As Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat celebrates its 20th anniversary, one of the film’s most memorable scenes still has a strong Montgomery County connection.
During the movie, Borat visits Criswell Chevrolet in Gaithersburg while searching for a new vehicle. There, he was assisted by longtime salesman Jim Sell, who handled Borat’s outrageous questions and off-the-wall comments with remarkable professionalism and good humor.
After looking at Corvettes and Hummers, Borat ultimately left in the iconic ice cream truck that would become his vehicle throughout much of the film. Despite how it appears on screen, the ice cream truck was not actually purchased from Criswell Chevrolet.
Sadly, Sell passed away in 2012, but his brief appearance in Borat has remained a lasting part of his legacy. Several messages left on his online obituary reference the scene, with some even including screenshots from the film. Harry Criswell IV of Criswell Automotive told The MoCoShow that he and the Criswell family have the fondest memories of Sell and the positive impact he had on everyone around him.
While the dealership scene is the best-known Montgomery County moment in Borat, it wasn’t Sacha Baron Cohen’s first local prank. Three years earlier, in 2003, Cohen brought his HBO series Da Ali G Show to Montgomery County, filming a segment with the Gaithersburg Police Department (the clip with Gaithersburg Police begins at 2:24).
