This dismal box, mounted nakedly on four frail wheels, was drawn along by a pale, lean horse, and the driver sat severe in his shirt-sleeves and tattered hat, like some desperate blackguard driving a night-cart.

Though the idea of placing wacky made-up characters in a real-life context was carried over from Da Ali G Show—wherein Buzz Aldrin was once asked if he was upset that Michael Jackson got all the credit for inventing the moonwalk—Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat felt like something new, an attempt to square an improvised, guerrilla style of underground comedy with reality-TV stunt shows like Jackass or Fear Factor.

And stand steadfast in the unchangeable life and seed of God, which was before changings and alterings were; and which will remain when they all are gone.

The former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, who for 20 years has pioneered biomechanic analysis of pitching motions, said that he shielded athletes from the physics behind what they do.