If you’re desperate to see former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin say something breathtakingly idiotic, I’m afraid you’re going to have to settle for going through the many, many YouTube videos of her TV appearances and speeches, because it appears her segment has been dropped from Who Is America?.
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Palin was one of the many conservative figures to come out swinging before the show’s release, arcing up at the cruel way they had been tricked into saying their own opinions in an embarrassing way. Palin took issue with Sacha Baron Cohen presenting himself as his Alex Jones–esque character Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr, calling Baron Cohen “evil“, “exploitative“, and “sick” for posing as a wounded veteran. Baron Cohen, in character, rejected this characterisation (“I did NOT say I was a War Vet. I was in the service – not military, but United Parcel and I only fought for my country once – when I shot a Mexican who came onto my property.“)
There were rumblings at the start of the month that she might not appear in the series, with Showtime‘s head of programming Gary Levine responding to a question about her appearance by saying that there are “several people who have thrown themselves into buses that may not be heading their way.”
Palin didn’t go entirely without a mention in the final episode, though. The once–vice presidential candidate got a ‘thank you’ in the form of a very large place in the credits, naming her as a ‘special publicity consultant’:
https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/1033905666669375489
So far there’s been no explanation for why the segment was ditched. Levine’s explanation as to why some segments were dropped was that Baron Cohen is “incredibly hard-working and selective in the final product“, which seems reasonable enough (or it could be secret code for ‘EXTREME LEGAL TROUBLES’, who knows).
Who Is America? is available for streaming in Australia exclusively through Stan.
