The news that a Borat sequel was on the way was confusing on a few levels. Why now, 14 years after the first one? How would Sacha Baron Cohen be able to even pull Borat off after the phenomenal success of the first movie turned him into an instantly recognizable (and excessively memed) character? And would anybody even care about the return of Borat, after the lukewarm response to most of Baron Cohen’s subsequent work?
That last one is still up in the air, but now that Amazon has released a trailer for Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm—Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, we can figure out the first two. Clearly America’s an even more messed up place today than it was in 2006 (which, yeah, would’ve seemed impossible way back in the Bush years). Between the country’s continued lurch towards the far right, the absurdity of the Trump presidency, the popularity of conspiracy theories like QAnon, and the pandemic and subsequent quarantine, the political and cultural climate in America is even more deeply unhinged than it was in 2006.
That second question gets answered by the (too long?) trailer below. Turns out that almost everybody does still recognize Borat, and so Baron Cohen apparently spends some of the movie as Borat wearing a disguise: a fat suit, fake beard, all-denim ensemble, and a bad Southern accent fed through the ridiculous Kazakh accent Baron Cohen uses as Borat. Oh, and yes, of course he dons a full-fledged Trump disguise at one point.
Don’t take our word for it, though. Check out the trailer below to get an idea of what to expect from the Borat sequel, which is out on Amazon Prime Video on October 23—less than two weeks before the election.