Sacha Baron Cohen's "Who Is America?"

He interviews Palin, Cheney, Bernie, Judge Roy Moore, etc.... Many claiming they were duped. It's premieres on Showtime tomorrow.

Hearing that he impersonated a wounded vet for the Palin one. Seems like that crosses a line.

This guy put it best:

I'm wondering if it's "good" or "bad" publicity. As our President always reminds us, it's all about the ratings and $$$

Yeah. My general rule is I tune out anyone who can actually make more money when they make people mad. There's no way to trust they even mean what they say. I think after awhile their livelihood trains them to stop having real opinions, and they reflexively say whatever generates those responses. That goes for Cohen, or Ann Coulter, or whoever.

He’s a comic genius.

I just saw the first episode. It's like Da Ali G Show, but lazier and mostly silly. I'll still watch, but it took the worst aspects from that show and recycled it.

Borat is not just people "being polite", it's people often voluntarily saying despicable things without even being nudged to. Look at the bloke at the rodeo, who wants to hang homosexuals and hates Muslims, or the young kids travelling along the road. That is not normal behaviour or being polite. I know if someone, even if they were not accustomed to my country's culture, acted in an offensive way towards me or others that I would call it out. These people also know they are being filmed, it doesn't matter what it's for, they're being filmed.

Borat was brilliant because he really didn't have to do anything, these people were happy enough to do stupid things without him nudging them too. There was good people in the film too despite him acting like an idiot, look at the bloke trying to teach him to drive. Even the people at the dinner party, these people were being polite, the other people were being offensive and deserve to be ridiculed for their opinions if they're willing to express them so publicly.

Anyway I just watched this:



And it's unbelievable, how can this be defended? Like that bloke going along with those toy guns for that advert, the people actually offering suggestions to him about toddlers, the person laughing and not calling out the rape joke, the blatant Islamaphobia etc.

__________________

I don't think anyone said it was "just" that. But it's a lot of that. It's at least sometimes that

How would you know what he had to do? How would we know how many people he has to talk to before he gets the one he clearly wants, and the one he clearly was trying to telegraph?

Obviously the implication is that these people are representative (otherwise, it's just silly and not really meaningful satire, as it clearly aspires to be), but that's not established this way.

Sacha is a genius

I watched all four episodes that have been released so far

They're good

Actually I like these interviews more than Borat and Bruno, but of course Da Ali G is still the best

__________________
"Beliefs don't change facts. Facts, if you're rational, should change your beliefs" Ricky Gervais