British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, aka “Borat,” apparently has duped Arkansas fight fans by promising “hot chicks, cold beer, hardcore fights,” but delivering a show that had two male wrestlers kiss and make out.
The unsuspecting audience who turned up for the Blue Collar Brawlin’ event, lured by the promise of $1 beer, expected a night of old fashioned fisticuffs.
What they got was two men stripping down to their underwear, kissing and “rubbing one another”, according to local police.
The unsuspecting audience who turned up for the Blue Collar Brawlin’ event, lured by the promise of $1 beer, expected a night of old fashioned fisticuffs.
What they got was two men stripping down to their underwear, kissing and “rubbing one another”, according to local police.
The men – believed to be actors – were then forced to run for their lives as the 1,600-strong crowd pelted them with beer and chairs.
“We had a contract for cage fighting. We were deceived,” said Dwight Duncan, president of the Four States Fair Grounds which provided the venue.
Cohen’s spokesman would not confirm that the comedian was behind the event, but he is in the U.S. filming a movie as Bruno, a camp Austrian fashion designer. Local police were tipped off that the event was a prank, but were surprised at how out of hand things got.
The man-on-man display “went right up to the line” of the city’s morality laws, Sgt Adam Holland said.
“It set the crowd off lobbing beers. They had beers in plastic cups. Those things can get some distance on them actually.” Sgt Holland said it took officers about 45 minutes to clear the venue, as the two actors sprinted away through a specially set-aside tunnel.
I suspect that had the wrestlers been female and engaged in the same kind of making out, the crowd probably would have cheered them on. I enjoyed “Borat,” especially the gross wrestling scene between Borat and his manager, and the Arkansas prank sounds like a winner. —Jim Buzinski
