His film Borat, released in 2006, managed to walk a razor-thin line between outright mockery of its subjects and something more valuable, but it ultimately worked because it kept falling back on a kind of comedy of manners, a story about how important it is to many white Americans to be civil and polite above all else, even if that means politely listening (or even singing along) as a man sings “Throw the Jew Down the Well.” Borat, then, was an early strike against civility culture, against the idea that what’s most important is being nice, instead of being honest. When he was first peddling it on Da Ali G Show, it could be surprisingly incisive, because it took place in a reality where it didn’t feel like we were all being pranked all of the time. This is Baron Cohen’s shtick, and it works from time to time. He does outrageous things, or tries to get them to do outrageous things. He wins the trust of some unsuspecting yokels. Who Is America? is exactly what you’d think it is.
Indeed, the weirdest thing about this show has been the promise that it would reveal something dangerous or provocative about Americans, instead of what it actually reveals, which is what Baron Cohen always reveals, which is that most of us are too polite to call people on their bullshit. Bernie Sanders in the premiere and Dick Cheney in a later episode (I have seen both the Sanders and Cheney segments I haven’t seen the ones featuring Palin and Moore) - are a bit of a false advertisement for the rest of the program, which could just as easily convey its central thesis by having Baron Cohen stand in front of a billboard reading “Most People Are Ignorant” for a few hours. The various politicians featured in Who Is America? - who include Sen. Who Is America? is a grim, vaguely nihilistic show that uses a patina of political divisiveness to make fun of everybody it can find
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And the cycle repeats itself, in aggregations of video clips and breathless reports of how people were “tricked” into participating in Baron Cohen’s new series and so on and so forth.īut make no mistake: The biggest dupes are anyone who watches. The outrage cycle gets covered in the media ( including on this very website), which only boosts the profile of Baron Cohen’s show among those who wouldn’t mind seeing Palin or Moore knocked down a peg or two.
The right-wingers howl in protest at being mistreated. This is how the game is played now, evidently: A comedian gets prominent right-wingers to say things on camera that they later try to insist they were tricked into saying. ( Sarah Palin has also taken umbrage, though she hasn’t threatened to sue, while journalist Ted Koppel seemed rather sanguine about being tricked into appearing on the show.)Īnd with every bristle of outrage, every threat of a lawsuit, Who Is America? gets more attention than Showtime could ever buy, a kind of instant signal of which side the show is on in the never-ending culture wars. They are now complaining about being duped, with former Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore threatening to sue Baron Cohen for defamation. In the course of making Who Is America?, Baron Cohen interviewed a variety of prominent political and media figures while in disguise, and he evidently got them to say ridiculous things. Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, was even more unequivocal in his support for outfitting schoolchildren with weapons.Vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark "In less than a month, a first grader can become a first grenadier," Walsh declares. Erran Morad, a gun enthusiast calling to arm young children.įormer congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois, now a conservative radio host, praised the "kinderguardians" program, which he said "introduces specially selected children, from four to 12-years-old, to pistols, rifles, semi-automatics, and a rudimentary knowledge of mortars." One of several new characters on Baron Cohen’s new show, “Who Is America?” is purported Israeli “anti-terror expert” Col. Despite his unmistakable profile, he has once again managed to fool the press teams for numerous political heavyweights, this time including former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Roy Moore, the former Alabama judge who has denied sexually assaulting teenage girls. Tall, with a distinctively impish grin, Baron Cohen is the prankster behind irreverent characters including Borat, Ali G, and Brüno.
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