The Running of the Jew – 2004

We haven’t seen Borat in a while and enough time has passed now that it’s pretty certain that all those guys who did bad and annoying Borat imitations have stopped. We are thus free to enjoy Borat for the genius he represents without such assessment being colored by the pale imitators. A JewTube visitor sent this video to us (you can too – click on the “Add Video” button) and it depicts the fictitious “Running of the Jew” where a village’s young men race with grotesque caricatures of a Jewish man and a Jewish woman. Villagers throw money at the Jews that they got from withdrawing from their online stock broker and when enough money has been thrown, the Jewish woman lays an egg. At this point the village children set upon the egg and stomp it to death lest it hatch and unleash yet another Jew upon the world.

While, as I mentioned, this scene is fictitious, it does take its inspiration from centuries of Eastern European anti-Semitism in the form of Passion Plays and Pogroms. What most viewers may not notice is that Borat is pretty much speaking Hebrew throughout this scene (and throughout the movie) – which adds another level of irony to the whole thing.

In any case, the point is that it’s safe to enjoy Borat again!

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