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Very Nice: Award-winning Satirist Sacha Baron Cohen Accuses Satirical Street Artist Lushsux Of Misinformation

March 12th, 2021 - 1:11 PM EST by Matt Schimkowitz

4 comments

For nearly 30 years, Sacha Baron Cohen, known for his characters Borat, Ali G and for once getting Dick Cheney to sign a waterboarding kit, has reigned as one of western culture's foremost satirists. His gonzo, no-holds-barred approach to filmmaking and acting made headlines all last year. His latest ‌Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was a hit for Amazon and partly responsible for the near-complete unraveling of Rudy Giuliani last fall.

But even a comedic master can have an off day.

Earlier this week, Cohen found himself a surprising enemy in the satirical street artist Lushsux. Known for his shitpost-adjacent murals, Lushsux gained worldwide infamy for works that criticize and mock politicians, business leaders and the world's most powerful people. However, when Cohen came across one of Lushsux's pieces on Instagram, he couldn't help but speak out.

"Mark Zuckerberg, how do you sleep at night?" Cohen tweeted above a picture of Lushsux's Bill Gates piece, which depicts the Microsoft founder surrounded by flames and holding a vaccine with the cryptic warning, "Time to install your update."

"This is on Facebook's Instagram right now.Your algorithms are STILL recommending lies about Covid and vaccines. How many people have to die before you act?!"

The mural references and mocks the Bill Gates coronavirus conspiracies that have popped up in the last year. These theories allege that Gates' funding of vaccine programs are part of a massive micro-chip surveillance initiative so that Gates can track citizens for some reason. It would appear that Cohen mistook Lushsux's work for a piece of anti-vaxx messaging.

Lushsux didn't appreciate Cohen's claim that his artwork was misinformation and responded to the actor by calling him a "dork."

Throughout the day, Lushsux continued to mock Cohen on social media. "The guy who does satire for a living couldn't spot a satire," he tweeted.

Two days later, he posted a new mural, setting his sights directly on Cohen, posting a new piece about the comedian.

The situation made Cohen look a bit out of touch. Fans of Lushsux taunted the Academy Award-nominated satirist on his Twitter, with the most damning coming from YouTuber Justin Whang, who posted a Wombo video of the Bill Gates mural singing "Chug Jug With You". Just brutal.

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Comments 4 total

Timey16

Mar 12, 2021 at 04:41PM EST

Considering that this is an ACTUAL conspirancay insanity that a scarily large amount of people believe in, it's not surprsing to be seen as true…

…or in other words:

6

Gone

Mar 12, 2021 at 05:03PM EST Timey16

Satire always had an element of Poe's Law from the very beginning.

I wonder how many people back in the day believed that Thomas Swift was serious about eating babies after he wrote A Modest Proposal (which I have read, and sadly, don't understand what the point he was trying to make. People are starving, so writing about eating babies is satire somehow? What is he satirizing, that people no longer have food?)

3

Raul Satisacro

Mar 12, 2021 at 05:34PM EST Gone

That people won't do anything to help starving children except to complain about it.

2

Venusgate

Mar 14, 2021 at 04:29PM EDT Gone

I feel the emotion behind A Modest Proposal is exasperation in the face of apathy; to put forward a solution so obscene and ridiculous that it would snap people into the realization that they needed to take action.

This one though is literally just a barely prodded copy of actual rhetoric. I'm not really sure how it can even be considered satire if it's supposed to mock people who would look at this and say, "Finally! Someone GETS IT!"

1

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