Sacha Baron Cohen has done it again. The writer, actor and comedian appeared as part of a rally in Olympia, Washington over the weekend organised by far-right group the Washington Three Percenters, posing as a racist country singer.
After reaching out to the event’s organisers offering to provide entertainment for the event, the Borat creator offered to cover the costs of the staging and production costs. In disguise with overalls and a fake beard, Cohen led a singalong that referenced injecting Barack Obama, Dr. Anthony Fauci, “mask wearers” and more with the “Wuhan flu”.
Encouraging the audience to sing along with him, event organisers eventually figured out what was happening and attempted to short Cohen’s equipment by cutting the generator – but his stage security prevented them from doing so.
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
After the audience were made aware of what was happening, Cohen and his backing band made a speedy exit, evacuating the site via a private ambulance that had been positioned nearby. Cohen reportedly returned later on, in a different disguise, interviewing the event’s organisers about what took place.
Cohen is yet to publicly comment on the stunt, and it’s not clear at this stage whether it’s part of a larger project. Certainly, it would comfortably sit with the rest of the material on Cohen’s Who Is America? political satire series.
You can watch a video of Cohen leading the singalong, and one of the event organisers discussing the incident, below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9GrLPWmfQI
