A Breakdown of Who is America? Characters

Sacha Baron Cohen pretended to be six characters on Who Is America? Some fared better than others. Here I grade the characters on whether their sketches hit or miss and if it hit, how well did it do. If a sketch hits, it can receive as many as four points and as little as one. I use a baseball analogy, one I'm sure the British Cohen would surely appreciate, so a one-point sketch is a single, while a 4-point sketch is a homerun (HR).

The number of comedy hits versus the number of sketches the character is in is his comedy average (cavg) and the total points divided by sketches is his comedy slugging percentage (cslg). I've also include the number of HRs each character was in.

6) Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr.
.143 cavg; .143 cslg; 0 HRs

I like the Ruddick character in theory and the intro to his sketches are funny, but he struckout nearly every time. Bernie Sanders (Ep.1), NIH Director Francis Collins (Ep. 6), and Jill Stein (Ep. 6) came across as polite and knowledgeable in their interviews with Dr. Ruddick to little or no comedic effect. There was a lot of potential with Corey Lewandowski (Ep. 5), but Ruddick kept going a little too far and it made him look like a halfway sane man. Ted Koppel (Ep. 2) and Howard Dean (Ep. 6) were indignant, but not in a funny way. The only hit was Barney Frank (Ep. 7) and his indignation; Ruddick essentially played the straight man and let Frank's reaction take over. Still, the interview was only goo enough for a single.

5) Nira Cain-N'Degeocello
.333 cavg; .833 cslg; 1 HR

I thought Nira was funnier, but the numbers say otherwise. Too often, Cain-N'Degeocello said outlandish things and people reacted with grace. The South Carolina Republican couple (Ep. 1) Bone Krusher (Ep. 3) come to mind. That Utah Republican (Ep. 4) was less understanding, but he didn't take the bait that would've made that interview a success. The battle rap (Ep. 3) was had a feel-good moment when the one halfway decent line that Cain-N'Degeocello landed got some love, but it wasn't particularly funny.

When he gave birth (Ep. 6), that was funny for how much the guy believed it and there were some funny lines, but only enough for a single. The Arizona town hall was a homerun. The townspeople';s bigotry came shining through and Cain-N'Degeocello did a great job of trying to spin it to something more tolerant at which point the locals doubled and tripled down.

4) OMGWhizzboyOMG
1.000 cavg; 1.333 cslg; 0 HR

This character has been panned by the critics, but I like him. Yes, Joe Arpaio (Ep. 4), David Clark (Ep. 5), and Jan Brewer (Ep. 6) have said crazier things. But he still got Clark to say he would be against anti-fascists in 1930s Germany, and Brewer to allow a homicidal Shopkin to have a semi-automatic weapon. Sheriff Joe said that he would accept various sexual acts from the president, which was a double in my book.

3) Rick Sherman
.667 cavg; 1.667 cslg; 0 HR

I'm surprised Sherman, ranked so highly. I didn't really like the character and his introduction (Ep. 1). Yes, an art dealer gave him her pube, but otherwise, she seemed like a gentle understanding person during the piece and my sympathies were with her. Sherman then went after a better targets and scored better. DJ Jake Inphamous (Ep. 5) loved Sherman's bizarre musical set and so did his nightclub, which was good enough for a double. Get a faux food critic (Ep. 6) to wax poetic after eating sausage he believed was softened in a man's anus and thanking the family of the Chinese dissident her had just eaten was almost a homerun.

2) Gio Monaldo
1.000 cavg; 2.500 cslg; 2 HRs

Gio's success also surprised me. After an underwhelming start, pranking a former Bachelor contestant (Ep. 2), a skit that was funny in spots for the contestant's desire for fame but made me a bit uncomfortable, Gio came back strong. After exposing a yacht dealer's desperation to make a sale, Gio hit two homers by getting Mahbod Moghadam to hilariously show his racial prejudice and by punking O.J.

1) Erran Morad
1.000 cavg; 3.000 cslg; 5 HRs

Conservatives are apparently quite trusting of a former Israeli Mossad, I mean not the Mossad, agent. when it comes to terrorism. The Colonel was the funniest character by far. His weakest sketch was with Roy Moore (Ep. 3), still funny just for the fact that he used a fake pedophile director on him. Dick Cheney (Ep. 2), the anti-Muslim office demonstration, and the Real Housewives sit were good enough for 3 doubles.

Morad had more homers than all the other characters combined. The quinceanera (Ep. 3), Guns For Kids (Ep. 1), the courses with Dan Roberts (Ep. 5), Jason Spencer (Ep. 2), and the Liberal contest and women's march infiltration (Ep. 7) were the homeruns.