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Let's see if the Roanoke Valley has a sense of humor about itself.

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" is opening Friday. Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat character, previously seen on Cohen's "Da Ali G Show," is on his own for this one. And as we know from several articles in The Roanoke Times (and national publications), the Salem rodeo gets its few minutes of international fame via a Borat visit.

To understand "Borat," you have to understand guerrilla theater. It is essentially provocative art performed in public spaces, designed to get uncalculated reactions out of bystanders. Cohen has used several characters to prove that he is a master.

The problem with guerrilla theater is that the bystanders, who aren't always innocent, usually wind up unhappy. They're being played, and often, they wind up making themselves look bad.

As I've written in this space before, the Salem rodeo crowd has something to be proud of. The audience was with the mush-mouthed faux-Kazakh in the early going, according to reports, but as his talk devolved into some horrific rant about President Bush killing and eating Iraqi children, the crowd began to let him have it.

Cohen and his crew were probably lucky to escape. Like I say, we should be proud -- some members of a country music nightclub audience in Arizona joined him in a chorus of the ironic "Throw the Jew Down the Well." (Cohen is Jewish.)

That said, at least one person involved in the scene won't look smart. According to USA Today and other reports, a rodeo hand makes disparaging comments about gays. Is the rodeo hand from Salem? Was the rodeo hand from out of town, just in for the event?

But already, there are signs that we just aren't ready to know about any of it. Robynn Jaymes, a local disc jockey who was at the rodeo, says she won't go see it. She told The Roanoke Times' Marques Harper: "It was bad. I lived it once. It was so uncomfortable."

She said she "doesn't get" the people who "say he's brilliant," then went on to compare him unfavorably to Ray Romano and Jerry Seinfeld. Wow! This woman knows her comedy! That's such an apt comparison!

I'm trying to imagine for even a second either Romano or Seinfeld inhabiting a character they created (if you didn't know this -- they played themselves on their hit mainstream television shows), then using that character to fearlessly unearth what's ridiculous in life -- aside from screwy neighbors and meddling parents.

Seinfeld might've worn the puffy shirt, but would he be brave enough to don the thong mankini?

A smarter comparison would be to Andy Kaufman, who took it all the way -- leaving himself alienated from audiences who had loved his act in the beginning. The grinning conga skitmeister and Elvis impersonator gave way to the cocky wrestler persona, the jerk who called out Jerry Lawler and went on tours where he only wrestled women.

Maybe Kaufman and Lawler were in on the joke, but audiences grew to truly hate Kaufman, and his career didn't re-enter the mainstream till years after his death.

But this is 2006, and audiences can stomach a lot more. Cohen's "Borat" is likely to give them all they can take, but it will all be so ridiculous that if they have funny bones, they'll laugh at the confusion that Cohen's utter ignorance and brilliant slapstick brings (think the Three Stooges with an even more disturbing lack of social boundaries).

Salem Mayor Howard Packett told Harper that he might go see the movie. Who knows whether he'll laugh. But he might be disappointed, either way. He said that after the movie, people "will know where Salem, Va., is, maybe."

Probably not. True to "Da Ali G Show" form, photos provided to the press are labeling Packett's hometown show the Roanoke rodeo.