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Six Years Ago A Real Sporting Event Played Borat's Fake Kazakhstan Anthem

Six Years Ago A Real Sporting Event Played Borat's Fake Kazakhstan Anthem

It was six years ago today that the fake Kazakhstan anthem from Borat was played by mistake at a real sporting event held in Kuwait

Mischa Pearlmen

Mischa Pearlmen

You there! What day is this? Why, today is Christmas six years to the day that Kuwait played the fake version of Kazakhstan's national anthem from the Borat movie at the Amir of Kuwait International Shooting Grand Prix sporting event. Let's relive that bizarre moment:

Turns out, whoever was in charge of the music for the medal ceremony downloaded the anthem from the Internet but didn't think to check it first. Which, as we've previously learned, is never a good idea.

And so poor Mariya Dmitriyenko, who'd just won the gold medal, was subjected to the rather humiliating experience of listening to a parody anthem that crassly made fun of her country rather than the real thing.

Mariya Dmitriyenko
Mariya Dmitriyenko

Understandably, she was very upset at this, as were her entire shooting team, and so they complained demanded that the ceremony was restaged. Which it was.

Of course, by that time, the damage had already been done, captured for posterity on TV and destined to live forever on YouTube and be brought up, just like this, on the anniversary of the mishap for the rest of eternity. Sorry, Mariya.

Whether you regard Borat as a puerile piece of slapstick comedy or a subversive political parody that aims to expose the racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism that's rife in the USA, it certainly made its mark on popular culture when it was released in 2006.

via GIPHY

In case you were one of the three people who didn't see it, the mockumentary - the full title of which was Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - followed the misadventures of the titular Borat as he criss-crossed the USA, causing havoc (and exposing rampant prejudice and xenophobia) everywhere he went.

Played and created by Sacha Baron Cohen - who, of course, is the mastermind behind Ali G and Brüno - Borat Sagdiyev was a fictional journalist who hailed from the real country of Kazakhstan.

The country was assigned a fake national anthem in the movie, the lyrics of which proclaimed, among other things, that the country had the second cleanest prostitutes in the region.

Probably not what you'd want to hear on the podium, in your moment of victory. Still, it happened.

Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Topics: SPORT, World News, Interesting, Fail, Sacha Baron Cohen, Weird, Borat