Sacha Baron Cohen pranked a far-right rally Saturday in Olympia, Washington, with the actor — pretending to be a bluegrass artist — leading the crowd in a singalong to a tune with racist lyrics.
Social media accounts first revealed, and Variety later confirmed, that Baron Cohen was behind the hijinks at the “March for Our Rights 3” rally hosted by the far-right militia group Washington Three Percenters.
Holy shit 😂
Sacha Baron Cohen infiltrated the Washington 3% (local rightwing militia) event in Olympia a few minutes ago. A last-minute big donor paid to sponsor the event, and hire security… And then that security kept the organizers from getting on stage to stop Cohen. 😂 pic.twitter.com/mllLkKBcpZ
— Spek (@spekulation) June 27, 2020
According to reports, Baron Cohen first disguised himself as the wealthy head of a political action committee in order to infiltrate the event, then populated the rally with his own entertainment and security team. With his plan in place, Baron Cohen was able to execute his prank — which may or may not been filmed for his Showtime series Who Is America? — by severing organizers’ access to their own event.
In one video from the rally, Baron Cohen took the guise of a bluegrass artist and sang, “Obama, what we gonna do? Inject him with the Wuhan flu. Hillary Clinton, what we gonna do? Lock her up like we used to do. Fauci don’t know his head from his ass. He must be smoking grass. I ain’t lying, it ain’t no jokes. Corona is a liberal hoax. Dr. Fauci, what we gonna do? Inject him with the Wuhan flu. WHO, what we gonna do? Chop ’em up like the Saudis do,” with some in the crowd gleefully singing along.
https://twitter.com/InsideASCIF/status/1277102477658161153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1277102477658161153%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rollingstone.com%2Fculture%2Fculture-news%2Fsacha-baron-cohen-far-right-rally-prank-1021609%2F
The stunt was reminiscent to a segment from Da Ali G Show, where Baron Cohen — as his character Borat — similarly sang a racist song to expose the bigotry of his audience:
After Baron Cohen pulled his prank Saturday, the actor reportedly returned to the scene of his hoax — in yet another disguise — and helped interview the Three Percenters organizers about what exactly transpired; Baron Cohen is pictured below holding a camera alongside a man who ultimately conducted the interview:
The Washington Three Percenters said in a statement Saturday of Baron Cohen’s prank, “We of the WA3% were appalled at the performance of an entertainer adorned in clown-face, who — much to our group’s mutual repugnance — voiced a series of racist and antisemitic jokes and songs, while on the stand. This display of disgusting antics was neither condoned nor accepted by WA3%, and we disavow any affiliation with this lamentable individual.”
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
