SonyBorat star Sacha Baron Cohen played a prank on American politician Sarah Palin, and she was not happy.
The humour of Cohen is an acquired taste – usually one that your grandparents would be entirely unimpressed with. The Ali G creator is known for his crude jokes, and one of his most recent pranks didn’t get the positive reaction he might have been hoping for from his victim.
Baron Cohen is releasing a new series on US channel Showtime, called Who Is America?, which begins this coming Saturday (July 15) in the US. The show consists of Baron Cohen portraying a range of characters, and welcoming guests onto the show.
One of Baron Cohen’s episodes features Sarah Palin, the infamous Alaskan politician, and one of her daughters. The host played a prank on Sarah during the show, and she did not find it funny.
— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) July 8, 2018
Sarah was invited to the studio under false pretences – she believed she was going to take part in a discussion with someone who had served in the war. She explained that Cohen dressed up as a disabled US Veteran, and had to endure an interview full of disrespect before she eventually chose to walk out.
The politician posted to Facebook about the experience, showing disgust at Baron Cohen’s actions, calling his humour ‘sick’ and using heavily sarcastic quotation marks around the word ‘comedian’.
The post read:
Yup – we were duped. Ya’ got me, Sacha. Feel better now?
I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive, sick “humor” of the British “comedian” Sacha Baron Cohen, enabled and sponsored by CBS/Showtime.
The post continued:
For my interview, my daughter and I were asked to travel across the country where Cohen (I presume) had heavily disguised himself as a disabled US Veteran, fake wheelchair and all.
Out of respect for what I was led to believe would be a thoughtful discussion with someone who had served in uniform, I sat through a long “interview” full of Hollywoodism’s disrespect and sarcasm – but finally had enough and literally, physically removed my mic and walked out, much to Cohen’s chagrin.
The disrespect of our US military and middle-class Americans via Cohen’s foreign commentaries under the guise of interview questions was perverse.
Yup – we were duped. Ya’ got me, Sacha. Feel better now? I join a long list of American public personalities who have…
Posted by Sarah Palin on Tuesday, 10 July 2018
She went on to ‘challenge’ Cohen and Showtime to ‘donate all proceeds to a charitable group that actually respects and supports American Vets’.
Sarah added that the production team dropped her and her daughter at the wrong airport after their experience at the studio, causing them to miss their flights home to Alaska.
At the end of her Facebook post, Sarah added one final slam towards Cohen, writing:
By the way, my daughter thinks you’re a piece of ****, Sacha. Every honorable American Vet should feel the same.
Viewers will be able to see Sarah’s episode in the upcoming series, and compare Sarah’s version of events to the final cut of the episode, which the politician has predicted will be ‘heavily edited, not pretty, and intended to humiliate’.
Those who can recall the Ali G Show will no doubt be waiting with bated breath to see what nonsensical happenings will unfold as a result of Cohen’s disarming interview style.
According to the Independent, the series will be aired on Channel 4 on Monday July 16.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.