I come from Kazakhstan

I had this conversation with my friend about the movie, Borat. This was sometime last week. Midway thru our MSN chat, she said: "My friend says it's slapstick." Somehow, hearing the words 'it's slapstick' triggered an uncontrollable urge to defend the movie, which I paid half price for, and invoked some painful memories (but more on those memories later).

Never in my life have I felt the irrefutable need to defend a movie that I've watched and liked. Not Kill Bill, not Star Wars, not American Beauty and yes, not even the Austin Powers Trilogy.

Didn't one realise that behind the façade of humour lies serious 'adult' themes like the widespread bigotry, the blood lust, the homophobia, the anti-semitism and the desire to make fun of people whom we deem weird, just because they are different from us?

To label it as purely slapstick is to turn a blind eye to all the travesties that are around us and say: "These aren't real, they are just scripted to get some kind of reaction out of us."

Oh, how much farther from the truth can you be?

Sure, some parts of the movie are scripted while some are not. But the underlying message is pretty clear, we live in a world where people are treated like pariahs just because we are not comfortable with their lifestyles (the homophobic scenes). Or we maybe we can just force our values onto others because we think it IS the right thing to do (the scenes of Borat egging the crowd to support the Iraq invasion by saying he supports their war OF terror and the church scene).

Slapstick? I think not.

Now back to the old memories, the word 'slapstick' never fails to remind me of Colin Goh (the guy who drew The Concrete Jungle). In an interview, during the earliest part of his career as a comic artist, he said: "I don't like Old Master Q, cause it's slapstick." I was between 12 or 13 i think, and Old Master Q had been part and parcel of my growing up years. (Incidentally, the 1st Old Master Q book I laid my hands on was as a prize from a church funfair...) Therefore, to me, Old Master Q was like this wise and humourous sage, entertaining the readers thru his antics and to brush it off as slapstick...it was unacceptable. From then on, I didn't really have a good impression of Colin Goh (people who dismiss Old Master Q aren't nice) plus the fact that I thought his drawing wasn't really that fantastic compare to Old Master Q.

Well, that was then...and 15 years have passed. Old Master Q is still one of my favourite reads and Colin Goh, well, I still find his comics...tacky.

Some things never change.