I just watched a few of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Who is America” skits. And while the episodes with Jason Spencer and Dick Cheney were undeniably brilliant, I was disappointed with Cohen for how he staged the Bernie Sanders and Ted Koppel segments. Whereas with Spencer and Cheney, Cohen played someone who was on their side (to get them comfortable enough to reveal their true natures), with Sanders and Koppel he played someone arguing AGAINST them. Thus, he didn’t challenge or “set up” Sanders or Koppel like he did Cheney and Spencer.
Now, I’m an unabashed democratic lefty. But I still would have preferred to see an equal-opportunity duping. We still have no way of knowing whether Sanders or Koppel would have fallen for, or would have been baited by Cohen in the same manner, and end up doing something extreme. Cohen made them look smarter than their republican counterparts, and it might not be apparent to most viewers that it was because he didn’t use the same formula with them. For instance, he could have tried to get Sanders to endorse a plan of withdrawing money from upper-income people’s accounts to pay for free housing for illegal immigrants. Or he could have gotten Koppel to rank Al Jazeera higher than Fox News (although frankly, I would).
Having said that, Cheney was downright scary.