Created for the Granadan talk show F2F, developed on the Channel 4 show Da Ali G Show, and then achieving worldwide popularity with his very own movie, ‘Borat’ is known the world over. The fictional journalist from Kazakhstan has become a household name, making his performer/creator Sacha Baron Cohen a legend within contemporary comedy with his mockumentaries and gags – as Borat would put it, “is nice!”
Part of the fun of Borat and Cohen is watching these larger-than-life characters interact with unassuming members of the public, allowing for socially taboo hijinks to take place. Indeed, whether he’s attempting to kidnap Pamela Anderson for marriage or wearing his trademark ‘mankini’, Borat/Cohen always deliver a lot of laughs...or at least some cringes.
However, because Cohen interacts with members of the public, there are times when the jokes don’t go down so well. Whilst, in retrospect, their comedic elements are clear, in the moment, these goofs and gags sometime spark incendiary and even potentially violent responses. The humor of Borat often relies on making people look foolish, and not surprisingly, folks are often displeased to discover they're the butt of a joke. Throughout his varied career, Cohen has had a lot of moments like these – here are some of the most memorable.
Mangling the National Anthem at a Rodeo in Salem, Virginia
One of the first times Cohen almost went too far was in Borat’s eponymous film, when he attended a rodeo in Salem, Virginia in 2005. Addressing the crowd there, Borat praised the US’s War on Terror, going as far to say “May George Bush drink the blood of every single man, woman and child of Iraq! May you destroy their country so that for the next thousand years not even a single lizard will survive in their desert!” Surprisingly, the crowd were fine with this, even cheering along. It was once he began to sing the lyrics of the Kazakh national anthem to the tune of the US national anthem that things got hairy.
Evidently, the rodeo didn’t like this pastiche of the beloved anthem, as the crowd began to violently heckle Cohen, offering numerous threats. As one witness remarked, “if he had been out there a minute longer, I think somebody would have shot him," For his own safety, Cohen was quickly escorted from the venue, protected by a security guard, with this escape actually appearing as a scene in the film.
Telling an Arizonan Town he wanted to build a “Mega-Mosque”
For his 2018 Showtime TV show, Who Is America?, Cohen also almost went too far. Dressed up as the ultra-liberal “Dr. Nira Cain-N’Degeocello”, Cohen led a focus group in Kingman, Arizona, revealing the plan to replace a local shopping centre with a $385 million mosque jointly funded by the Saudi government and the Clinton Foundation. If that wasn’t enough, he told the irked town members that this would be “the world’s biggest mosque outside of the Middle East”. This, of course, did not go down well (one of the audience members goes as far to openly say “I’m racist towards Muslims”).
Reportedly, even though the town members were frisked and searched before entry, the production team was so worried about potential violence, they still demanded Cohen wear a military-grade bulletproof vest – the vest’s outline is almost visible under Cohen’s costume. Although no violence did occur, the gag was so incendiary that the team thought the people of Kingman were a potential threat.
Causing a Riot at a Cage Fight
For his 2009 film Brüno, Cohen staged a cage fight in Arkansas, with a twist. Slated as “Straight Dave's Man Slammin' Maxout", the real audience watched a fight between the Cohen character of Brüno and his ex-assistant Lutz devolve into the two kissing passionately and making the motions of sex. The crowd became enraged by this bait-and-switch, hurling drinks and chairs at the pair, and even rioting around the stadium.
This riot was picked up by the local news, with the area’s police chief commenting that it took 45 minutes to clear the convention center, and that the two actors sprinted away through a specially set-aside tunnel as the chaos took place. Reportedly, the 1600-strong crowd caused upwards of $1m in property value after being incited by the gay kiss, although Cohen was never indicted on any of it – according to the police chief, his actions went up to the “very limit” of the city’s morality laws.
Trolling at Far-Right Rally in Olympia
This example is perhaps ahead of its time. In June this year, Cohen was caught performing at the ‘March for Our Rights 3’ rally in Olympia, Washington, where he sang a topical song that was almost too much, even for his extreme audience. As his lyrics stated, “Mask-wearers. What we gonna do? Inject them with the Wuhan flu. Journalists. What we gonna do? Chop ’em up like the Saudis do.” The audience started singing along with in-character Cohen, before realizing it was the actor doing another bit – they then startled to threaten and heckle, prompting Cohen to escape in an armored ambulance.
Since it was filmed as recently as June, many have speculated that this scene is, in fact, part of the upcoming sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. A key plot point of the film is that since Borat is now so well-known, the Kazakh journalist has to don multiple disguises in order to blend in. Could this rally-singing character be part of that? Some viewers have noticed that the character’s voice shares some similarities to Borat’s, so maybe?