Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 17 July 2018
Sacha Baron Cohen back with old style, same results

By MARK KENNEDY Yet in a reminder that even
Associated Press the best laid corporate
NEW YORK (AP) — The pro- plans unravel, the network's
vocateur Sacha Baron own promotional depart-
Cohen has rebooted his ment has revealed that
ambush chat show and former Vice President Dick
before any judgment is Cheney features in a future
made about the wisdom episode, somehow con-
of that decision, you have vinced to add his friendly
to admire the sheer per- autograph to a jug used for
severance of not only the waterboarding.
host but also his so-called And we know that Sarah
guests. Palin, the former Republi-
Fifteen years after the British can vice-presidential can-
comedian leapt to Ameri- didate, admits that she
ca as an unknown cultural too was duped, saying on
trip-wire to punk everyone Facebook she had fallen
from Donald Trump to Ed- victim to Baron Cohen's
win "Buzz" Aldrin, he's still "evil, exploitive, sick 'hu-
befuddling folks who should mor.'" Add defeated Sen-
really know better. ate candidate Roy Moore
The first episode of Show- to that list; he was enticed
time's "Who Is America?" to a sit-down with the prom-
somehow snared former ise of an award for being a
presidential candidate friend of Israel.
Bernie Sanders and former It's remarkable that anyone
Republican senator Trent still falls for this bait-and-
Lott, neither apparently In this March 4, 2018 file photo, Sacha Baron Cohen arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in switch and so give credit
too savvy to sit opposite a Beverly Hills, Calif. to Baron Cohen's team for
dubious dude who is either Associated Press still beguiling politicians —
spectacularly ill-informed some, admittedly, not so
or perfectly like-minded. prosthetics and accents with the upcoming humilia- intelligent — and some- relevant any more — to
The first episode — the only then set them loose on the tions of some public figures times elected — men to their doom. Conserva-
one Showtime allowed jour- unsuspecting public, either absolutely astounding. back a fictional program tive provocateur James
nalists to talk about — fol- wing-tipped or rednecked. On "Da Ali G Show" from called Kindergardians, in O'Keefe has to smuggle
lows Baron Cohen's tested Truth be told, the second 2000-2004, Baron Cohen which kids as young as 4 his cameras in, but Baron
formula: Create a bunch of episode of "Who Is Ameri- played a dim, wannabe are trained to shoot guns Cohen uses his as a lure.
off-the-wall characters with ca?" is better than the first, gangster; an anti-Semitic decorated as stuffed ani- They keep coming despite
correspondent from Ka- mals (like the "Uzi-corn" or the baton he dropped be-
zakhstan; and a gay Aus- the "Dino-gun"). ing taken up by the likes of
trian reporter. This time, his So we get the sight of Rep. "Daily Show" and "Full Fron-
characters include a far Dana Rohrabacher, for- tal" correspondents. Why
right-wing moron; a gung- mer Rep. Joe Walsh and anyone sits for a TV inter-
ho Israeli anti-terrorism the twin gun rights activists view anymore is a mystery.
teacher; an ultra-liberal Larry Pratt, of Gun Own- Baron Cohen and his team
who cycles around in a ers of America, and Philip are like those weird fish in
ponytail and an NPR T-shirt; Van Cleave, of the Virginia the deep dark that dangle
and an ex-con skinhead Citizens Defense League, a light to attract prey. They
with a biker beard. duped into parroting play to vanity but end up
Over two episodes, the prepared text on a tele- with something truly gro-
show proves uneven — prompter that "first-graders tesque. His victims often
best when it toys with those make good first-grenaders" try to ingratiate themselves
in power and less so when and aiming a gun at the with the host's racist jokes
it goes for a cheap laugh screen while singing a twist- or play into his stereotypes
from the frivolous. A trip by ed version of the nursery a little too easily.
his left-wing character to a song, namely "Head, Shoul- It's a honed technique:
fancy candlelit dinner with ders, Not the Toes, Not the Baron Cohen was trolling
staunch conservatives in Toes." people before trolling was
South Carolina felt flat in Showtime has been tight- a daily thing.
comparison to the sheer lipped about the seven- He was creating "fake
mischief Baron Cohen gets episode series, to the point news" before that was in
into as the Israeli charac- of asking journalists who vogue.
ter when trying to get gun- see the show to sign non- "Who Is America?" — like his
rights advocates to en- disclosure agreements previous show — offers no
dorse his notion of arming and place their phones moments of truth when the
preschoolers. in locked cases. Security hunted, led to the extremes
That's always been the ge- guards scanned the room by a stranger with funny fa-
nius of Baron Cohen's for- with night-vision goggles cial hair, finally realize that
mat: seeing how far he can during a recent screening. they are in a logical pretzel
coax someone down the (Showtime might embrace and suddenly comprehend
rabbit hole. free speech but they're the consequences of their
This time, he gets grown, happy to limit it, too.) thinking.q