Movies

One Of The Biggest Gags In The 'Borat 2' Trailer Actually Made News Back In February

Borat 2
By Ethan Anderton

Today, the full trailer arrived for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. There's a lot happening in the mockumentary sequel starring Sacha Baron Cohen as the famous reporter from Kazakhstan, but there's one particular gag towards the end of the trailer involving Vice President Mike Pence that will undoubtedly spark plenty of conversation when the movie finally comes out. In fact, this guerrilla gag actually made news back in February.

In the scene teased in the trailer, Sacha Baron Cohen (as Borat) dresses up like Donald Trump, in full prosthetic make-up and hair, and attempts to deliver his daughter to Vice President Mike Pence. This actually unfolded on the floor of the Conservative Political Action Conference at the end of February. However, since the world was focused on the growing threat of the coronavirus pandemic, and the impersonator seemed like nothing more than an attention-grabbing distraction, no one thought anything of it.ABC News reported the incident on Thursday, February 27, and they have a hell of a photo of the gag unfolding, complete with the woman thrown over Cohen's shoulder as a gift for Mike Pence.

At least we think that's Sacha Baron Cohen dressed up as Donald Trump. For some reason, the make-up in the above photo looks more gaunt than what we see in the trailer. Here's a shot from the trailer for comparison:

Borat 2

The face in the trailer just looks more full, including the accentuated double chin. In fact, there's another video from the floor that appears to show a more full-faced Cohen in Trump make-up. Meanwhile, the make-up in the ABC News story appears more wrinkly with sunken features. A video captured as Cohen was being escorted out of CPAC shows the same fuller face:

Funnily enough, the more wrinkly make-up made an appearance in what was apparently a second attempt at the gag that was carried out on Friday, February 28. Here's a shot after a repeat of the gag when Cohen (or maybe someone else) was being escorted out of CPAC:

Trump Impersonator at CPAC

If you look in the background, you'll see that a woman in a green dress and tights, dressed just like the woman on Cohen's shoulder in the trailer. Somehow, in all the reports that emerged about this incident, none of them mentioned that the Trump impersonator in question had a woman slung over their shoulder, which seems like it would be worth noting, especially since it's right there in the image.

The consecutive gags at CPAC are undoubtedly both for the movie, but perhaps Cohen didn't do both attempts himself. Maybe the movie needed some additional shots of the fake Trump simply walking around CPAC to set up the larger gag they already pulled off. But that doesn't explain why the photo from the first attempt on Thursday still features the more gaunt Donald Trump make-up.

Either way, we can't wait to see how this turned out when Borat Subsequent Moviefilm hits Amazon on October 23, 2020.

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