@thedailybeast
Jason Spencer rejected calls to "resign immediately" following THAT prank on Sacha Baron Cohen's #WhoIsAmerica https://thebea.st/2A4ib2M
11:56 AM - Jul 23, 2018
Only the conspiracy theory segment was weak, the others were great.
Yeah, there are times when the laughs just turned to dismay. It wasn't like I didn't want to watch it or didn't like what he was doing but I was having trouble laughing.I know I should be laughing at it but this show really, really gets me down/depressed/anxiety ridden and I knew people like this exist and that the figures brought on were in positions of great power. It is a truly disturbing glace at what has become all too common. Truly. Sasha is doing important work here.
Usually they get them to sign something before hand. Sometimes they just let it rock because they have enough communication indicating that the person knew and consented to being taped. You don't 100% need a release, if you have someone sitting down in a studio in front of a camera, with the clear understanding that this going to be televised.
You could tell how comfortable they were about it, too. Like it wasn't even a thing they were worried about saying aloud around their neighbors.
Let's face it, the guy is in the tradition of, oh, let's go all the way back, Aristophanes and Horace and Petronius and Jonathan Swift and Voltaire and Colbert. We need our comedians and our satirists, even when it's dark, to hold the mirror up to us as a culture. "Who is America?" We're all America. Not just the politicians, but everyday people like me.
How did you feel when you saw the final segment?
I felt lucky and fortunate. Thank you, God or gods or destiny, for bringing me into the path of this comic genius and letting me be tangentially involved in a project that is noble and worthy, even if it ruffles feathers. You gotta learn to laugh and realize that without art and satire, humanity would have perished thousands of years ago. We have to identify things that are wrong in our culture and we have to find solutions and the best way to do that sometimes is to view them from a perspective that will cause less pain.
The art gallery owner from the first episode had a great response to being pranked:
https://slate.com/culture/2018/07/w...es-on-sacha-baron-cohens-trick-interview.html
You could tell how comfortable they were about it, too. Like it wasn't even a thing they were worried about saying aloud around their neighbors.
Episode 2 really was bonkers. That last segment was hilarious and tragic... so much deeprooted racism
When the guy yelled out about how "this town's lucky to have black people in it" I legitimately went back and watched it a couple of times to see the awkward faces of people around him, but nope - nothing. Then the other guy just shouts out "he's saying there's black people in Kingmen that aren't welcome here either but we tolerate them" and I was aghast. I mean I know people harbour these feelings all over the place but to be so brazen in that situation. Fucking appalling.You could tell how comfortable they were about it, too. Like it wasn't even a thing they were worried about saying aloud around their neighbors.
Wow, I thought Cohen was out of ideas, this is his best work in my opinion.
This doesn't surprise me.Word is that the townhall segment was scripted and directed by Nathan Fielder from "Nathan for You", and SBC has really for this series surrounded himself with top-end satirist writers
I laughed and hated that dude face at the same time. Such hatred. I don't understand it. Then Trump playing into that shit for votes. In moving to Canada.They don't want black people around, either. They just "tolerate" them.
When the guy yelled out about how "this town's lucky to have black people in it" I legitimately went back and watched it a couple of times to see the awkward faces of people around him, but nope - nothing. Then the other guy just shouts out "he's saying there's black people in Kingmen that aren't welcome here either but we tolerate them" and I was aghast. I mean I know people harbour these feelings all over the place but to be so brazen in that situation. Fucking appalling.
Word is that the townhall segment was scripted and directed by Nathan Fielder from "Nathan for You", and SBC has really for this series surrounded himself with top-end satirist writers
I mean - someone asks you to shout the N word for a TV show, the answer should be like, DOUBLE NO. Like, it should be NO if they ask you to shout it in private.
It's not just that his excuse is absurd, it's that he was that stupid and excited about the opportunity.
It should've also been telling to Spencer that Cohen wouldn't even use that word himself. He literally says "In America there is one forbidden word. It is the "n-word.". The Spencer goes around yelling the actual word at the top of his lungs.
This would hold more weight if there had been more crowd working. But it literally only took the word "mosque" and they had the exact reaction they needed. They were obviously expecting to have to do a bit more to get them really going, adding in the Photoshop with the Arabic signs and the part with the Clinton Foundation. But they didn't have to go there at all, all it took in the end was saying the word mosque.Yeah I didn't mean the participants were actors or the exchanges were scripted, but each segment and set-up is scripted and directed, SBC is evidently also great at ad-lib (reaction to the blacks comment).. It is in the credits also, four or five different directors per episode.
Agreed. The guns segment was amazing but otherwise the first episode kinda fell flat for me.I felt this was a much stronger show than the first. It was right up there with some of the best Ali G/Borat segments.
Jan 3, 2018
A reality TV show production crew is apparently behind rumors regarding the supposed sale of a local shopping center in order to build a mosque.
Clear Meadow Films recruited people interested in participating in a focus group through local Facebook pages; attendees signed a consent form that allowed filming and use of the film on air.
"The speaker started off saying lots of jobs were coming to our area because we were chosen to begin a $385 million construction project on a plot of land in Kingman located at the Bank/Airway intersection," said Venessa Mudge, a Kingman resident who attended a focus group meeting in Bullhead City. "He said the project was going to be the building of the world's largest mosque outside of the Middle East. He implied that Muslims would take over our town and we'd all be converted or would have to move."
"I think they were trying to piss us off, just for reactions," said an attendee who asked not to be named. "Because the stuff they were stating was just absurd."
The speaker told attendees that the land was purchased already and permits obtained for the building.
"He showed pictures of our town with business signs photoshopped into Muslim languages," Mudge said. "He used many trigger statements like the Muslims would be protected from regular citizens to make sure there were no terror attacks from us."
Mudge, who attended with her husband, said she and some of the other attendees speculated the purported focus group was going to be used to create a show or documentary about hate toward Muslims using the responses from the meeting.
"They claimed it (the filming) was for the architectural firm that was going to build the mosque," she said. "We even tried pointing out to those around us to stop playing into the speaker's hands by responding because it was all a set up. So many members responded with hate, some with blatant racism and a whole lot of ignorance."
Mudge said she realized the group was fake when the speaker said the Kingman building site was already bought; she drives by the "for sale" signs every day.
Recruitment advertising on local Facebook pages under the name Cory Nicks offered $100 for anyone willing to participate in a community development focus group led by "a community relations representative for a real estate developer," Mudge said. Residents from Kingman were paid $150 for the inconvenience of being bused to Bullhead City.
"They told us about the film crew when we got to the convention center," Mudge said. "They didn't ask us if we wanted to opt out once we found out about the film crew. They told us we couldn't have our phone. They also had a security guard at the door to scan us with a detector or search any bags/purses we may have had with us."
Well that second episode sure was something. Jesus christ.
Thought it was all over then the post-credits seen happened and whew, sure doubled down on that one. Holy hell.
Georgia political leaders and candidates united Monday to condemn a Republican state lawmaker who exposed himself and yelled racial slurs during an episode of Sacha Baron Cohen's Showtime series.
House Speaker David Ralston urged the legislator, state Rep. Jason Spencer, to resign shortly after the episode of "Who is America?" aired Sunday night, and he was soon echoed by leaders and rank-and-file members from both sides of the aisle.
And the episode, which featured Spencer scampering around a gym with his pants pulled down, was quickly injected into Tuesday's GOP race for governor. Secretary of State Brian Kemp removed Spencer's name from his list of supporters, earning a dig from Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
"I'm just glad he didn't endorse my campaign," Cagle said as he prepared to embark on a nine-city fly-around tour.
Spencer on Monday apologized for the "ridiculously ugly episode," but he refused to step down. Although he lost the GOP primary in May, he remains in public office through the November general election.
"Sacha Baron Cohen and his associates took advantage of my paralyzing fear that my family would be attacked," said Spencer, who added that he was told the techniques would deter "what I believed was an inevitable attack."
He may still face official repercussions: Georgia Republican leaders are researching ways to reprimand him, short of calling a special session to oust him from office.
And Ralston's office said bipartisan legislative leaders – House Majority Leader Jon Burns and Minority Leader Bob Trammell – are discussing filing a joint ethics complaint targeting Spencer's behavior.
The chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, DuBose Porter, said that Mr. Spencer "has put a blemish on our state that even Ajax cannot remove."
Nah, fuck that. You can be dealt a shit hand in life and it doesn't necessitate being a proud racist. It was bad enough at the start but when they went on to suggest that black people who're breathing the same air as them should feel 'lucky' for being able to do so, it's all the more fucked up. If the place is that much of a shithole then my sympathy lies with the minorities living there who have to deal with that situation and being shunned or worse. Not with the people making others feel threatened and more miserable than they are.The town hall segment made me pretty uncomfortable tbh. Just seemed like easy mode for Cohen, and what was the point? To ridicule people who are already doomed to have shit lives? [...] But I think their faces should've been blurred out or something, or another bit used altogether.