Sacha Baron Cohen’s Prank on Sarah Palin Was ‘Kind of Appalling’

Just one episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s new series has aired, but already it’s arguably the most controversial show on right now.

Conservatives like Joe Arpaio and Joe Walsh were duped into interviews by the comedian and tricked into saying some pretty ridiculous things.

The premiere episode on Sunday night found Cohen posing as an Israeli security expert — and he tricked Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) to back (or so it seemed) the idea of arming young children in schools to prevent future shootings.

At least one person is not going along with Cohen’s antics. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has come out against a particular episode featuring an interview with her. She said Cohen duped her into the interview by posing as a disabled veteran. Palin has called for the profits from her episode to be donated to a veterans charity.

Showtime, which airs Cohen’s “Who is America?” has not responded to Palin’s comments, but Cohen released a statement “in character” and said he never claimed he was an actual veteran in the interview.

Howard Kurtz, the host of “Media Buzz” on Fox News, called Cohen’s stunt “kind of appalling” and floated the idea that the comedian was only jumping into political topics to try to stay relevant.

“I practically forgot he even existed,” Kurtz said.

“He was completely irrelevant two and a half weeks ago,” Fox News contributor Carley Shimkus added.

They are not wrong. Despite anchoring hits like 2006’s “Borat,” Cohen has struggled to create more movies that land with audiences. Films like 2016’s “The Brothers Grimsby” were complete bombs. This new series is a blatant grab at headlines again.

As for the Palin interview, Kurtz expressed an opinion many seem Americans seem to have.

“There’s a line there, and he clearly careened right across it,” he said.

Cohen doesn’t care about lines. He only cares about reviving a failing career — and he will do whatever it takes to do that. This show is slowly proving it.

PopZette editor Zachary Leeman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.

(photo credit, homepage and article: YouTube)