12 TV Shows That Don't Live Up To Great Premises
9. Who Is America?
If timing is the most important thing in comedy, then perhaps the greatest skill is learning when to end a joke. When Sacha Baron Cohen returned to the small screen with another character-based spoof-interview show, expectations were high. His earlier work as Ali G provided some of the best celebrity stitch ups in comedy history, and the world has only got more daft since then.
Who Is America? turned out a disappointment, for various reasons. Baron Cohen didn’t seem able to get the same kind of incendiary material out of his subjects as he once did. Perhaps folk are more cagey than they once were, expecting an ambush in the internet age. Or perhaps the performer’s celebrity preceded him, and his subjects saw through his flimsy disguises.
More damning were his new characters – a conspiracy theorist, an overly woke lecturer, an excitable YouTuber. Easy targets all, none of them could live up to the majesty of Borat, or even Bruno.
Returning to your roots can be a winning format, but all Baron Cohen brought to the table was the same old stuff, only not as good.