“Borat” still rules, though Kazakhstan continues to suffer.
Apologies were proferred to the Kazakh delegation in Kuwait on Saturday after the theme song from “Borat” was played to mark the victory of the Kazakhstan shooting team instead of the actual national anthem. (Watch the video below)
We are not making this up.
Maria Dmitrienko won a gold medal for Kazakhstan on Thursday at the Arab Shooting Championships in Kuwait, but during the award ceremony the public address system broadcast the spoof anthem from the 2006 movie by Sacha Baron Cohen instead.
The athlete looks understandably uncomfortable as the song plays:
"Kazakhstan, greatest country in the world
All other countries are run by little girls.
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium.
Other countries have inferior potassium. . . ."
Another verse because we cannot resist:
Kazakhstan industry best in the world
We invented coffee and trouser belt
Kazakhstan's prostitutes cleanest in the region
Except of course Turkmenistan
According to the Associated Press, the Kazakh news agency Tengri quoted team coach Anvar Yunusmetov as saying tournament organizers had downloaded various countries' national anthems from the Internet.
Here is the chorus from the real anthem, for those who are interested:
My country, my country, As your flower I will be planted, As your song I will stream, my country! My native land, Kazakhstan!
The event's organizers in Kuwait also apologized to the Kazakh delegation regarding the "unintentional" mistake of playing the "wrong national anthem" during the awards ceremony, according to the statement published on the state-owned Kuwait News Agency.
Sometimes, Hollywood reigns supreme.
