By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--July 11, 2018
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Sacha Baron Cohen—who reportedly interviewed Sarah Palin posing as a disabled veteran in a wheelchair—isn’t the first to use revered US military as props. Former President Barack Obama and his overbearing wife, Michelle came first.
Even as he was gutting the U.S. military, in 2013, a preening Obama created something of a stir when he summoned over two marines to hold umbrellas over himself and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for protection from light rain during a Rose Garden press conference. “…He and Obama have a jocular relationship that at times teeters into the risque. I glimpse a text from the former president on the actor’s phone. “What a jerk!” Obama teases. “Has Clooney ever been racy with him? “Sometimes, sure,” he says. “A little bit. Not Scaramucci-racy, but … you know, I have over the years with my friends said a lot of really [outrageous things]. I’ve had an email exchange with Sacha Baron Cohen that’s some of the filthiest stuff, (CFP's emphasis) honestly. Amal will be on the chain and she’ll be upstairs and I’ll hear her scream, ‘No!’ because it’s just foul, and you think, ‘Well, that would probably not be great if it came out.’”No, George, it wouldn’t be great if it came out, neither back then or now.
“Yup - we were duped,” Palin wrote on her Facebook page. “Ya’ got me, Sacha. Feel better now?” “Cohen, CBS and Showtime drew the ire of the former Alaska governor a day after Showtime issued a press release announcing the "Borat" actor’s new satirical series titled, “Who is America?” “In her Facebook post, Palin wrote that she had been approached to participate in a “’legit opportunity’ to honor American Vets.” “For my interview, my daughter and I were asked to travel across the country where Cohen (I presume) had heavily disguised himself as a disabled US Veteran, fake wheelchair and all,” Palin wrote. She said she stayed for the interview “out of respect for what I was led to believe would be a thoughtful discussion with someone who had served in uniform.” She ultimately left, however, after claiming to have experienced “a long ‘interview’ full of Hollywoodism’s disrespect and sarcasm.” “Dubbing Cohen “shallow Sacha boy,” she dared him to “go ahead” and “air the footage,” before issuing a “challenge” that he and the networks donate the series’ earnings to a veterans charity.
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“Mock politicians and innocent public personalities all you want, if that lets you sleep at night, but HOW DARE YOU mock those who have fought and served our country,” she said. “Truly sick.” "Every honorable American Vet should feel the same.”Sacha Baron Cohen, a household name in Britain, has made a lucrative career out of ridiculing the vulnerable: “British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen revealed that before he became famous for Ali G, he performed a sweaty Hasidic character at Jewish retirement homes. (Times of Israel, Feb. 25, 2016))
“In an unusually candid Jewish-themed interview on Monday’s nearly two-hour “WTF with Marc Maron” podcast, Baron Cohen, 45, said he and his older brother as teenagers did a routine that he jokingly called “the schvitzing brothers.” “I was about 16, and we would dress as Hasidic Jews and sing Jewish songs. And one of the songs was this song called ‘Schvitzing,’ which was about how these Hasidic Jews get so hot that they end up shaving their beards and taking their clothes off and actually converting to Christianity at the end. And it would go down terribly. I mean these old-age homes would hate it,” Baron Cohen told Maron, a fellow Jewish comedian. “But Baron Cohen said he was “discovered” doing the routine, which emerged from sketches he wrote in the Zionist youth group Habonim Dror, and given a comedy show on British television.
“I started doing this cable show when I was 23. And it had about 40 viewers,” he said. “But I was doing these characters, and one of the characters was this early form of Ali G.” (Times of Israel) “Baron Cohen said his Jewish background helped him create Ali G, whom he described as an ethnically ambiguous British youth who wants to be African-American. “When “Da Ali G Show” first appeared on British TV in 2000, Baron Cohen said, various ethnic communities laid claim to him — from Greeks to Pakistanis to blacks. After it came out that Baron Cohen was Jewish, though, he was accused of racism. “Having studied racism and Nazism while an undergraduate student at Cambridge University and marched against racists, fascists and neo-Nazis, Baron Cohen wanted to defend himself — but he held back, and it paid off, he said. “After a week of public debate, he said, the media concluded on their own that he wasn’t racist — and in the meantime, he had become a household name in Britain. “As he described on “WTF,” Baron Cohen’s comedy has often been “undercover,” meaning he has stayed in character to provoke reactions from unsuspecting real people — often pushing the limits of free speech and putting himself in physical danger.”Cohen’s ‘comedy’ ridicules the elderly and disabled war vets, among others. No doubt that many among the masses would see his claims of “putting himself in physical danger” as the real comedy. Meanwhile, duped conservative politicians both past and present: Be aware that George Clooney’s texting buddy is Clooney described as the “filthiest stuff” and “foul”. Cohen’s the crocodile jumping up from the swamp to take unsuspecting and even naive conservative interviewees back down into the swamp where he drowns them.
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