Sacha Baron Cohen versus USA
WHO IS AMERICA? CHANNEL 4, TODAY, 10PM
THERE can be little doubt that when it comes to skewering the pomposities and foibles of the not-sogreat and definitely-notgood, Sacha Baron Cohen is truly in a league of his own.
From the moment he brought us his first demented creation, the hapless rapper Ali G, Baron Cohen has adopted a variety of disguises, in turns inspired or deliberately ridiculous, to ask people stupid questions in the hope of receiving even more stupid answers.
It’s an almost unbearably delicate process and when it works, such as Borat getting a bunch of oblivious Americans to sing ‘Throw The Jew Down The Well’, it works brilliantly – and also demands a huge amount of physical courage from the comedian.
When it doesn’t work, such as the invariably ill-judged gay Austrian fashion designer Bruno, it just comes across as trite and remarkably mean spirited.
In the absence of any advance previews, it’s hard to know which direction Who Is America? (Channel 4, tonight, 10pm) will take.
But if the reports of his ill-fated encounter with Sarah Palin are anything to go by, there’ll be more of the latter than the former.
The reliably ridiculous Palin, a woman who found herself promoted so far beyond her ability that she destroyed an entire segment of the Republican Party, has condemned Baron Cohen for pretending to be a disabled soldier and if there’s one thing the Yanks don’t like, it’s mocking the wounded vets (you could also make the point if they were really that concerned they would devote more healthcare to them, but that’s for another day).
The publicity generated by that frosty Palin encounter certainly provided plenty of advance column inches, and even people who are normally fans of the style thought he was bang out of order. But then again, he also managed to get Dick Cheney to sign his own personal water boarding kit (an empty bottle of mineral water) so it remains as it always was with Sacha Baron Cohen – you wade through the dross in the knowledge that there will something memorable coming down the pipe...
The most sobering documentary on the domestic channels this week is undoubtedly tomorrow night’s My Broken Brain (RTÉ One, 9.35pm)
We usually gloss over statistics whenever we see them, but the fact that 700,000 people suffer from some neurological condition in this country is truly shocking.
This film talks to four people suffering from various conditions Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, motor neurone disease and Parkinson’s, and follows them as they undergo tests, therapy and, in some cases, surgery.