Sarah Palin alleges she got "duped" by Sacha Baron Cohen to appear on comedian's show Who Is America?

Sacha Baron Cohen is a highly polarising figure in comedy. The actor-writer-comedian has, throughout his career, offended a number of people on all sides of the political, religious and national spectrum. Cohen, who is returning with a new political prank show titled Who Is America? , has already ruffled feathers of big American politicians even before the show’s premiere.

Who Is America? has been a year in the making with the Borat and Ali G star disguising himself to dupe unsuspecting people. In his new show, Cohen is going after powerful US political figures. The first teaser for Who is America? showed former US Vice President Dick Cheney happily autographing a “waterboarding kit” while being unaware of the notorious comedian’s presence.

Now, in a lengthy Facebook post, Sarah Palin has confessed she got “duped” by Cohen. The former Vice Presidential nominee slammed Cohen for the tactics he used to convince her to take part in his program. “Yup — we were duped. Ya got me, Sacha. Feel better now? I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive, sick ‘humour’ of the British ‘comedian’ Sacha Baron Cohen, enabled and sponsored by CBS/Showtime,” she said.

Palin wrote that she had been approached via a speakers bureau with a “legit opportunity” to honour American war veterans as part of a “legit Showtime historical documentary”. She further wrote, “For my interview, my daughter and I were asked to travel across the country where Cohen (I presume) had heavily disguised himself as a disabled US veteran, fake wheelchair and all. Out of respect for what I was led to believe would be a thoughtful discussion with someone who had served in uniform, I sat through a long ‘interview’ full of Hollywoodism’s disrespect and sarcasm — but finally had enough and literally, physically removed my mic and walked out, much to Cohen’s chagrin. The disrespect of our US military and middle-class Americans via Cohen’s foreign commentaries under the guise of interview questions was perverse.” Palin, who termed Cohen as ‘shallow Sacha boy’, asked him to air the footage and wrote, “experience tells us it will be heavily edited, not pretty, and intended to humiliate”. Palin issued Cohen a challenge: to donate to a charitable group “that actually respects and supports American Vets”. “Mock politicians and innocent public personalities all you want, if that lets you sleep at night, but HOW DARE YOU mock those who have fought and served our country. Truly sick,” she further wrote. Palin went on to allege that Cohen’s production team purposely dropped her and her daughter off at the wrong Washington DC airport which resulted in them missing their flight. “Feel good and manly about your M.O, Sacha? By the way, my daughter thinks you’re a piece of ****, Sacha. Every honourable American Vet should feel the same,” she wrote at the end.