The unfunniest man in the world

In a world that boasts Martin Short, Adam Sandler and Frankie Boyle, there should be plenty of competition for that title, but the truth is, Sacha Baron Cohen has it all sewn up.

Remember Ali G, he of the yellow shell suit and the East Staines Massive?  It seemed funny enough at first, as he skewered slightly ridiculous personalities like Mohamed al-Fayed and Tony Benn.  But you started to feel a bit queasy when you realised that what you were watching was a university-educated, middle class Jewish man  taking the p*ss out of the lifestyles of poor black kids.   You began to wonder if anyone would have made a series featuring a black comedian mercilessly mocking Jewish customs -- and you were relieved when you concluded that no-one would.

Next came Borat, the Kazakh documentary maker.  Borat was, of course, grossly insulting to Kazakhs, with his violent sexism and unreconstructed anti-Semitism. That wasn't enough for Baron Cohen, though. He used the character to depict large numbers of Americans as anti-Semites too,  using the singularly low trick of plying them with booze, and then having "Borat" cajole them into an anti-Semitic sing-song.

After that there was a gay Austrian fashion victim, Bruno, a character that mercifully sank leaving very little trace.

And now he's back promoting his latest creation, The Dictator, in his usual tasteful style. At the Oscars ceremony in LA last evening, he crashed the red carpet and tipped an urn that,  he claimed,  contained the ashes of Kim Jong-Il over Ryan Seacrest, whoever that maybe. It worked, inasmuch as Baron Cohen is a top trending topic on Twitter today.  Tweets are about equally divided between those who found the whole thing hilarious and those who wish he'd just go away. One or two are even suggesting that the stunt leaves him open to an assault charge, if Ryan Seacrest, whoever that may be, is so inclined.  That would surely be a big mistake, because it's probably exactly what he wants.

This here blog tries hard to take a balanced view, and in that spirit, here is the Daily Telegraph's choice of Baron Cohen's "20 funniest lines". Take a look and decide for yourself. It seems to me that, to recycle an old putdown, those that are funny are not original, and those that are original are not funny.  But then, picking on people who can't answer back rarely is.