Monday, November 20, 2006

Obligatory Borat Reference: Karen Hughes Does Not Participate in Kazakh Jokes... Or Does She?


Photo:Paul J. Richards/AFP, 4/06
Though Kazakh officials have decided to exploit Borat, their embrace of the Gypsy-hunting sexist buffoon is still at arm's length.

At an embassy reception here Wednesday, graced by Washington luminaries such as veteran Senator Orrin Hatch and Bush's public diplomacy czar Karen Hughes, Borat was persona non grata, though he must have been on everyone's mind.

As the ambassador gave a speech about US-Kazakh relations, however, two Central Asian diplomats snatched a hushed conversation at the back of a reception room.

"Jagshemash!" whispered one, using the catchphrase of Kazakhstan's supposed second-best television reporter, and raised a glass of wine. "I like!" his friend answered, thumbs up, Borat style.
Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that Ms. "Kick Ass" Hughes was involved in any of the film-inspired levity, but anybody who has seen the movie is bound to get a chuckle out of the photo I've chosen to illustrate this otherwise off-topic post. Any excuse to get Karen's picture on the Pink Pony will do!

And by the way, this post is dedicated to the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. They know why.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Karen wears a scarf; Ms. Hughes, merely long and willowy, is obviously making an homage reference to the colossus of dame diplomacy, Ursula Plassnik, The Mountain That Moves Like a Woman.

She shouldn't shake that fist at Ursula, who would likely show her where it could easily be put by an Austrian Amazon.

Anonymous said...

I thought her official title was Karen "kick-ass" Hughes now?

Karen Zipdrive said...

Whose ass has she kicked?
I thought all she was for was to kiss Bush's dumb ass.

Anonymous said...

Karen is trying to sing "I want to hold your hand," Bush-administration style...

Peteykins said...

Even more amusing is that he sneaks in a good bit of Hebrew as well, apparently.

Slangwhanger-in-Chief said...

what i read was he speaks hebrew, his partner-in-mirth speaks polish, both garbled as befits childhood memories of same. expecting most of his audience not to know the difference between kazakh and those languages was a pretty shrewd bet.

Anonymous said...

"Valkyrie Housewife Nursing Wolf Puppies Whilst Sucking Anti-gas Tablets"

The scarf is for self-burping.

Anonymous said...

Borat is speaking Polish and also Hebrew with a Russian accent. His friend speaks Aremenian.

Oh PSP- you made my "kick-ass" day.

And who knew "kick-ass" was into fisting? Cool! That brings kicking ass to a whole new level!

Franonymous

Anonymous said...

If Borat had any class (but then he wouldn't be any fun), he would use the second-person plural, which of course would be "Jak se mate," avoiding the proletarian syllables of the last two letters of "mash."
Ah, the perils of a democratic age...

Anonymous said...

Motka boska - all this Polish is making my head spin!

Anonymous said...

Americans: Time to Polish our act.

Anonymous said...

Bush's impropagandist tells the world to go shove it...