“Entertainment Weekly” recently posed the question, “Is ‘Borat’ the funniest movie ever?”

It’s certainly debatable. But it’s doubtful anything better will come out in 2006. Sacha Baron Cohen, last seen in the now second-funniest film of the year, “Talladega Nights,” has made an instant comic classic.

Cohen, star of HBO’s “Da Ali G Show,” uses his self-made character Borat, a shameless Jew-hating TV reporter from Kazakhstan, to create the funniest “fish-outta-water” experience ever.

The movie begins in his hometown as he introduces us to his mother — who looks 90 but is actually 46, making her the oldest person in town, and to his sister —the fourth best prostitute in all of Kazakhstan. She even has a trophy. He also introduces the town rapist, whom Borat reminds to stick to humans only.

His government sends him to America with his heavy-set friend and producer, Azamat (Ken Davitian), to learn about U.S. culture. It’s when he arrives that all comedic hell breaks lose.

The plot kicks off when Borat watches “Baywatch” and sees Pamela Anderson for the first time. He immediately vows to travel to California and give a “romantic explosion on her stomach.” It’s when he and Azamat begin their cross-country journey in an ice cream truck through the rural South that the film goes from slapstick to brilliant satire.

Not to give away any gags, but just imagine the trouble of an immigrant who scoffs at the notion that a woman’s brain is larger than a squirrel’s, who doesn’t fathom the idea of animal cruelty, who refers to African-Americans as “chocolate faces,” and who truly believes Jews can shape-shift into any possible creature.

Borat claims Kazakhstan’s three main problems are “economic, social and Jews.” He highlights this by showing his town’s “Running of the Jew” tradition. Along his improvised journey through the nation’s southern states, Borat learns — and so do we — that some of our citizens seem to feel the same way. The satire becomes a bit frightening in a “Dr. Strangelove” kind of way, as frat boys and cowboys prove to be just as ignorant as Borat.

Among his many stops are a rodeo, a gun store, a “Gentleman’s Etiquette” dinner and an Evangelical service, all of which provide laughing long after leaving the theater. The genius Cohen had better enjoy any anonymity while he still has it, because this guy has super-star written all over him.