Sacha Baron Cohen Made O.J. Squirm On ‘Who Is America?’ But Did He Go Too Far?

Recently, the final episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Who is America?” aired on Showtime. After the credits, the show came back with its finale, a segment starring Coen as Gio, host of the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”–esque show “La Vita Diamante di Gio.”

He introduced his guest as “an American hero and women’s rights activist.”

The guest was O.J. Simpson, the NFL Hall of Famer who was charged with killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman, but was later acquitted.

Throughout the chilling interview — cloaked in the guise of humor — Cohen tries to get Simpson to confess to the crimes. He references the Brown and Goldman murders by making a stabbing motion to his throat and calls Simpson a “lady killer.”

Cohen pulls no punches during the interview, going so far as to discuss murdering a woman. “Sometimes I want to completely kill her,” Cohen says. “If I do, you’ll introduce me to [Johnnie] Cochran?”

Simpson squirms, laughs and tries to keep his cool throughout the interview, but never admits to committing the murders. “I didn’t kill nobody,” Simpson says.

Some people criticized Cohen saying it was inappropriate to joke about murdering women, while others saw it as a comedic masterstroke.

Either way, Cohen not only shined the spotlight back on Simpson but pointed it squarely at America’s uncomfortable fascination with murder as entertainment as well.