Sacha Baron Cohen is the ultimate troll; making politicians, celebrities, and everyday bigots look idiotic since 1995. From Da Ali G Show, Brüno, and Borat to Who Is America? and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Cohen’s affinity for celebrity interviews and hidden camera sketches has tricked the upper echelons of society into revealing who they truly are—silly, absurd, almost always awkward. The man has never backed down from a dupe—courage sorely needed in our contemporary climate of bullshit. Even when things are staged or partially staged, Cohen has a way of holding up a mirror, making us feel complicit, and most importantly, making us laugh. We’re just thankful he doesn’t target us. We’ve looked back at the people Cohen has targeted and ranked his best dupes.
Cover Photo: Amazon Prime Video
Game, set, match: Sacha Baron Cohen’s Latest Stunt Got GOP Lawmaker To Drop Trou, Shout N-Word
Case and point: Rudy Giuliani Calls NYPD After Being Pranked by Sacha Baron Cohen, Can Only Take a Joke if it Becomes President
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Sacha Baron Cohen Dupes
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14. Dropping in on Eminem at the MTV Movie Awards
During the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, Bruno took flight. His wire act appeared to go awry, landing bare-butt-to-face in the lap of Eminem; furious, the rapper stormed out of the venue. Audiences didn’t know what to think. In reality, Eminem was in on the skit but the initial confusion sure was something.
You can watch that here.
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13. Killing the presenter at the Britannia Awards
In 2013 Cohen accepted the Charlie Chaplin Britannia for Excellence in Comedy award. An old woman/stunt actor claiming to have worked with Chaplin presented Cohen with the award and a Chaplin-esque cane. While dancing with said cane, Cohen "accidentally" shoved the elderly woman off stage. The celebrity-filled crowd reacted in horror.
You can watch that here.
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12. Borat as a dive-bar country singer
Sporting a cowboy hat, flannel, and a guitar, Cohen (as Borat) once poised as a local (Kazakhstan) country sing with a proclivity for singing anti-Semitic (Cohen himself is Jewish) songs. At a dive bar in Arizona, he took the stage spouting lyrics like: “Throw the Jew down the well” to a crowd willing to sing along. Coincidentally, this is the second dupe on this list taking place in Arizona...
You can watch that here.
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11. Bruno Interviewing Pastor Quinn, the 'gay converter'
Before the flamboyant Austrian showed up on the big screen, Bruno appeared in comedy sketches on Da Ali G Show. On one such occasion, Bruno interviewed Pastor Quinn, a man who believes homosexuality is a sin—they call him the “gay converter.” Quinn quickly tells Bruno he’s married, beginning an interview that is both uncomfortable and extremely hilarious.
Bruno to Quinn: "So hypothetically, according to you, I can admire a man's penis in the shower, but the moment I put it in my mouth, some kind of line has been crossed?"
You can watch that here.
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10. Kidnapping Pamela Anderson
Aside from Baywatch, Pamela Anderson is perhaps best known for two sex tapes and 2006’s Borat—in which Mr. Sagdiyev kidnaps her. The film's main plot revolves around its main character pursuing Anderson after watching an episode of Baywatch. When he finally meets her, he puts her in a sack and storms out of the store. After Anderson escapes and Borat is apprehended by security, many people weren’t sure if the stunt was real or fake. While onlookers were not in on it, Anderson was, something that pissed off Kid Rock enough that he divorced her…?
You can watch that here.
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9. Getting Paula Abdul to sit on human furniture (while talking about her humanitarian work)
Cohen managed to wrangle an interview with Paula Abdul in 2009’s Bruno. The interview was supposed to focus on Abdul’s humanitarian work; however, she walks into the house and workers pose as "Mexican chair people." Instead of protesting the fact that human beings are on all fours, Abdul actually sits on a man and proceeds to talk about how when "you give love to other people and you get love back in spades.”
You can watch that here.
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8. Clowning pro-gun Republicans
Cohen’s Showtime comedy, Who Is America? began with a bang. Quite literally. The series’ premiere ends with a 10-minute segment called “Kinder Guardians,” an instructional video in which Cohen’s anti-terrorist expert, Col. Erran Morad, and Virginia Citizens Defense League president Philip Van Cleave promote arming 3-year-olds, dressing the weapons up as stuffed animals to make them more appealing. On top of this, Cohen interviewed several Republicans (including former congressman Joe Walsh) and the executive director of Gun Owners of America who endorsed arming children to protect their schools.
You can watch that here.
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7. Duping Jason Spencer (and forcing him to resign)
In another episode of Who is America? Cohen’s Murad invited Georgia lawmaker Jason Spencer to an anti-terrorism training session, convincing the latter to yell the N-word, use a selfie stick to take a picture underneath a woman’s burka (to see if she’s hiding a weapon), and drop his pants to fend off a terrorist. Shortly after the episode aired, Spencer was forced to resign from his position in the House of Representatives.
You can watch that here.
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6. A mosque for Kingman, Arizona
In the second episode of Who Is America? Cohen went undercover as an overtly liberal proponent of building a mosque in Kingman, Arizona. When presenting his plans for the mosque, citizens were outraged by the idea of drawing terrorism to Kingman, Cohen leans into their ignorance, proposing a mosque the equivalent of the Taj Ma Hal and presenting visual aids fully equipped with camels. While funny, the underlining islamophobia, xenophobia, blatant racism expressed in this dupe is startling. Kingman has since posted to their Facebook page, saying that the focus group does not reflect their town.
You can watch that here.
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5. Crashing right-wing rally and leading racist singalong
Battling division and COVID-19, Cohen went all out for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. His main target: right-wing America. After making friends with a pair of MAGA supporters, Borat crashes a MAGA rally, going on stage dressed as a bluegrass singer and singing racist lyrics; including (but not limited to) attacking Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama—“inject them with the Wuhan flu.” Like the aforementioned dupes, the unsuspecting crowd cheered and sang along. That is until they realized what was happening. Cohen’s security not only had to block people from getting on stage/cutting off his mic but protect him while fleeing the MAGA rally.
You can watch that here.
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4. Singing Kazakhstan's National Anthem at U.S. rodeo
What is perhaps Borat’s most outrageous scene involves the titular character going in front of a 4,000+ crowd of Americans and feeding them lines about George Bush’s “War on Terror.” Testing their limits (per usual), Cohen says progressively darker things, like “George Bush will drink the blood of every man, woman, and child in Iraq.” Again, men and women at the rodeo cheer. However, things took a turn for the worse when Cohen turned the American National Anthem into Kazakhstan's National Anthem, nearly inciting a riot.
You can watch that here.
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3. An offering for Pence at the Republican National Convention
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm follows its main character attempting to deliver a pornstar monkey to America’s most famous ladies' man...Mike Pence. When Borat arrives in America, he finds his daughter in a crate, having hitched a ride and eaten his promiscuous monkey. Therefore, Borat/Cohen sneaks into the Republican National Convention disguised as Donald Trump, disrupting Pence’s speech and offering him a girl. In real life, Cohen hid in a bathroom for five hours to bypass security and was removed by police officers—no one knew it was him.
You can watch that here.
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2. The Rudy Giuliani hand-in-pants debacle
After the Pence plan goes south, the ex-mayor of New York and Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, becomes Cohen’s target. Plot: to complete her father’s movie mission, Borat’s “teenage” daughter lands an interview with Giuliani, flirts, and invites him back to her hotel room for a drink. Giuliani then tells the young girl to give him her phone number and address before laying on the bed and sticking his hand in his pants. Our hero (sporting pink underwear) then barges into the room yelling, “She’s 15, she’s too old for you.” Giuliani storms out and calls the police; leaving us all to wonder the magnitude of this man’s perversion—he says he was tucking in his shirt after taking off the recording equipment but not everyone is buying that.
You can watch that here.
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1. Getting Dick Cheney to sign a waterboard kit
Who is America?'s (and Cohen’s) most memorable interview is with former vice president Dick Cheney. The dupe sees Cohen, disguised once again as his anti-terrorism expert character, asking a man—who has been accused of institutionalizing torture in the American government—about his favorite war torture method, and to sign a waterboard kit. Cheney agrees to do so gleefully (having never done so before), suggesting that it’ll be worth a lot of money. After the episode, Cohen sold the kit on eBay.
You can watch that here.
