Who wants to have a Bar Mitzvah at Country West in Tucson, AZ

[Ian David]

In My Country West There Is Problem
Do Tucsonans really want to throw Jews down wells, as 'Da Ali G Show' suggests?

By CURTIS MCCRARY email the Weekly
In My Country West There Is Problem

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, a Cambridge-educated TV host of Hebrew extraction, is the star of HBO's Da Ali G Show. It features Baron Cohen in three guises: Ali G, a suburban London would-be gangsta who liberally peppers his speech with West Indian slang and American hip-hop vernacular; Bruno, a gay lifestyle correspondent from Austria (Bruno's show-within-the-show, "Fashion Polizei," features him mincing with other fabu-lentsia about celebrity couture); and Borat, a Latka Gravas-esque Kazakhstani reporter who is fascinated with "U S and A


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"In my country there is problem," Borat sings from the Country West's stage, after a first verse that elucidates the problem of "transport" in Kazakhstan. "And that problem is the Jew / He take everybody's money / He never give it back ..." Then comes the chorus: "Throw the Jew down the well / so my country can be free / you must grab him by his horns / then we have a big party!" With some encouragement, the couple-dozen patrons of the Country West rather enthusiastically sing along.

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"HBO's position is that Borat is a comedic and satiric character," says Becker, herself Jewish, like many of the show's fans. Becker gives no impression that HBO might pull the show, an outcome which seems less likely given that the final episode of the second six-episode season has already aired.

Amplifying the tempest in a teapot is "King of All Media" Howard Stern's avowed love for the show and the song. Stern takes a dim view of both the customers of the Country West (calling them "hillbillies," among other pejoratives) and the subsequent objections from the Jewish community. Baron Cohen recently made an appearance on Stern's show in which he revealed that one attendee at the Country West approached him afterwards and said, "You know, Borat, I'm from Texas; you better see how we treat the Jews down there," to which he replied "Great! I weel come to Tex-iss!"

More:
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/currents/Content?oid=oid:59856

See the Google Video of Borat's "Throw The Jew Down The Well"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-334757978673284122&q=borat