Sacha Baron Cohen Pranked A Far-Right Rally By Pretending To Be A Racist Country Singer
He performed a song crammed full of far-right conspiracy theories, and called to lock up Hillary Clinton.
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen infiltrated a far-right rally in Washington over the weekend by pretending to be a racist country singer.
Cohen reportedly contacted organisers — the far-right group Washington Three Percenters — a week ago, offering to provide sponsorship and entertainment for the event. He’d provide his own production and staging, and even his own security detail.
Needless to say, it was a somewhat unwelcome surprise to organisers when Cohen — dressed in a red skivvy and blue overalls, fake beard, and a gigantic hat — proceeded to play a song that referenced a number of far-right and racist conspiracies, from the coronavirus being a hoax, to it being created in a lab in Wuhan, to threatening to “inject [Obama] with the Wuhan flu”.
It gets worse: “Obama what we gonna do/Inject him with the Wuhan flu,” he sang in the chorus. “Hillary Clinton what we gonna do/Lock her up like we used to do/W H O what we gonna do/Chop them up like the Saudis do.”
Dressed as a hillbilly, Sasha Baron Cohen infiltrated a rally being held by “The Washington State Three Percenters” – a right wing militia group — and took over the stage.
I’m crying…pic.twitter.com/cIydi6kqWh
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) June 28, 2020
This post is by a city council member in Yelm, Washington. Earlier this afternoon, Sacha Baron Cohen crashed the event of Washington 3% – a right-wing group of armed insurrectionists and white supremacists – in Olympia.
I look forward to the video… pic.twitter.com/zilUA2zJQU
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 28, 2020
Organisers quickly clocked what was going on, but were prevented from pulling Cohen off stage by his own security. A scuffle apparently ensued, and Cohen and his crew fled — although Cohen reportedly returned later on in another disguise.
“So last minute, we had a man added by the production company who was sponsoring the event who we never worked with before. We didn’t know anything about the band,” an organiser for the Washington State Three Percenters said after the incident.
“About halfway through that set there were pretty racist and divisive lyrics. And we tried to find the production manager immediately. The production managers both already left.”
Funnily enough, that interview was apparently being filmed by Cohen himself.
Yo he came back after they chased him out. He was actually filming this interview 😭 pic.twitter.com/6SgIIaenWH
— John McRae (@YourSoundBae) June 28, 2020
Cohen hasn’t publicly commented on the prank yet, but we’re guessing there’s a good chance it’ll find a place on his political satire TV series, Who Is America?.
Watch footage of Cohen performing the song below, with the interview with an organiser at the end.