It's likely Trump will be the butt of Cohen's jokes in the Borat sequel. Photos / Getty Images
It's likely Trump will be the butt of Cohen's jokes in the Borat sequel. Photos / Getty Images
British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's controversial sequel to Borat is set to be released right before the US election on November 3.
It's a bold move from the actor, as the sequel is expected to focus largely on the current state of American politics, with an emphasis on President Donald Trump.
The movie is a follow-up to the 2006 satirical documentary that featured Baron Cohen as Borat Sagdiyev, a fictitious journalist from Kazakhstan travelling around America.
Cohen, 48, filmed the new movie in secret, after the Covid-19 pandemic turned ugly in the US. With movie theatres in the country shut down, streaming giant Amazon Prime has gained the rights.
The title of the sequel will be Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm.
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat. Photo / Supplied
The new film is expected to again feature Borat Sagdiyev and focus on US politics and the run-up to the election during the pandemic.
In June, Baron Cohen gatecrashed a right-wing event in Washington while posing as a racist country singer – encouraging the crowd to sing along to his lyrics about liberals getting "chopped up" or "injected with the Wuhan flu".
The actor tricked organisers while dressed as a pot-bellied singer in denim dungarees and a cowboy hat.
Taking to the stage, he got the audience to sing along to some extreme lyrics. Organisers said a team of armed security guards had to stop them.
He also sang about "sushi eaters" – and "Chinese people," singing that they should "nuke them up like in World War II". Watch below:
Dressed as a hillbilly, Sasha Baron Cohen infiltrated a rally being held by “The Washington State Three Percenters” - a right wing militia group — and took over the stage.
"Hillary Clinton, what we gonna do? Lock her up like we used to do," he sang – while joking that Bill Gates' manhood was "micro soft".
The event organiser Matt Marshall said they "tried to pull the plug" on the "incredibly racist song," but said Cohen's team included "four armed-security on the generator, so we couldn't even cut the power".
While the Three Percenters' chapter – a group founded by longtime militiaman Michael Brian Vanderboegh – said it was "appalled" with the "clown-face" comedian who sparked "repugnance", people on Twitter weren't convinced.
"If it was so 'racist' to them, why were people clapping along until they realised he was trolling? Hmm," one asked.
I love that over a decade after filming Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen can still go to America and hold up a mirror to who republicans really are... pic.twitter.com/pvQ7vXEmRX
The actor also attempted to prank Donald Trump's lawyer in July this year.
The former New York mayor and Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, went to the Mark Hotel for what he thought was a serious interview about the administration's response to Covid-19. He said he was offered payment for the interview, and asked that the money be donated to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
Giuliani ended up calling the police when Baron Cohen – wearing a spangly pink bikini – tried to prank him into a spoof interview.
He told the New York Post: "This guy comes running in, wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit.
"It was a pink bikini, with lace, underneath a translucent mesh top, it looked absurd. He had the beard, bare legs, and wasn't what I would call distractingly attractive."
Giuliani, 76, said he didn't immediately recognise the gatecrasher as Cohen.
"This person comes in yelling and screaming, and I thought this must be a scam or a shakedown, so I reported it to the police. He then ran away."
"I only later realised it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen," Giuliani said. "I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn't get me."
Other sources said Cohen was spotted running out of the Upper East Side hotel – a favourite with celebrities and the scene of Meghan Markle's 2019 baby shower – and down the street wearing just a bathrobe but was not apprehended by police, who did arrive to investigate.
• The Borat sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm screens on Amazon Prime Video in New Zealand from October 23.
