8 Comedians Who Received Serious Death Threats For Their Jokes

4. Sacha Baron Cohen

Never one to shy away from controversy (nor go two weeks without seeking it out), Sacha Baron Cohen made his fame by hate-baiting his way into prominence. He's compared abortion to Burger King (because you shouldn't knock something until you try it), interviewed neo-Nazis under the guise of a gay reporter, and sung a Kazakhstani version of the US National Anthem at a rodeo. But none of those stunts got him as much heat as one scene from 2009's Bruno, in which, in character as the flamboyantly gay Austrian, attempts to get himself kidnapped by the leader of a Palestinian terrorist organization, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. During the course of an interview with the organization's apparent leader, Ayman Abu Aita, Baron Cohen pleads for Aita to kidnap him, believing it will make him famous. He also insults Osama bin Laden, likening him to a "dirty lizard" or "homeless Santa." Unsurprisingly, a spokesman for the Martyrs' Brigades, which has been responsible for dozens of suicide bombings, responded by saying the group was "very upset" with how they were portrayed in the movie, and maintained "the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man." Hint: That's code for "We will kill or permanently maim him."