Mr. Cohen’s Showtime series, “Who Is America,” has used deception to embarrass G. O. P. figures, similar to the way Mr. O’Keefe’s Project Veritas has targeted liberals.
A provocateur, under false pretenses, tries to get people of various backgrounds, from everyday Americans to sitting lawmakers, to make embarrassing comments on camera. In this case, we’re not talking about James O’Keefe, the conservative activist who has used hidden cameras and false identities to target institutions including The Washington Post, The New York Times, the community organizing group Acorn and Planned Parenthood.
We’re referring to the newest series from Sacha Baron Cohen, a comedian known for foisting outlandish characters on unsuspecting victims.
By now, you’ve likely heard of Mr. Cohen’s latest work, on Showtime: “Who Is America?” which premiered last week to mixed reviews. Following in the footsteps of his previous characters Borat, Ali G and Brüno, Mr. Cohen created several new alter egos. His newest marks have included an actual former vice president (Dick Cheney), a former vice-presidential candidate (Sarah Palin), Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Roy S. Moore, the former Alabama chief justice and Senate candidate, along with other current and former legislators.
The show has been met with scorn from some corners, especially from some who were fooled like Ms. Palin, but others have taken the pranking in stride.
“Who Is America?” has also sparked a conversation about the ethics of deception. And since Mr. Cohen’s most biting sketches so far — including one about arming children with guns, and another on Sunday night that embarrassed a Georgia legislator — have been aimed at Republicans, more than a few people have called him a mirror version of Mr. O’Keefe, who has delighted conservatives and infuriated liberals with his tactics.
Mr. O’Keefe himself has gleefully seized on the comparison.
He said in an email, referring to the name of his operation, “It is hypocritical to deride Project Veritas’s ethics using undercover techniques, and then gloss over the same exact tactic Cohen has repeatedly used to commercial success.”
How similar are Mr. O’Keefe and Mr. Cohen? We explore that question and more in our primer below.
The first episode opened with Mr. Sanders being interviewed by Dr. Billy Wayne Ruddick of Truthbrary.org (a conspiracy website created by the show), who was in reality a heavily made-up Mr. Cohen, sitting in a motorized scooter. Mr. Sanders was less embarrassed than befuddled, especially when Mr. Cohen began talking about moving every American into the 1 percent.
As Dr. Nira Cain-N’Degeocello, a ponytailed liberal caricature with an NPR T-shirt and a Twitter feed created in April, Mr. Cohen has dinner with the Trump supporters Mark and Jane Page Thompson, “a couple who suffer from white privilege,” who politely listen to him talk about his bizarre methods of raising his children, named Harvey Milk and Malala.
Christy Cones, of the Coast Gallery in Laguna Beach, Calif., sat down with Mr. Cohen as he played an ex-convict looking to launch an art career. His “art” consisted of using body waste in prison to make portraits. At Mr. Cohen’s urging, Ms. Cones did some, um, clipping to provide him some bodily materials for his brush.
The highlight — or lowlight, depending on who is reacting — involved the Cohen character Col. Erran Morad, an Israeli “antiterror expert” who appears to be comfortable with growth hormones. He duped several politicians and gun rights activists into making public service announcements for an initiative that would arm children as young as 3. One, Philip Van Cleave, head of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, even taped an instructional video — complete with silly graphics — aimed to teach preschoolers to be “kinderguardians.”
The victims in the second episode, which aired on Sunday night, included Mr. Cheney, who signed a “waterboard kit” (a water jug, later put up for sale on eBay); Ted Koppel; Corinne Olympios, a former contestant on “The Bachelor”; and Jason Spencer, a Republican state representative in Georgia.
Mr. Spencer, who had proposed a bill that would have banned Muslims from wearing veils in public, was fooled into taking part in what he believed was antiterrorism training. Mr. Cohen, playing the Morad character again, was able to persuade Mr. Spencer to shout a racial epithet repeatedly and drop his pants by telling him they would help stop a terrorist attack.
Several of Mr. Cohen’s marks have publicly discussed how they were fooled. Mr. Koppel told The Hollywood Reporter that he was asked to participate in a Showtime project called “Age of Reason.” A man — Mr. Cohen — showed up at his home in a wheelchair “with an oxygen tank hanging off one of the handles.” He took pity on the man until he began arguing with Mr. Koppel about the size of President Trump’s inauguration crowd. Mr. Koppel asked the crew to leave, saying, “This is a waste of time.”
Ms. Cones also rolled with the prank, telling The Washington Post that she had been invited to take part in a British reality show. “It’s nice to have some comic relief,” she said.
Others were less forgiving.
In a statement, Mr. Spencer said that he was put in a “kidnapping scenario” and “repeatedly asked to shout provocative language.” He said Mr. Cohen had exploited his real fear of being attacked, as he had been receiving death threats over his proposed legislation. He also threatened legal action against Showtime — and said Mr. Cohen’s “deceptive and fraudulent behavior is exactly why President Donald Trump was elected.”
Ms. Palin, whose interview has yet to air (neither has Mr. Moore’s), said in a Facebook post that Mr. Cohen had invited her to take part in a segment honoring veterans for a Showtime documentary, and that Mr. Cohen pretended to be a disabled veteran in a wheelchair — a characterization Showtime disputed in a statement.
“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,” Ms. Palin wrote.
Mr. Rohrabacher and Mr. Walsh, of the “kinderguardians” segment, both described being approached by someone claiming to be from an Israeli television crew looking to interview supporters of Israel for a program about the 70th anniversary of the country’s founding. Mr. Walsh provided emails to The Times that shed some light into Mr. Cohen’s approach. Here’s one:
Mr. Walsh said in a phone interview that Mr. Cohen’s team went as far as to charter a limousine for him, provide hair and makeup for the on-camera appearance, as well as present him with an actual award that lauded Mr. Walsh for “significant contributions to the state of Israel.”
It depends on how you look at it, and like much in America today, the answer falls along party lines.
Their tactics and aims are somewhat different. Mr. O’Keefe often operates with undercover cameras, sending in people playing characters like a pregnant woman (to Planned Parenthood) or a prostitute (to Acorn), to try to entrap their workers into discussing improper or potentially illegal activities. His participants don’t realize they are being filmed, which is not the case with Mr. Cohen’s work.
Mr. O’Keefe also seems more interested in tearing down institutions than merely embarrassing them, as Mr.
