Why I hate the 21st century

OK, so my friend Ross Southerland sent me this clip earlier today:

Had no clue who "Ali-G" is, didn't much want to know, but LOVED Andy Rooney's reaction. I could tell Andy was mad.

"If this was this fool's attempt at satire, he picked the wrong scribe with which to screw," I said to myself.

Then I looked at the other videos on YouTube.

And it all clicked -- who the guy was, why Rooney didn't suffer his foolishness, and why I hated the clown from my first look. I think my friend The Giant Rat of Knoxville will also love Rooney's response and some of his one-liners.

Oh, and just for fun, here is my infamous review of Cohen's film "Borat," written in March 2007.

'Throw Borat down the well'

I am nonplussed at the thought of writing a review about "Borat." I guess the thing to do is to get some choice words out of the way.

Vile, sophomoric, lewd, disgusting, soporific, pathetic, lowbrow, worthless and unbelievable. Whew. That feels better.

I mildly laughed at the film a couple of times early on. A friend belly-laughed at scenes that were anything but funny. I knew we were in for a long night when Borat and tag-a-long buddy Azamat stopped at a bed and breakfast ran by two sweet Jewish folks. Later, when Azamat began overtly admiring a "Baywatch" book (I'm cleaning up the scene), I walked out of the room.

"Waterworld" and "Joe Vs. The Volcano" can rest easy. This is the worst movie I have ever seen.

The gag is that Sacha Baron Cohen, who is Jewish, is attempting to show that racism, and anti-Semites, are still prevalent in America, particularly --- wait for it --- down South. I'm refraining from calling this train wreck satire because satire is an artistic term and "Borat" is nowhere near worth calling art.

Thirty-five years ago, Norman Lear's "All in the Family" accomplished what this film can't by using sophistication, wit and good writing. Imagine that.

This worthless pile of celluloid is intended to shock. If you like unspeakably bad jokes, humor that wouldn't do in a frat house, full-frontal male nudity and content that should make anyone with a brain blush, by all means this film is for you. I sincerely hope I never hear of Cohen again.

At their best, movies have the power to raise us up, to comment on the human condition and make us better people. Less lofty films at least can entertain and offer 90 minutes of mindless humor.

"Borat" is none of this. It is an amazingly unfunny, poorly done, offensive, worthless piece of garbage. And all those other adjectives I used at the beginning of this piece.

That's it. I'm done. Can't believe I wasted this much of my life.

....

To which friend and colleague Carol Springer responded: "So, Jake, how do you really feel?"