Beyond the Cringe

Charles, who is also Jewish, insists that revealing hidden prejudices has not just comedic payoff but redeeming social value: ''At one point, we went into a gun store and Borat asks, 'What kind of gun would you recommend to kill a Jew?' This gunstore guy doesn't hesitate: 'I'd recommend a 9mm or a Glock automatic.' That's one of those moments when you're going, Holy s---, that just really happened. This anti-Semitism is real and it comes from ignorance. You understand it better, and maybe in some way that will ultimately defuse it.''

So what else do we know about the real Sacha Baron Cohen? A few things: He wrote a thesis on the black-Jewish alliance in the American civil rights movement. He is engaged to actress Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers). And by all accounts, despite his mercenary and misanthropic comedy and one alleged confrontation with a photographer at a party last year, he is a thoroughly decent and courteous person. ''When you interact with him, there's nothing that would lead you to believe that he would make the Borat movie,'' says Apatow.

In a way, hunting for these sorts of biographical details is beside the point; it's like trying to get to the bottom of who Woody Allen's Zelig really is. The more interesting question is, Once Borat has had its way with our cultural sensitivities, what will Baron Cohen do next? His recent performance as a gay French race-car driver in Talladega Nights proved he can hold his own with the likes of Will Ferrell in conventional scripted comedy. Now, having likely burned up the chance to keep fooling people with the Ali G and Borat characters, can he find a new avenue for his brand of confidence-game comedy, mining humor in the gap between the real and the fabricated, the serious and the absurd?

Matt Stone, for one, thinks he can. ''The day after I saw the movie, I told Sacha, 'Forget about Borat, you've f---ed that character every way you can — now go do a Brüno movie,' '' Stone says, referring to the final remaining Ali G Show character. ''He can't do a Borat sequel, but people will want to see a Sacha Baron Cohen sequel. People are going to want to see another movie like this, and he's really the only person in the world who can do it.''