Posted on 07/19/2018 8:18:26 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When I heard that Sacha Baron Cohen was coming out with a new prank-interview show, I wondered the same thing you probably did: Won't his targets recognize him as Borat? It's only been 12 years since Cohen's priapic Kazakhstani character became an international celebrity. Nothing he's done since then has been nearly as successful*, so now he's back to his old tricks. But how can he pull off the same act, now that everybody knows who he is? Won't they take one look at him and say, "Hey, you're Borat"?
The answer, as viewers of Who Is America? learned this week, is heavy makeup. To play "Billy Wayne Ruddick," the disabled redneck veteran who pissed off Sarah Palin, Cohen donned a fat suit, prosthetic jowls, and a blond wig and facial hair. As Israeli anti-terror expert "Erran Morad," they made him up to look like a late-era Freddie Mercury crossed with a Neanderthal. His other new characters, pussy-hatted liberal stereotype "Nira Cain-N'Degeocello" and British ex-con and, um, artist "Ricky Sherman," also look like they involved spending some time in the makeup chair.
But apparently there was at least one character who didn't make the final cut. Bill Melugin, KTTV in LA:
A Riverside gun store owner has harsh words for Sacha Baron Cohen after he says he caught the actor showing up to his business in disguise and under false pretense, and it was all caught on surveillance video...
It happened at Warrior One Guns & Ammo in February 2017. That’s when owner Norris Sweidan told FOX 11 Cohen and a camera met him while claiming to be filming a documentary about a Hungarian immigrant wanting to buy a gun.
"Get the f*** outta here, Borat!" #NorrisSweidanForPresident
Yeah, that's definitely Cohen. Apparently he assumed a gun shop owner would be just another dumb hillbilly who couldn't see through a fake beard and a crappy accent. Then, when it didn't work, he ran away. Guess he didn't think it was... VERY NICE!!!
Several of Cohen's other would-be targets saw through him before they ever even saw him. For example, Cameron Gray and Dana Loesch from the NRA:
After reading about #WhoIsAmerica, I’m glad I Googled "Yerushalayim Television” back in February pic.twitter.com/3hakVTfTgd
— Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) July 15, 2018
I got the same email. Sketchy and ignored 🙄
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) July 15, 2018
But if you do get fooled by Borat or someone like him, if your hunger for publicity makes you ignore all the warning signs that you're being conned, the worst thing you can do is complain about it. I understand why Sarah Palin was upset, getting tricked into a prank interview by someone she thought was a disabled veteran, but she just ended up giving Cohen more publicity. She should've been more like former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh, who also fell for Cohen's act but then self-deprecatingly laughed it off. If you get pranked by one of these guys, the worst thing you can do is be a poor sport. You're only giving them what they want.
And his Showtime show is bombing just as bad.
Uzbeks' revenge.
I heard he dressed up as a real, secure server but was really a homemade server with direct lines to the Russians. Fooled Hillary like crazy.
Yet another, horrible leftist. I am proud of the store owner for punching back twice as hard in that interview.
JoMa
300,000 viewers.
Isn’t it illegal to attempt to purchaser a gun under a false ID?
Oh, Borat. That was the most mornic character ever. Hated the character way back when and Cohen hasn’t changed my opinion. He’s a little schmuck who hasn’t matured since he was 12.
Uzbekistan have inferior potassium.
Heck, it would have been fun to see him fill out the form and then get arrested.
I’m not a fan of comedy that relies on making fools of people.
He’s a mean-spirited guy who exploits other people’s niceness to make them look foolish. Fortunately, gun shop owners are pretty smart.
“But if you do get fooled by Borat or someone like him, if your hunger for publicity makes you ignore all the warning signs that you’re being conned”
This. Who could want publicity so badly that they wouldn’t do all they could to vet the person/s trying to get them to talk? And if that’s not possible, or if you had any questions or doubts, no matter how paranoid you might seem even to yourself, just don’t do it. If you’re already a famous person, you should have at least a passing acquaintance with who are the real media figures. If you’re already a famous person, surely you have people who go through certain established channels to set up genuine interviews. If you’re not a famous person with such access, do you really want to be on teevee that badly? If you want publicity for your business, buy an ad.
And his Showtime show is bombing just as bad.
~~~~
They don’t care. It’s a messaging subsidy by these networks.
Do you really think Bill Mahar and John Oliver really make HBO any more money than they would with other content in those slots? HBO does it because they have a slant/message to push.
Uzbeks - They are the weak link in the Great Chain of Socialism.
Pity the store owner didn’t call the cops on him, that would have made for some must-see teevee :P
Sacha Baron Cohen is a huge dunce! He is a complete bore. Nothing he has shown so far is the least bit funny.
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