Last month Joe Arpaio — the Arizona sheriff best known for presiding over a jail he proudly called a “concentration camp” and receiving a pardon from Trump — revealed that he was one of the conservative figures pranked for Sacha Baron Cohen’s show. Talking to Breitbart, Arpaio recalled how he was told he’d appear alongside a Finnish comedian broadcast live to 2 million people, and the resulting interview included what Arpaio called “highly appropriate” language that made him uncomfortable.
“He came up with certain words that were hard for me to hear,” Arpaio said. “I felt uncomfortable with some of the words they were using but I had to live through it. I am not the type of guy who gets up and walks out.” Arpaio also admitted on a local radio show that he thought he “made a mistake” and was “really concerned that I walked into this trap” — a trap that we all got to see when last night’s episode of Who Is America? aired.
During Arpaio’s appearance — where Baron Cohen introduced a new character (a Finnish YouTube unboxer named “OMGWhizzBoyOMG”) — he didn’t exactly appear as uncomfortable as previously described. “So I’m going to unbox this Shopkin! While I’m doing that, why not tell me about what communists are trying to do to stop people having guns?” Baron Cohen said, which ultimately led to Arpaio telling a tiny Shopkin, “D’Lish Donut, you have to understand that you have to follow the Constitution and the law and allow people to have guns … Bad guys are going to get their guns! It’s gonna kill you. I’m hoping that somebody else in there has a gun and will shoot that person before he shoots you.”
Later in the interview, Baron Cohen turned the theme to Trump and golden showers. “So do you think President Trump — he’s your friend — do you think he might have had a golden shower?” he asked. “Wouldn’t surprise me,” Arpaio responded, adding, “I’ll tell you one thing: If he sees this and the way you’re speaking, he’s gonna like you, because you think like he thinks.”
At the end of the segment, Baron Cohen joined Stephen Colbert’s “cock holster” joke and the New York Times’ Trump and Putin: A Love Story video in resorting to a punch line hinging on gay sex: “So if Donald Trump calls you up after this and says ‘Sheriff Joe, I want to offer you an amazing blow job,’ would you say yes?” Without much hesitation, Arpaio responded, “I may have to say yes.” Arpaio may have “walked into this trap” like he said, but if today’s headlines about this segment are any indication, tons of viewers and critics have also walked into the trap of praising lazy homophobic jokes as comedic genius.
