His fans may be a bit (or a lot) older, but they are just as impressed by how much relevant commentary on American culture the sequel contains. The best-known incident was in 2017, when six Czech tourists were arrested in Kazakhstan for their Borat cosplay (Kazakhstan, by the way, really, really hates Borat). That’s the kind of comedy I grew up with, and it was a great note for me not to go too big with costumes.

It’s never been washed either, and that helps because when Borat leans into people, he smells, which feeds into people’s prejudices about foreigners and makes it feel like this guy really has been traveling. Sagdiyev is all smiles, even when his life is being threatened by a person who realizes the joke is on them. To me, it made sense that Borat’s wardrobe would consist of things that ended up in Kazakhstan that had been popular in the U.

has been a rough year, and most people are probably feeling as disconnected from their natural world as Borat acts in his sketches. We did Borat on Da Ali G Show, but when it came to the film, you had some backstory for the character. That might sound crazy, but when you look at Peter Sellers and Inspector Clouseau, that’s not a funny costume. In fairness, its infamy probably has as much to do with the 2006 Cannes Film Festival as it does the film itself, as Sacha Baron Cohen made headlines there for showing up in the outfit.

The borat mankini is great for stag nights, fancy dress parties and is also an alternative swimsuit for those who dare to wear it. Sacha and I were talking about Eastern European weightlifting leotards, and I thought it’d be funny if we turned one of those into a thong. Who can blame anyone for forgetting tortoises exist when much of the world remains locked up at home waiting for a vaccine?

But while he has created numerous indelible cinematic fits over the years, he says none of them quite compare to being the man behind the mankini. She's a nerd for horror, obscure memes, weird history, graphic novels, and binge-worthy science fiction series. British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen first introduced the world to his fictional character Borat Sagdiyev in a series of sketches before making the native of Kazakhstan a key character in his successful series, Da Ali G Show. A prime example: his tendency to express a sentiment and then completely negate it by screaming, "NOT!