on the screen.
2. When Borat’s daughter Tutar tells a pastor at a Christian pregnancy centre that she has a baby inside her and she wants to take it out. The pastor doesn’t know she’s talking about a toy baby she swallowed.
At one point in the film, Borat buys Tutar a muffin with a little toy baby on the top. While eating the muffin, she accidentally swallows the toy baby, after which they go to this centre, leading to an extremely uncomfortable interaction.
3. The Debutante Ball, where Borat and Tutar do a ‘traditional moon dance’, featuring Tutar showing off her period blood as shocked onlookers watch in horror (yes, the blood was fake).
The vicarious embarrassment from this scene alone is enough to make one shudder. Major props to the fearless Maria Bakalova, who played Tutar Sagdiyeva perfectly and didn’t break character.
4. When Borat dressed up as Trump and barged into a rally by Vice president Mike Pence. There, he offered Pence his ‘daughter’ and also referred to him as ‘Mike Penis’.
This was one of the most outrageous pranks in the movie. It starts with Borat entering the building wearing a KKK uniform. Afterwards, he changes into the Trump disguise in the bathroom. Finally, he pulls off this insane prank, and is led off by security.
5. When Tutar gets on stage at a Republican Women’s Club Meeting and tells everyone she just touched herself in the bathroom.
At this stage in the film, Tutar is disillusioned with the Kazakh way of life, and wants the freedom that women in other parts of the world enjoy. She tells the women at this club that she just touched herself in the bathroom and had an epiphanic moment.
6. One of the most touching moments in the film is when Borat goes to a local synagogue dressed as a stereotypical Jew. An old Holocaust survivor there treats him with kindness instead of anger.
Following a pretty crazy course of events, Borat goes to a synagogue wearing an offensive disguise, long nose and all, in order to find someone who will kill him. However, he meets an old woman there who gives him a hug and treats him with kindness.
7. When Borat spent 3 days living with conspiracy theorists, and he was entirely in character the whole time.
8. When Borat infiltrated a Trump rally disguised as a singer, and got the crowd to sing some truly terrifying and offensive lyrics. The crowd supports him as he calls for journalists, scientists, and Obama to be gassed and chopped up.
9. And of course, the most shocking moment of all – Rudy Giuliani being caught in a compromising position with his hands down his pants during an interview with Tutar, only to have Borat barge in while wearing lingerie.
This was the film’s piece de resistance, and actually made headlines at the time of its occurrence. After a fake interview in which Tutar seduces Giuliani, they go into the bedroom where Tutar removes his microphone, and his shirt as well. Rudy then lays down on the bed and puts his hand down his pants, only for Borat to barge in and offer his own sexual services instead.
It’s pretty wild what Sacha Baron Cohen has achieved, and the talents of Tutar should not be ignored either. Under the guise of a shock and comedy movie, Sacha has managed to create a subversive film that brings out the horrors as well as the hopes of a country in peril.
