Sacha Baron Cohen’s new satirical vehicle Who is America? aired on July 15th last. It has been met with some mixed reviews – undeniably clever, adroit and often very funny – yet the Independent remarked ‘unveiling Republicans’ hidden racism always makes for entertaining moments, but it’s a bit like shooting fish in a barrel.”
The first instalment saw Baron Cohen play a character called Erran Morad, an Israeli anti-terrorism expert. Morad confronts various congressmen and gun lobbyists and successfully advocates for ‘Kinderguardians’, a programme that purports to arm pre-schoolers with guns. The pasquinade seems to have gone unnoticed by most of the people interviewed. Yes, dark and shockingly funny. But was it just plain shocking?
There is something uncomfortable about satire in these dark times, bit like a scheduled colonoscopy or root canal surgery, essential but hardly enjoyable.
Back in 1998, Baron Cohen’s other character Ali G seemed just as punchy yet a little lighter maybe by virtue of the fact that the 90s offered a relative remission from wars and global unrest. Back then the biggest threats were probably acid rain and the ozone layer, remember them?
In the most recent episode, Erran Morad interviews former Alabama judge and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore and demonstrates a new device invented by the Israeli army to detect paedophiles. A difficult subject to address, and hard to sit comfortably and luxuriate in the humour of it.
Perhaps the problem is that the truth nowadays is in fact stranger than the satire being presented? It seems that every day we are faced with a new situation in American politics and easier to think that the satire just writes itself.
This week, a new level of disturbance emerged where we are equipped with the following information that we can never unknow – that ‘Bigfoot erotica’ is a thing. What a time to be alive.
From my opponent Denver Riggleman’s Bigfoot erotica collection. pic.twitter.com/ELe0TWJh21
— Leslie Cockburn (@LeslieCockburn) July 29, 2018
Leslie Cockburn, a Democratic congressional nominee in Virginia and Denver Riggleman, her Republican opponent, are competing for a seat in the Fifth Congressional District of Virginia.
Cockburn accused Riggleman, in a tweet on Sunday night of “campaigning with white supremacists and being a devotee of Bigfoot erotica.” Yes she did. Riggleman admitted to indeed being the author of several publications on Bigfoot yet stated that in no way was the content of a pornographic nature. The best team of comedy writers could not come up with that! It even surpasses the satirical inventiveness of Baron Cohen or Chris Morris of Brass Eye fame.
Satire and political satire have always been around – from Aesop’s fables – yes originally devised to address social, religious and moral issues in society – to Alexander Pope, George Orwell, even Jane Austen and a plethora of stand-up comedians.
None more apt, than the brilliant ‘Yes Minster’ and ‘Yes Prime Minster’ that have come to perfectly mirror Brexit. One scene – originally from the episode The Writing On The Wall, which first aired in March 1980, sees Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne) attempting to explain Britain’s relationship with the European Union to government minister Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington):
We tried to break it up from the outside, but that wouldn’t work,’ he adds, before triumphantly concluding: ‘Now that we’re inside we can make a complete pig’s breakfast of the whole thing”
Stunningly accurate, don’t you think?
Maybe what we need is escapism, our TV viewing experience to be one of comfort and mollification, a soothing salve, a virtual hug from the world? But for now, it seems that there is little difference between satire and reality.
