Sarah Palin claims Sacha Baron Cohen ‘duped’ her in veteran drag for his new show

2018 Vanity Fair Oscar Party - Arrivals

Over the past week, promotion has ramped up for Sacha Baron Cohen’s new Showtime show, Who Is America. Little is actually known about the show, other than the fact that Cohen has apparently developed a new character, and that he’s making fun of American politics or something. So far, the promotional materials have been pretty vague (minus a Dick Cheney cameo). But now we’re getting a better idea about what the show involves, and it comes from one of Cohen’s “duped” interview subjects: Sarah Palin. Palin posted this on her Facebook:

Yup – we were duped. Ya’ got me, Sacha. Feel better now? I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive, sick “humor” of the British “comedian” Sacha Baron Cohen, enabled and sponsored by CBS/Showtime.

This “legit opportunity” to honor American Vets and contribute to a “legit Showtime historical documentary” was requested of me via a speakers bureau.

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. Out of respect for what I was led to believe would be a thoughtful discussion with someone who had served in uniform, I sat through a long “interview” full of Hollywoodism’s disrespect and sarcasm – but finally had enough and literally, physically removed my mic and walked out, much to Cohen’s chagrin. The disrespect of our US military and middle-class Americans via Cohen’s foreign commentaries under the guise of interview questions was perverse.

Here is my challenge, shallow Sacha boy: go ahead – air the footage. Experience tells us it will be heavily edited, not pretty, and intended to humiliate.

The challenge is to Cohen, CBS and Showtime: donate all proceeds to a charitable group that actually respects and supports American Vets. 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. Truly sick.

[From Sarah Palin’s Facebook]

Palin goes on to issue a Wasilla fatwa on CBS/Showtime for sponsoring and financing this mess, and she also says that Cohen’s team purposefully dropped her off at the wrong Washington airport, thus ensuring that she would miss her flight home to Alaska. She ends the post by saying that BRISTOL thinks Cohen is a “piece of sh-t,” which… can’t Sarah Palin say that herself?

Anyway, I feel the same way about this that I felt about conservatives/Deplorables going after Bill Maher: go ahead. Take him. He’s not ours. As much as conservatives want to say that Cohen is some kind of “liberal” prankster with an agenda, I feel like A) he’s pranking everybody and he has no real political agenda, right or left and B) he’s not funny anyway. Go ahead and try to shut him down, it sounds like his new show is awful.

SNL 40th Anniversary Special - 2015

Photos courtesy of WENN.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

82 Responses to “Sarah Palin claims Sacha Baron Cohen ‘duped’ her in veteran drag for his new show”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Lightpurple says:

    “Evil?” No, Sarah, Cohen is not evil. You know what is evil? The administration you support. Fake wheelchair? Was it made of cardboard?

    • Clare says:

      Where was Mrs Palin when her pal Donny evil was verbally assaulting a gold star family? Or do only white folk count as veterans?

      • josephine says:

        He mocks war heroes and prisoners of war. How much lower can you go?

      • whatWHAT? says:

        and he mocked a disabled person.

        Palin can f*ck off.

        “much to Cohen’s chagrin”…uh, no, Sarah, you dolt. that’s what he was HOPING would happen.

      • Lightpurple says:

        She was cheering him on, thinking he would pick her to run the VA. And yes, to Sarah, only white people count as veterans.

        @whatWHAT? right? She did exactly what SBC wanted her to do and he won’t have to edit anything to show what a dolt she is. And who are these “innocent public personalities?” Bristol? That idiot is far from innocent.

      • Trashaddict says:

        Who was her ghostwriter? I doubt she knows what “chagrin” means. Unless it’s extolling the virtues of middle class America while your daughter gets knocked up (no, I am fine with single mothers, just not hypocrisy). Or could “chagrin” mean your entire family getting into an alcohol-fueled, knock-down drag-out brawl with another family, so you can really impress people as a public figure?
        This woman is just too much.
        https://www.cnn.com/2014/10/09/politics/palin-family-brawl/index.html

      • Oliviajoy1995 says:

        Where was Sarah when Trump said that McCain was a “loser” for being captured and held as a POW for years?? Don’t remember her coming to his defense. Especially since she seems to be so outraged at Sasha mocking veterans. I think it’s funny she was dropped off at the wrong airport.

    • minx says:

      I’m weighing my mild dislike of SBC and his pranks against my loathing for Palin. The loathing wins.

    • magnoliarose says:

      Well, she just guaranteed more people will watch. That is how he rolls so Wasillabilly fell right into it.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      She cares so much about Vets…that she stays silent when the GOP routinely goes after funding for veterans services. Why didn’t we hear from her when the GOP proposed drastic cuts to veterans benefits in their 2018 budget? She doesn’t really care about vets, she just likes to use them as tools in her propaganda efforts.

  2. RBC says:

    Slightly off topic, but for those hating the fact the unnamed orange is in the White House. Sarah Palin would have been a heartbeat away from sitting in the Oval Office if John McCain had become president. That is a scary thought..

    • Jenns says:

      This was a pretty big talking point during the 2008 election. Colin Powell even listed it as one of his reasons for not voting for McCain.

    • Esmom says:

      It seemed incredibly scary and incomprehensible at the time but I gotta say that those days seem pretty quaint compared to the parade of idiocy, incompetence, immorality and ignorance we have in DC right now. Palin’s rise opened the gate for Trump, big time.

    • BrutalEthyl says:

      Honestly that’s why John McCain wasn’t elected, IMO. I know so many women (myself included) that changed our vote when we found out that McCain picked that idiot Sarah Palin to be his running mate. She should really sit down and shut up, and take her family with her.

  3. Jay says:

    Was she this up in arms about the disrespect shown to the family of Humayyun Khan? No? Then piss off, Palin.

  4. Betsy says:

    I never watched his stuff, so I am only familiar with him through Steve Carrell’s Michael Scott’s impression of him.

    But if he tweaked Palin’s nose, good.

    And, dummy – how did you not notice you weren’t being dropped off at Dulles or National? Those two are nowhere near one another. That’s on you, kiddo.

  5. Astrid says:

    As much as I despise Sarah, I agreed that these pranks are terrible and not at all funny.

    • LadyT says:

      Completely agree. Can’t stand Palin. Can’t stand Cohen and his pranks.

    • AnnaKist says:

      SBC is extremely irreverent, really pushing the envelope in these interviews. His sarcasm and satire can be very confrontational, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Joe Rogan (sp?), an American comedian, does the something similar in stand-up form. SBC did the same thing with Brüno Gehard, Borat and Ali G. I often wonder if British humour doesn’t translate well to America? Or in this case, is it because it’s a non-American serving it up? I actually hope we get to see it in Australia.

      • LadyT says:

        Intelligent, pushing-the-envelope comedy can be uniquely enlightening and I greatly enjoy it. Pranks, in this case making a fool out of a well-known fool, with the set-up involving a disabled vet, doesn’t strike me as either funny or skilled.

      • Alyse says:

        I am British and don’t consider him funny, nor do I consider this British humour. I just assumed he was more successful over there and that’s why he’s there.

      • ew says:

        I knew there would be one person saying it’s because we don’t get him lmao you are so predictable

    • megan says:

      I agree. Don’t know how anyone finds this funny or in good taste. Mocking vets?

      • Esmom says:

        Far be it for me to defend him but it didn’t seem to me that he was mocking vets but mocking Palin. He posed as a vet to set her up because he knew her faux concern would flush her out of whatever hole she’s currently living in. Unless I’m missing something.

      • whatWHAT? says:

        eh, I don’t think SBC was “mocking vets”. more like impersonating a disabled vet (which in itself is a bit problematic) in order to get people to make fools of themselves. just as he did with Ali G, Borat, and Bruno. he deliberately behaves absurdly with over the top characters. he probably (as someone theorized below) asked her difficult questions on how crappy this country treats veterans and her hypocritical stance towards them. she probably thought it would be a love-fest between her and one of her crack-pot supporters and instead she got broadsided by her own horrible views.

        let’s remember that it was 45 who “mocked vets”.

      • magnoliarose says:

        Remember how she blamed Obama for the vets coming home disabled? She blamed their PTSD and their issues on him. She’s not off the table and she deserves all the mocking that comes her way.

    • Truthie says:

      I thought that having Cohen-dressed-as-a-muslim ask Cheney to autograph his waterboarding kit (gallon water jug) was funny.

  6. kate says:

    All I have to say is this is the woman John Maverick McCain wanted to make VPOTUS, folks.

  7. Stacey says:

    Sarah is useless and a joke. But what Sacha did was not cool, on any level. Sarah’s right about that. I hope they both just disappear into obscurity.

  8. ME says:

    The fact that she’s issuing a statement in advance makes me think it must be a pretty embarrassing prank and some embarrassing on-screen comments from her… agreed that Cohen is not great, but I’ll be interested to see this particular prank.

  9. manda says:

    I don’t have a problem with what he did at all. Did she research the person she was supposed to meet and flew across the country to meet AT ALL? Did anyone do any due diligence? It’s her fault for falling for it. Dummy. And no I don’t think he’s funny at all, but I’m sure a few google searches would have shown her the person he was playing didn’t exist

    • Wren says:

      That’s how I’m feeling. I don’t like Cohen much or think he’s all that funny, but getting duped by him in this day and age is pretty sad. Google exists. Social media exists. Background checks exist. An assistant taking 30 minutes out of their day to verify the credentials of this interviewer and show would have solved this problem before it even started. And the fact that she’s quoting “legit” a bunch makes me think that the initial message included it. If so, I’ve got some “totally legit” free money for ya, Sarah, all you have to do is send me a completely nominal processing fee and it’s yours!

  10. grabbyhands says:

    I can’t imagine she’s all that hard to dupe.

    Having said that, he’s a tool and really not that funny. Furthermore, this just plays right into the hands of the far right base. First, no one is checking for this tw*t or her daughter anymore, so all he’s really done is bring her right back to everybody’s attention. To make it worse, he drags in one of the right’s sacred cows (even of they are completely hypocritical about they way they use them), vets and uses it to embarrass her. I could care less about that, but this is going to get twisted into how clueless Hollywood types mocks veterans yada,yada,yada. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t true, that’s how it will be spun.

    It can’t be THAT hard to have social satire without giving the opposition ammunition.

  11. josephine says:

    How dare she pretend to care about veterans while belonging to the political party that consistently cuts health care and other benefits for veterans. She is such a hateful person. I don’t like the “pranks” either, but my wager is that what she really cares about is her own hide, and being embarrassed. She has consistently attacked people who showcase her own hypocrisy.

    • Wren says:

      Of course she only cares about herself. She’s got egg on her face and she’s steaming mad about that and nothing else.

    • Esmom says:

      Oh of course, she has zero regard for actual vets. Same with the vast majority of the GOP. That’s why Cohen seized on this, I’m sure, because their hypocrisy is astounding.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      “How dare she pretend to care about veterans while belonging to the political party that consistently cuts health care and other benefits for veterans.”

      Well said!!!!!!

  12. Erinn says:

    I’d say the very existence of her son mocks vets pretty well too.

    Allegedly being charged with (for cutting brake lines on buses and unplugging the heaters to allow them to start in the morning and causing a school cancelation because of all the crap they did) third-degree criminal mischief, first-degree criminal trespass and conspiracy to commit criminal mischief and fourth-degree theft and furnishing alcohol to a minor then shipped off to Michigan before joining the military to supposedly help get charges dropped isn’t exactly a selfless or brave reason to join the military.

    Then little prince Palin goes and beats on his girlfriend and threatens her with a rifle … which mommy then blames on Obama and heavily implies he did it because of PTSD … despite never seeing any combat and having some impressive levels of preferential treatment (he was in a combat zone and still has no combat decorations). He gets a plea deal and a slap on the wrist, and within a year he’s charged with assault on his father and everyone assumes (hey, it’s Alaska – no offense to anyone living there) that he’s methed up. And again comes the “ohhhh but PTSD” argument from mommy dearest.

    God I hate this family so much. They’re scum. I can’t even be bothered to use my go-to swear words with them because they’re not even worth it.

    • Esmom says:

      Well said. And I agree they’re not worth it. As much as Palin has angered me in the past the Palins seem like a pretty minor sideshow in the Circus of Deplorables we have running he country now. No one enrages me more than Don Jr these days.

  13. Eric says:

    You know it’s bad out there when people have lost a sense of humor.

    Everyone needs to take a step back and a deep breath. Lay off FakeBook for a while…it’s now legally data-mined by the FSB.

    And for the love of sanity, don’t defend Sarah Palin. It’s a prank. Relax.

    • Indiana Joanna says:

      Palin, Kid Rock and Ted Nugent gave the middle finger when they stood in front of Hillary’s portrait in the WH. This just after drump was sworn in as president.

      Sarah, you made yourself a joke by being so gleefully trashy.

    • Kitten says:

      This. Sorry but I just can’t muster up the energy to care about Palin’s hurt feelings.
      I don’t care if it’s funny or not.
      I don’t care if she is humiliated and angry.
      None of this matters when we have a dictatorship being formed in front of our eyes.

      • Esmom says:

        Agreed. As I said above she is a mere sideshow compared to the horrors happening now in DC.

  14. Aang says:

    Cohen is not funny at all and his pranks are just cringe worthy. I would not put Maher in that category. Maher has issues but I don’t think they cancel the way his show spotlights really important issues in a smart, funny, informative way.

    • Angela82 says:

      Agreed. I don’t like some of Maher’s shit (like use of n word) but he brings up some good points to try and educate people and I like his show and guests.

  15. Snowflake says:

    Go away! I can’t stand her and these conservatives with their disrespecting the veterans, oh the flag, the anthem, blah blah. So concerned about that stuff but they dont care about the people who live here. Just another way to play the victim. That’s their favorite thing, cry about how liberals are so mean to them because of their conservative Christian values. It was a frigging skit.

    Oh and btw, i tried to watch the 700 club to get insight on their views. They were talking about how there is no freedom of speech on campuses anymore and showed a few seconds of people protesting. At a Richard Spencer talk!!!!I recognized it because he was talking at a college here in my town. The university said they did not want to let him speak but he was saying he would sue them if he didn’t get to speak there. So there was footage of the protest on local TV. I emailed the 700 club to share my disgust.

    • Kitten says:

      I don’t understand how Spencer could have a case here. It’s a private university, correct? How do they have any obligation to provide a platform to people espousing hate and bigotry?

      Also, I think that people forget how costly it is to have these Nazis hold rallies at universities. The cost incurred for the extra security required to protect these controversial (to put it nicely) speakers creates more budget constraints and takes away money that could be more effectively used elsewhere like perhaps, to benefit the students that actually PAY tuition.

      These Nazis are just so f*cking entitled SMDH…

    • Snowflake says:

      It was the University of Florida. The school said he was threatening to sue them so they decided to allow him to speak. You can look it up if you google richard spencer Jacksonville. FL times union is our local paper.

    • Esmom says:

      Yeah, I followed the saga of Spencer at Michigan State last spring. The university was caught in a tough spot. They do not want to suppress free speech — which is why this narrative about free speech or conservative views being suppressed is such BS to me (see also Milo Y who cost Berkeley millions of dollars and untold stress and fear and showed up for about five minutes) — yet they don’t want any violence to break out. These deplorables are a real liability. I’m sickened by the Charlie Kirk types who perpetuate this garbage about campus “intolerance.”

    • magnoliarose says:

      This is exactly how they are. They are little fragile wee babies about everything because they think they are entitled to be catered to by everyone all the time. They don’t think they should be challenged.

  16. smcollins says:

    I can’t stand Palin so I couldn’t care less about her being duped and humiliated. She’s a vile woman and an idiot to boot, so no sympathy from me. But….impersonating a disabled vet for the purposes of shock comedy just feels wrong. Maybe you have to see it within the context of the show? I don’t know, even that doesn’t seem excusable enough. Maybe the fact that I’ve never understood the appeal of SBC is clouding my opinion. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

    • spargel says:

      Yeah, he’ll definitely get blowback about that on Twitter when the show airs. There Will Be Blogs. Mark me (and you).

  17. Neelyo says:

    I wonder if he ‘duped’ the Palins into saying something offensive and she’s trying to get ahead of the story.

    • kate says:

      You know she did. The whole family is trash.

    • whatWHAT? says:

      yeah, this.

      in his previous characters, he’s gotten people to say some pretty terrible things, and they then blame him for “making me say something like that!”.

      no, he just got you to admit how you really feel about things by outwitting you.

    • Lightpurple says:

      Apparently, “innocent public personalities” like Bristol were involved so an outright brawl would not surprise me

  18. Ms says:

    I cant believe I live in a world where Trump is President and Sarah Palin is right. So depressing.

  19. Insomniac says:

    Ugggghhhhh. WHY, Sacha? I don’t give a shit what you did to her but WHY did you have to give this babbling boil 15 more minutes of fame and attention? It was so nice when we weren’t hearing from her and I thought she’d finally faded back into irrelevant idiocy.

  20. Veronica S, says:

    Sarah, no need to get upset about how this made you look. We all already knew you were an idiot. And an irrelevant one at this point, at that.

  21. Lexilla says:

    For my own sanity I try to find glimmers of levity while our country burns. Today it’s the phrase “Wasilla fatwa.” Thank-you Kaiser!

  22. Tania says:

    Umm…how do we know Sarah’s version of events is the truth? I’m sure Sacha did disguise himself as a veteran and asked her difficult questions on how crappy this country treats veterans and her hypocritical stance towards them. Before we completely write off the show, let’s see it air first. I highly doubt, with how rah-rah this country is for superficially supporting the troops, it would find someone “making fun” of a veteran amusing. Sacha is smarter than that, Palin isn’t. This is her way of getting in front of the narrative that makes her and her ideology look bad.

    • Esmom says:

      Agreed. It’s a little unsettling that people seem willing to give her the benefit of the doubt over him. I’m no fan of Cohen but I recognize that he is a lot smarter than she is. Most people are smarter than she is.

    • Veronica S, says:

      I think his best work was Ali G. He was making a surprisingly deft point about social perception of certain behaviors or ethnic coding that goes unrecognized in our culture with those interviews. He got a shockingly lot of witty and insightful comments in on that show. Everything else…I’m not so sure about.

    • Neelyo says:

      Yeah really. It sounds like he was making fun of her and PLAYING a disabled veteran.

      Don’t believe anything this meth faced hillbilly says.

  23. Digital Unicorn says:

    Have never been a fan of SBC’s comedy but he is a very good actor.

  24. Harryg says:

    What the hell is a “fake wheelchair”?
    Hahahaha can’t wait to watch this. Palin is such a giant moron.

  25. Neelyo says:

    I don’t know why but I find the idea of the Palins being taken to the wrong airport very amusing for some reason.

  26. CairinaCat says:

    I LOVED him when he did his Ali G stuff
    This sounds pretty similar so I will most likely find this funny too.
    It’s very sharp political and social satire using people that are pieces of crap for the most part.

    And Sarah Palin and her stupid spawn Bristol are huge pieces of crap.
    Most likely he calls her out on her crap and gop’s shitty policy.
    But he calls out stupid, so if there is a hypocrite Dem they will get called out by him too.

  27. Liz version 700 says:

    This may be somewhat off topic, if so apologies; but hate and lunacy do not age well. She is looking rough. As for being “duped” hahaha.

  28. Tw says:

    When someone is blaming editing before it has even aired, you know it’s a doozy.

  29. Queen Frostine's Original Face says:

    Not to be THAT person, but I think the daughter Sarah was referring to was her 17 year old daughter, Piper. Both Bristol and her other daughter, Willow, are grown adults–in terms of numerical age, at least–and no longer live at home.

    More on topic: Here’s the OTHER time Sarah got pranked! So many great memories of this, and that time period–well, with hindsight, that is.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN3KUXWppNs

  30. minx says:

    Talk about a woman who needs a makeover, stat.

  31. Christina S. says:

    Her family is a joke, but I agree what he did by mocking a war vet is disgusting. I’ve never found him funny anyway.

  32. hogtowngooner says:

    Republicans love to talk a big game about “respect for the troops” but it’s all cosplay. Soldiers are nothing but pawns for needless wars and lecturing liberals.

    Did Sarah have anything to say about the military quietly discharging immigrant soldiers to weasel out of honoring their end of the bargain and granting a path to citizenship?

    • magnoliarose says:

      I agree with your post. Every single thing in it.
      The military’s treatment of immigrant soldiers is just another ugly thing to go on the list of horrible evil things this administration does.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      Great points, hogtowngooner!
      I don’t know why the general public still sees the GOP as the party that supports the troops. They spout talking points of support, but when it comes to actual policy, they try to cut benefits routinely.

  33. Yes Doubtful says:

    Borat was hilarious…and so was some of his Ali G stuff, but I hate this because Palin doesn’t need anymore of a platform than she already has.

  34. Anare says:

    People get pissy about his “sick” humor but all he is doing is holding a mirror up to society. If you don’t like the way that looks, don’t watch, but I’ll bet you are missing the point. SBC wishes to thank SP for the free publicity. LOL! Perfectly played SBC!