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Who Is America? (Sacha Baron Cohen show) |OT| Why Is America?
- Thread starter ASleepingMonkey
- Start date
Ok after watching the full episode I can see where the reviews are coming from. Some of it was hilarious and the NRA part is genuinely frightening, but I felt like the other scenes were kind of shallow overall. I think I'm so used to absurdist humor at this point that it just felt a bit generic to me. That said, if every episode contains at least one scene as insane as the NRA stuff it's still pretty much a 10/10.
To add a bit more to my post: like, the Bernie thing with the percentages was classic Ali G dumbness, but didn't really say much of value. I guess I should keep in mind that it is first and foremost a comedy show.
To add a bit more to my post: like, the Bernie thing with the percentages was classic Ali G dumbness, but didn't really say much of value. I guess I should keep in mind that it is first and foremost a comedy show.
I am a huge Ali G / Borat fan, have pretty much all his UK shows and a few signed autographs but the first episode was pretty disappointing. Its streaming on showtime, the episode structure is 4 interviews, Cohen is playing all the parts himself in heavy prosthetics/makeup
#1: a fat alex jones kind of guy in a scooter interviews Bernie Sanders about healthcare.
#2: a ultra cringe super hippie (pink pussy hat) interviews two Trump delegates from the 2016 election. They were surprisingly polite as he said the most ridiculous and offensive things to them
#3: a British ex-con talks to an art gallery owner about his chances as an artist
#4: the israeli right wing gun nut talks to various politicians about guns, kids (its the entire excerpt linked above)
Overall it really wasn't that funny, mostly cringe. The people were all just basically polite and it never felt like any of them opened up to him, which is when the best moments were from Ali G, Borat, Nathan For You, etc.
I think Cohen worked too hard on making ludicrous, caricature personalities and the interviews suffer for it. Hopefully it gets better as the season continues.
#1: a fat alex jones kind of guy in a scooter interviews Bernie Sanders about healthcare.
#2: a ultra cringe super hippie (pink pussy hat) interviews two Trump delegates from the 2016 election. They were surprisingly polite as he said the most ridiculous and offensive things to them
#3: a British ex-con talks to an art gallery owner about his chances as an artist
#4: the israeli right wing gun nut talks to various politicians about guns, kids (its the entire excerpt linked above)
Overall it really wasn't that funny, mostly cringe. The people were all just basically polite and it never felt like any of them opened up to him, which is when the best moments were from Ali G, Borat, Nathan For You, etc.
I think Cohen worked too hard on making ludicrous, caricature personalities and the interviews suffer for it. Hopefully it gets better as the season continues.
I just stopped finding this kind of subject matter funny about 2 years ago. Am I supposed to laugh at Republicans' full-throated support of arming grade-schoolers? Because I don't really see any humor to be found there.
It might just be me, but I don't think some of that stuff is meant to be funny. Like the whole gun bit, some might get a chuckle out of the absurdity of it all, but it's a very serious topic. So I feel what he's doing is highlighting that people aren't actually bullshitting when they talk about how extreme right-wing views are when it comes to guns. But it's one thing to have a liberal say "They want to arm children!" and another to actually have those very right-wingers admit it on camera. So he's getting Republicans into an environment and comfort zone that a regular news anchor or reporter never could. He's buttering them up and then letting them show their true colors. Colors that you'd only get to see if you knew them personally and you were speaking to them off the record.
Like I said, it's one thing for a liberal to accuse Republicans of something. Because you can ultimately accuse someone of anything. You can claim their views are X or Y. But it's something completely different when you can get them on the record. That's what makes this interesting. It's a deep dive into what Republicans really think.
I like how everyone is downplaying it to just these GOP dumbasses wanting to give guns to toddlers -- which is completely and astronomically heinous and stupid -- but that they're also arguing for child soldiers.
If these characters fooled real politicians, imagine the kind of people that normally contact their congressmen
I liked most of it, with the israeli part being the best and I guess the hippie part being the weakest. The art gallery was cringe for obvious reasons, I can't believe that actually happened :lol
Who knew the world was capable of such oxymoronic paradoxical juxtapositions?
What
The
Fuck
This entire segment lol
What
The
Fuck
This entire segment lol
Only saw the Youtube Gun segment but holy heck. As if its not already clear, we are living in a Mike Judge dystopia.
That art segment was disgusting.
Didn't really get the ultra-Libral having dinner with conservatives. Wouldn't it have made more sense to have him have dinner with other liberals, and let them see the extreme side? See if they hop onboard with his views like the gun-nuts did with his gun-nut character?
Didn't really get the ultra-Libral having dinner with conservatives. Wouldn't it have made more sense to have him have dinner with other liberals, and let them see the extreme side? See if they hop onboard with his views like the gun-nuts did with his gun-nut character?
It's not as good as Ali G or Borat or any of that period. Not at all. At least so far. Still pretty damned funny though.
Those pranks were about exposing the prejudices people were hiding. No ones hiding it anymore. Also this new character comes across more cartoonish and silly to me. I mean, I get Borat was fucking silly, but this character just seems more obviously fake to me. I think its the way it's acted, perhaps.
The artist segment felt really inconsistent with the show's theme, but that was a hell of a first episode otherwise.
The 199% lecture and Blink-182 pheromones fuckin' killed me.
The 199% lecture and Blink-182 pheromones fuckin' killed me.
lol I look forward to seeing liberals who somehow have been fine with this guy for the past few years because he's a never trumper trying to reason with him over this tweet.
The lady running the art gallery is either 100% a wierdo artist or a scammer who takes advantage of wierdo artists. I can absolutely believe it happened, both of those cases would be very enthusiastic to talk about scat/ejaculate paintings.
How the hell do people take him seriously when he interviews them. The gun segment is redic. I'd love to hear what was going through the art lady's mind during that interview.
lol
That whole art segment was insane. And I wish I hadn't watched the nra part prior. It was a great finale to the first episode. The second segment was the weakest, the first with Bernie just ok. But the last 2 holy shit they were funny.
^^^ The Bernie one was great because no matter what you do Bernie is just Bernie. It's hilarious and awesome.
Incredible first episode that was simultaneously deeply unsettling.
Also the art gallery lady is something else.
Also the art gallery lady is something else.
I fucking burst out laughing when the Lobbyist guy says, "This conversation would have some people's heads exploding!" and Sacha says, "Why because they've been shot in the head?"
OP
OP
I like the implication that his son died because he mishandled his own gun rather than being killed in the line of duty or as a soldier, makes it even more insane/darkly hilarious.
The NRA segment is really something. The toy guns segment encapsulates the modern day "banality of evil".
The characters he's playing needs to interact with people that will believe what he's selling. Conservatives will absolutely buy into him being cuckolded by a dolphin while his daughter is "free bleeding" as a carbon footprint reduction measure. He's parodying a fear conservatives and the right have, like Vonnegut did with Harrison Bergeron.
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I loved the whackjob liberal segment. Seeing how far he could go and how far they were willing to go along with it was great. The kids with guns segment was more enraging than funny, but that's the point, really. I think it's a nice mix of funny, angry, and just fucking around.
Id like more of the last segment. Not sure what the other segments are really supposed to be about. The liberal professor felt awful and boring.
Bernie's segment fell flat, because it's just about explaining a really stupid joke about math, and I have no idea what that art segment was supposed to be about. Im guessing the character is supposed to target liberals who are off the deep end in their open mindedness? That lady was clearly full of nonsense but maybe his other segments with that character will be more interesting because I dont really care what some random art lady thinks.
The last character was the best for obvious reasons. The Alex Jones type character has potential but the content didnt mesh well with Bernie
Bernie's segment fell flat, because it's just about explaining a really stupid joke about math, and I have no idea what that art segment was supposed to be about. Im guessing the character is supposed to target liberals who are off the deep end in their open mindedness? That lady was clearly full of nonsense but maybe his other segments with that character will be more interesting because I dont really care what some random art lady thinks.
The last character was the best for obvious reasons. The Alex Jones type character has potential but the content didnt mesh well with Bernie
Wait
Is it true that Cohen didn't even claim to be a wounded war vet in the army but in the postal service with Palin? Is there a clip of that? Lol
Is it true that Cohen didn't even claim to be a wounded war vet in the army but in the postal service with Palin? Is there a clip of that? Lol
Damn. This is Mark Twain levels of social commentary. That second old guy's hatred and ignorance was laid bare by a man who was clearly in costume and doing a bit.
Remember to vote. Every fucking election.
Also it warms my balls that Joe Walsh was one of the incredibly stupid assholes in this video.
Remember to vote. Every fucking election.
Also it warms my balls that Joe Walsh was one of the incredibly stupid assholes in this video.
Honestly the hardest segment to watch, he just acts like the most extreme left wing stereotype to make a Republican couple uncomfortable. But it's not really revealing anything, they SHOULD be uncomfortable, because the stuff he's saying is rather insane. I'm not sure where he was going with that and I didn't really enjoy it. In fact it kind of made him look worse than them because they were being amazingly polite.
Agreed.
I'm watching the segment now.
This show sucks so far. Im 10 minutes in and it's not been funny or illuminating at all. It's just dumb.