15 pieces of pop culture that may have been influenced by South Park

Borat

Sacha Baron Cohen’s performance art/comedy was born in a time that South Park helped make possible. Without the tongue-in-cheek nature of the humor and sly caricatures, this movie could easily have slid into offensive. Although some viewers may suggest that’s exactly what it does, Borat borrows from the South Park handbook of head-long commitment to parody.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (or simply Borat) arrived in theaters in 2006 as a  British-American mockumentary. Written and produced by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen,  it is the story of Borat Sagdiyev, a fictitious Kazakh journalist traveling through the United States recording real-life interactions with Americans.

It’s a cultural mirror of the “ugly American” while seemingly mocking foreigners and visitors to the country. Although it received a good bit of heat from Middle Eastern and Eastern European countries, it was well received by American audiences and critics alike. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and Baron won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. It made audiences laugh at really smart things by delivering them in a really silly way.

Best of: “He is my neighbor Nursultan Tuliagby. He is pain in my a**holes. I get a window from a glass, he must get a window from a glass. I get a step, he must get a step. I get a clock radio, he cannot afford. Great success!”