Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Who Is America?” Shows You The Underbelly of America
Sacha Baron Cohen isn’t a modern troll. He’s a classical Shakespearean Fool, who uses intelligence to play a fool that reveals a reality.
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You may have heard that notorious prank-satirist Sacha Baron Cohen, star of Da Ali G Show, Borat, Bruno, and The Dictator, has a new show. You may have also heard that this new show, titled Who Is America? has put many of the politicians who agreed to appear on it in, shall we say, compromising situations. Multiple congressman, current and past, drew flak after appearing in an infomercial arguing for a program to protect elementary schools from shootings by arming children. A Georgia politician was forced to resign after exposing himself (literally) while yelling racist remarks. The list is growing.
Early reviews for the show was a mix of disbelief and kudos, with a single question being the common theme between them: What exactly is the point of all of this? Critics argue that Cohen’s brand of comedy just continues to fuel partisan outrage, furthering America’s political divide, and that even if you look past that, the show doesn’t provide any helpful solutions or insights. It’s a fairly common criticism of works of satire, which is a flawed line of thinking. Why is it on artists and creatives to also come up with solutions?
This sentiment existed back in 1964, finding itself attached to Stanley Kubrick’s satirical masterpiece Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. In one review:
“Dr. Strangelove was clearly intended as a cautionary movie: it meant to jolt us awake to the dangers of the bomb by showing us the insanity of the course we were pursuing. But artists’ warnings about war and the dangers of total annihilation never tell us how we are supposed to regain control, and Dr. Strangelove.”
In a half-century anniversary review of the film, the New Yorker responded:
“Why should a popular artist have any obligation to propose ‘sane’ solutions to an intolerable situation? Surely it’s enough to expose with overwhelming comic energy the contradictions and paradoxes of ‘mutual assured destruction.’ Sane actions are the…
