Sacha Baron Cohen revealed his double life as a Covid-19 vaccine dealer to the rich and famous as he starred in a TV sketch.
The double Golden Globe winner for his Borat sequel, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! for what appeared to be a run-of-the-mill interview.
However, it quickly developed into a comedy sketch reminiscent of one of his films.
His chat with Jimmy Kimmel was interrupted by a ringing mobile phone – with the actor answering to “Bono”. He then turned around and opened a fridge revealing a stash of AstraZeneca and Pfizer “vaccines”.
The phone went again, with viewers told someone named Tom was on the other end. After establishing it was Cruise, rather than Hanks or Holland, Baron Cohen quipped: “You don’t need me mate, you’re old enough to get it legally.”
After slipping into the persona of a London gangster and warning Kimmel to “look after that pretty face of yours,” next came a joke about Kanye West, whose wife Kim Kardashian recently filed for divorce.
“What do you mean you only need one now? I’ve got you down for six,” Baron Cohen said. “Oh sorry, I hadn’t heard,” he told “West”.
Isla Fisher, Baron Cohen’s wife, made a cameo in the sketch. Looking dishevelled, she confessed to having had 15 vaccines.
.@SachaBaronCohen MIGHT be selling vaccines to celebrities… pic.twitter.com/Rzlbc8APGu
— Jimmy Kimmel Live (@JimmyKimmelLive) March 5, 2021
Told by Kimmel he should be focused on his awards season campaign, Baron Cohen said in referrence to the embattled organisation which hands out Golden Globes: “This is my Oscar campaign. Put it this way, none of the Hollywood Foreign Press are catching Covid any time soon.”
Baron Cohen and Fisher soon had to pack up their stash and escape, with the actress walking off with a comically large machine gun.
As Baron Cohen fled in a car to a soundtrack of police sirens, Jimmy Kimmel Live! cut to news footage of a police chase in Los Angeles showing a car crash.
Before the interview had taken a surreal turn, Baron Cohen, star of The Trial Of The Chicago 7, told Kimmel why wearing the right underpants is so important for him to get into character.
He said: “Every character I play, everything they’ve got on them is authentic to that character. So Borat wears my late father’s string underpants, and Abbie Hoffman had these kind of ’60s underpants and Bruno obviously has a G-string.
“I basically once did a Borat interview and somebody asked me to remove my trousers at one point and they noticed I was wearing the wrong underpants and it killed the interview. So from then on, I’ve gone full Daniel Day-Lewis when it comes to underwear.”
