Television shows rarely make a successful leap to the silver screen (see Charlie’s Angels, Scooby-Doo, etc.). Films based off skits fare even worse; when you think of short-segments hitting Hollywood, all that comes to mind is “It’s Pat!” and the annoying dance song from Night at the Roxbury.

So, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat movie (full name, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan) would seem like a prime suspect for disappointment. Unlike other small screen features, however, Borat shines, providing a ton of laughs (at the expense of other people) while also offering subtle commentary on the state of America today.

Based on the usually under-10-minutes segments showcased on Cohen’s hilarious “Da Ali G Show,” Borat finds the titular character filming a documentary for his home country of Kazakhstan (exporters of the best potassium in the world, according to the film) about life in the United States. The ignorant reporter heads to the Land of the Free, in order to explore America and the people in it, from the high-and-mighty senator to the plastered frat boy.

For those unfamiliar with Cohen’s HBO work, all of Borat’s interviews and interactions are unstaged, a la other recent release Jackass 2. Both rely heavily on the exploitation of others to draw laughs, but unlike Johnny Knoxville’s horse semen guzzling, physical pain routine, Borat delivers huge chuckles through the pure stupidity of people hurled into heinously awkward situations.

Borat’s big screen debut allows for much more risqué dares than in the HBO shorts. Cohen exploits the aptly-applied R rating to its fullest, pushing jokes about Jews and gays to the lewdest levels possible, all in an effort to make the average Joe feel even more uncomfortable. Borat does avoid the same pitfalls that make the Jackass series the poster-child for social decay, never over-doing the over-the-topness for the sake of eXtremeness, but rather busting out the shockers at the perfect comedic time, such as when Borat attends a Southern shindig and slowly aggravates his hosts by misunderstanding their customs, only to send them to the breaking point by inviting a prostitute over for the event.

Borat is an acquired taste; not everyone will get the same kick out of Cohen outraging feminist groups and kissing old men. Fans of surprise shows like Trigger Happy TV or The Upright Citizens Brigade will definitely enjoy Borat, while those who aren’t so fond of seeing fellow members of the human race put into cringe-inducing situations may not appreciate seeing a convention interrupted by a, er, scantily clad brawl.

The main reason skit-based movies fall flat on their faces is usually the inclusion of a developed plot, something rarely found in the five-minute worlds of their source material. To avoid seeming like a collection of typical Borat shorts mixed together for an hour-and-a-half, Cohen’s feature works in a loose plot, one which thankfully doesn’t take anything away from the comedy. The story serves mainly as a simple way to transition from one gag to another, though some plot-centered scenes shine (particularly, the scenes set in the stone-age-like Kazakhstan match any of the improv-like moments in the film for laughs). The story occasionally slows the movie down, but the pacing never comes remotely close to disasters like Corky Romano.

Besides being one of the funniest films of the year, Borat also comes closer to providing an accurate portrayal of America’s problems than any documentary of this decade. Whereas most investigative films beat one obvious subject into the ground (say like, “America likes guns” or “McDonalds makes you fat,”), Cohen’s feature takes a much more subtle approach. While Michael Moore resorts to ridiculous Truth-anti-smoking level gags to show an opponent’s weakness, Cohen simply stays in character as a confused foreigner and lets the interview subjects reveal all their transgressions. Instead of interrupting the constant hilarity with societal observations, Borat weaves the criticism into the comedy, so viewers can both double over in laughter and ponder about subjects like homophobia, gun control and one-night stands.

Borat is a constant comedic ride, and I can honestly say I haven’t heard a theater laugh so hard and frequently as the one I saw the film with did. Thanks to subtle commentary on society, Borat is surprisingly smart for a film featuring a man trying to pawn off his own pubic hair to pay off damages to an antique store. But Borat is a comedy first, and maybe the most hilarious one of the year.