People who are looking for a typical comedy show that they want to watch with their close circle of friends, be warned that Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Who is America” is definitely not the one you should pick. The show was shrewdly kept under wraps till such time of its release.
Cohen was mum to the media after his last film “The Dictator”, in which he plays a satirical fascist dictator to the fictional country of Wadia, titled Admiral General Aladeen. Before that he successfully brought to life such characters as British wanna-be gangstar rapper Ali G, Kazakhstani documentary maker Borat, gay Austrian fashion reporter Bruno. His popularity reached such a peak that fans all over the world were waiting impatiently for his next piece of work. He was due to play Freddie Mercury in the legendary singer’s biopic, but left the project due to creative differences. As his replacement Rami Malek is exceptionally talented, it was not a big regret.
Just when political satire seem to have exhausted its audience through daily shows by Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, and Saturday Night Live sketches, along with occasional twitter outburst from the leader of the free world, Sacha Baron Cohen decides to interrogate USA once again. In many ways, it is a return to familiar territory for the British comedian, who plays four characters this time: right-wing conspiracy theorist Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr, politically correct liberal Nira Cain-N’Degocello, ex-convict-turned-artist Rick Sherman, and Israeli terrorism expert Erran Morad. This quartet travels around the self-proclaimed “most free country in the world”, in the quest of ostensibly bridging the political divide among its people.
For the most part, these characters only serve to reinforce the ideas that conservatives and liberals probably already have about each other. Will either side find it enjoyable to watch? Debatable! Even as an exercise in confirmation bias it makes for pretty queasy viewing, Baron Cohen wheedles an unflappable Laguna Beach art gallery curator into giving his character Ricky Sherman some of her pubic hair after convincing her that he's an artistic genius. Sacha also makes Gun Owners of America director Larry Pratt gleefully laughing when his character Erran Morad insists, "It’s not rape when it's your wife." The show will undoubtedly shock a few genuine laughs from you, but by the end, you kind of want to cry.Baron Cohen's aim is perfectly calibrated, even when the targets are a little too easy. His interrogation methods make you feel sorry for his victims. But then his victims prove the point Sacha is making and you are like, “what?”
It is dark humor at its best, not least because the interviewees do not know they are being duped. The politicians in that sketch really do believe and allow themselves to be manipulated into saying stuff like - that there should be no age limitations for the exercise of the Second Amendment. In a subsequent episode, Col Morad interviews former Vice President Dick Cheney, and together they wax eloquently on their favorite forms of torture. Apparently they both share a soft spot for water-boarding.
Even if people from different political beliefs are condemning Cohen’s actions there are others who think this is the new reality we are living in right now. It is this niche audience for whom this TV show was made. It is for those people who feel that rationality, norms and morality lines are being rendered irrelevant.
“Who Is America” is equally chilling, daring, and confrontational, as the best comedies often are. The experience of watching the show is like looking at a fast-moving view out of a train window, we are all in. The world’s most unconventional and sometimes unforgivable beliefs race past that window, leaving you wondering where the train will stop. While Baron Cohen is practiced enough at his “gotcha” game to make us chuckle, the more you think about it, the more we realize that this is no laughing matter.I would say the show deserves a satisfactory 3.5 rating out of 5.
