Matt on October 29, 2006 at 4:00 PM

That's a really good question Sameer. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Borat plays better to what my friend Matthew Price calls "the edges of the country," i.e. the two coasts of the U.S., rather than the middle. Edge comedy like this generally plays better for most audiences with a bit of build (my parents, for example, really want to see it now that they've heard my siblings and I gassing about it for two months!), so maybe this tactic was conceived to generate some of that build for the less-acceptinng Middle America crowd. That crowd, after all, are the ones who buy DVDs at Wal Mart and basically keep Hollywood in business these days.