Has anyone tried to figure out where the line is between comedy and social documentary these days?

Watching Borat the other day, I couldn't help but think that his silly chaplinesque character was luring average folks into situations were they were exposing horrible truths.

If Sacha Baron Cohen wasn't Jewish himself, the anti-Semitic material in Borat would have been the target of brutal criticism.

When he asks a gun dealer 'what gun best kills Jews' and the dealer responds without skipping a beat - 'you'll want a 9mm' - well that's hardly funny. But it is true. Clearly Cohen blurs all kinds of lines, and leaves it up to viewers to sort out what's real and what's set up.
But I remember that feeling watching Fahrenheit 9/11. When Michael Moore drives around the capital in an ice cream truck trying to get Senators to enlist their sons and daughters in the military - it's a stunt for sure, but the hypocrisy he exposed was no less searing than the gun dealer's 9mm comment. Perhaps it's pure coincidence that both Moore and Cohen end up in ice cream trucks - but maybe not.

These two films have created a new reality based wing of political sketch comedy. An art form meant to keep you laughing, and leave you thinking.

Borat wanders across the country, luring religious fundamentalists enlightened into a silly scene where he speaks in tongues and they lay hands upon him. They can't be happy about his film. Then there are the college students who he rides along with in their Winnegbego drinking their way into confessions of their 'enlighten views' on women and jews. It's great their suing him, since a trial would be an excellent way to further explore their views. And who can forget Cohen's performance at a night-time rodeo where he riles up the crowd with promises of Kazakhstan's support of our "War of Terror" and says that we'll flatten Iraq until rats can't survive in the desert. It's notable that his exit from the Rodeo isn't on film.

Calling out America for it's racist, sexist, extreme views on religion and Iraq are long overdue- and this film deserves to be considered as the political commentary that drives it. Clearly - Cohen doesn't find it funny. But humor works as the tool to extract truth, to disarm his subjects, and lure Americans to the theaters for a dose of self examination (complete with funny accent). This is a brave film.

The folks in Kazakhstan needn't worry - Borat doesn't lay a glove on them. His target is stateside. And he lands those punches with hilarious precision.