…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
As Sacha Baron Cohen was being honored November 9, 2013, at the Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award For Excellence In Comedy, he, channeling Chaplin, slipped and pushed Grace Collington, 87, an actress who appeared with Charlie Chaplin in 1931″²s City Lights at the age of five, off the stage.
Sacha Baron Cohen “Kills” Award Presenter at Britannia Awards:
via BBC America
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Admiral General Aladeen Spills Kim Jong-Il’s Ashes On Ryan Seacrest [UPDATE]
news.moviefone.com
February 26, 2012
After days of back and forth about whether or not Sacha Baron Cohen would be allowed to show up on the Oscars red carpet dressed as his character from “The Dictator,” the comic appeared at the 84th annual Academy Awards in full dictatorial regalia — and proceeded to prank E! red carpet host Ryan Seacrest.
Cohen — who plays Admiral General Aladeen, a deposed North African dictator who comes to America, in the upcoming comedy — walked the red carpet with two statuesque models before stopping to talk with Seacrest.
“I’m wearing John Galliano, but the socks are from K-Mart,” Cohen quipped; he said he was holding an urn of “Kim Jong-Il’s ashes.” He then spilled the urn on a shocked Seacrest, before being whisked away by security.
As Seacrest told Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith after the Cohen interview, the urn was likely filled with powdered pancake mix.
Sacha Baron Cohen Oscar Ban: Admiral General Aladeen Responds After Academy Award Tickets Revoked
Huffington Post
February 24, 2012
How many pun-filled dictator jokes can Sacha Baron Cohen fit in a minute-and-a-half video? A lot, apparently.
After rumors surfaced that Cohen was banned from walking this year’s Oscars red carpet dressed as Admiral General Aladeen — the satirical despotic character from his upcoming movie “The Dictator” — the Academy Awards released a statement claiming that no such decision had been made regarding the star’s tickets. (He is — was? — originally coming to this year’s show in support of his role in Best Picture nominee “Hugo.”)
Continue reading “Sacha Baron Cohen as Admiral General Aladeen, Live Today on the Today Show”
Palestinian files $110M libel suit over ‘Bruno’
1010WINS
by Brett Zongker
December 9, 2009
In this Sunday, June 21, 2009 file photo, British actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays the part of Bruno, poses in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin as part of promotional activities of the movie “Bruno.” A Palestinian shopkeeper and father portrayed as a terrorist in the movie “Bruno” is suing film star Sacha Baron Cohen, David Letterman and others for libel and slander. The lawsuit filed last week by Ayman Abu Aita in District of Columbia federal court seeks $110 million in damages.
Read the whole article here.
‘Bruno’ brutally funny
by Zachary Woodruff
SignOnSanDiego.com (The Union Tribune)
July 10, 2009
Baron Cohen’s latest prank scores without the cruelty of ‘Borat’
If you look up the word “prank,” among the older definitions is this one: “A trick to make people stare.” Thanks to movies like “Bruno,” comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to “Borat,” a newer definition would have to add “or look away.” Prepare to squirm, or worse: As one of the subjects/victims in the film’s myriad setups says after falling prey to Cohen’s antics, “I wanted to poke my eyes out with hot needles.”
My own reaction also involved pain, not to the eyes so much as the stomach: “Bruno” is laugh-out-loud, sucker-punch-in-the-gut funny. With a comedic barrage of shock, irony, slapstick and ongoing discomfort, you probably won’t know what’s hit you, and you’ll likely lose your balance. Especially during a full-screen full-frontal of what in this case could appropriately be called a tallywhacker. (You’ve been warned.)
Obscenitywise, “Bruno” charts new territory. How much were members of the ratings board paid off to give this movie an “R”? (For a lesson in how far standards can sink in 20 years, look up 1990’s tame “Henry & June,” the first major NC-17 film.) But there’s intelligence and discipline behind the madness. Cohen and his collaborators, including director Larry Charles (the whiz behind “Seinfeld”), have refined their guerrilla game and learned a lesson their previous social experiment, “Borat,” lacked: That it’s enough to make fools out of people without being cruel. No need to call a man’s wife ugly at the dinner table. Let people humiliate themselves on their own. Continue reading ““Bruno” Reviewed”