Sacha Baron Cohen reprized his Borat persona during a show following a ceremony in which George Clooney, Gladys Knight and U2 were honored by the Kennedy Center. He took the opportunity to mock Donald Trump, but also Kanye West (Ye, if you prefer) and targeted anti-Semitism.
He notably mentioned a dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Florida residence of Donald Trump in the presence of a Holocaust denier and Ye, who praised Hitler a few days ago and was banned from Twitter for having posted the image of the nazi swastika.
Borat, a fictional Kazakh television journalist coined by Sacha Baron Cohen, said he was genuinely irritated by the rise of anti-Semitism in the United States. ” It is not fair. Kazakhstan is the number one jew crushing country. Stop stealing our hobby,” he said afterwards, reports the British daily. The Guardian.
The character also quipped that Kanye West tried to immigrate to Kazakhstan, but wasn’t accepted because he was deemed too anti-Semitic by the country’s standards. He also parodied a U2 song by changing the lyrics to With or Without You for “with or without Jews”.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s performance sparked laughter and uneasiness in the room, according to The Guardian. President Joe Biden seemed to enjoy the satire, which clashed with an official event in Washington.
The ceremony held in the US capital on Sunday aimed to honor the careers and contributions of George Clooney, U2, soul singer Gladys Knight, songwriter Tania Leon and evangelical gospel singer Amy Grant.