YMMV / Who Is America?

• Crosses the Line Twice: Convincing a then serving United States state representative in Georgia (he has resigned, no guesses as to why) to drop his pants and scream the N-word on camera is only the tip of the iceberg. The shit Baron Cohen gets up to in this series makes Borat look positively subdued.
• Funny Moments: Baron Cohen's pranks on Jason Spencer are usually agreed to be the funniest bit of the show.
• Heartwarming Moments: Bizarrely, the Rick Sherman segments, which involve Baron Cohen playing an ex-con who keeps exploring artistic avenues. Nearly every thing he attempts is meant with support by whoever he's talking to, even when his art is intentionally made to disturb. For example, Rick meets a woman at an art gallery and presents her with his paintings that are "made with" his own feces and ejaculate. And a paintbrush of pubic hair that he collects from famous artists. The woman, though clearly put-off by it all, is nevertheless extremely encouraging, even graciously offering her own pubic hair to be included in the brush.
• Memetic Mutation: Being a Sacha Baron Cohen production, this was an inevitability:
  • "Show me the buttock."
  • "'MERICA!"
  • "My mouth is big enough for two of these!"
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Jason Spencer actually resigned after he willingly allowed Baron Cohen to make a fool of him on air. This is certainly not the first time Baron Cohen has provoked an openly bigoted person into expressing racist views on camera, but it's definitely the first time he's done it to a politician and gotten the guy removed from office.
  • Baron Cohen has massive brass balls for not losing his cool or breaking character in the Kingman segment, even when he's outnumbered and surrounded by openly hostile guys openly hurling racist abuse at him. In a funny way, the fact that he's dressed as a schlubby, out-of-shape balding liberal professor makes it even more awesome.
  • The show actually includes a couple segments where the target caught on to what Baron Cohen was doing and refused to play along, which just makes the likes of Spencer look even worse for being so easily goaded into showing their racism.
  • Bernie Sanders gets one because he calmly and rationally argues against Ruddick's idiotic beliefs on welfare.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Kingman segment with Dr. Nira Cain-N'Degeocello. He proposes building a supersized Mosque in the town and is met with extremely hostile Islamophobia, one man even explicitly saying "I'm racist against Muslims" after Dr. Nira said that he didn't want to imply that anyone there was racist. Another man angrily says that, and we stress that this is a direct quote, "black people aren't welcome in Kingman either, but we tolerate them." He adds that, had they been allowed to bring weapons to the meeting, then it would have been a different story all together. On a scripted Cringe Comedy show, this would be one thing, but the fact that these are real people and their reactions are genuine is chilling.
  • One segment had to be cut from the show for being possible evidence of an actual, horrific crime: Cohen said in an interview that while filming a segment as Gio (an Italian billionaire playboy who constantly implies to engage in acts of debauchery) at a hotel in Las Vegas, he admitted to molesting an eight year old boy, believing it would drive the concierge from the room. To his horror, the concierge started advising him on how to cover up the issue and even offered to find another "date" for that night, claiming he knew people who could find children for him. Cohen was so disturbed that he decided to turn the footage over to the FBI, believing it to be evidence of a possible pedophile ring operating in Las Vegas. To make things worse, the FBI inexplicably decided not to pursue it.
• One-Scene Wonder: Among the guests, Bernie Sanders (already notable for his insane popularity) stands out for not being played for a fool by Sacha (as Billy Ruddick), instead coming across as the Only Sane Man faced with Billy's Insane Troll Logic.
• Win Back the Crowd: After his film career had taken a downturn of sorts with the poorly-received Grimsby and Alice Through the Looking Glass, fans of Baron Cohen have responded more positively to this series, and it is usually considered, at the very least, a welcome return to his particular brand of vulgar mischief.

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