Warning: The following contains offensive song lyrics.
Legendary prankster and "Borat" star Sacha Baron Cohen infiltrated a right-wing rally in Olympia, Washington and got the participants to sing along with racist and antisemetic lyrics on Saturday.
The event, called March for Our Rights 3, had an attendance of about 500, and was held by The Three Percenters, a group that Southern Poverty Law Center calls part of "the anti-government militia movement."
Baron Cohen took the stage as a singer for a bluegrass group called The All Right Boy, dressed in stuffed overalls and with a fake nose and beard. In an over-the-top southern accent, he sang a call-and-response song about the COVID-19 virus, the Chinese, liberal political figures, CNN and Bill Gates.
During the song, he routinely asked people in the audience to sing "Inject them with the Wuhan flu" and "Chop 'em up like the Saudis do." Not everyone in the crowd was impressed by the song, but the number that chimed in gleefully was disturbing.
Obama, what we gonna do?
Inject him with the Wuhan flu
Hillary Clinton, what we gonna do?
Lock her up like we used to do.
Fauci don't know his head form his ass
He must be smoking grass
We got locked up by a clown
I ain't lyin' it ain't no joke
Corona is a liberal hoax
Dr. Fauci what we gonna do?
Inject him with the Wuhan flu
Inject him with the Wuhan flu
WHO, what we gonna do?
Chop 'em up like the Saudis do
Chop 'em up like the Saudis do
USA is the best
We don't need no COVID test
You're not gonna take away my rights
I don't care about your race
Get that mask off your Commie face
Take that mask off your Commie face
Liberals what we gonna do?
Inject them with the Wuhan flu
Mask-wearers what we gonna do?
Inject them with the Wuhan flu
CNN, they spread fake news
They're controlled by you-know-whos
George Soros and his nasty friends
Anderson Cooper is a liar
His [unintelligible] panties they are on fire
His panties they are on fire
CNN what we gonna do?
Inject them with the Wuhan flu
Journalists, what we gonna do?
Chop 'em up like the Saudis do
The ones who make this disease
Are the snake-eating Chinese
This is why they have small feet
Made it in a sushi factory
And put in on ships to you and me
[unintelligible] ships to you and me
Sushi-eaters, what we gonna do?
Inject them with the Wuhan flu
Chinese people what we gonna do?
Nuclear bomb like in World War II
Nuclear bomb like in World War II
Chinese people what we gonna do?
Nuke 'em up like in World War II
I hate Bill Gates let's turn him off
His penis is Microsoft
[Unintelligible] with micro chips
Scientists don't say one true
They don't love the red, white, and blue
Don't love the red, white, and blue
Bill Gates, what we gonna do?
Inject them with the Wuhan flu
Scientists, what we gonna do?
Feed 'em to a bear like the Czezchans do
The lyrics to the song are obviously offensive but Baron Cohen isn't attempting to spread hate. He's using music to allow people to comfortably express their racist and antisemitic attitudes, proving they are still prevalent in American society.
The event was organized by Matt Marshall, and candidate running for election to the Washington House of Representatives to represent District 2-Position 2. He says that the Baron Cohen camp claimed to be part of a group called Back to Work USA that was helping conservatives get their message out in blue states.
The group paid over $50,000 to fund the event and said they'd bring along a headliner, Larry Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers.
Secretly, Marshall wondered if the offer was too good to be true. He even discussed his frustrations with people associating his group with racist elements of the right-wing movement.
"I mean, they played the game," Marshall said told NPR. "We talked to them about how frustrating it was to be labeled racist, and they agreed with us. Like, we really let the guard down and trusted them."
Before Gatlin was slated to perform, the group told organizers that they added a bluegrass band last-minute. The group was fronted by Baron Cohen.
"A guy that's like wearing almost a clown suit of red, white and blue gets up there," Marshall said. "Obvious disguise. Like a fake nose and chin. And he starts playing and the first thought when you hear his voice is, 'Dude, is this like a bad impression of Borat?'"
Event organizers tried to rush that stage, turn off the mic and cut off the stage's power generator but they were stopped by Baron Cohen's security team.
"This is my event!" Marshall recalled thinking. "He's not going to turn my event into a racist spectacle!"
Yo he came back after they chased him out. He was actually filming this interview 😭 pic.twitter.com/6SgIIaenWH
— John McRae (@YourSoundBae) June 28, 2020
Marshall told NPR he was upset that some in the crowd willingly sang along to the song's racist, antisemetic, and disturbingly violent lyrics. "It's sad, it's unfortunate that some people chanted back," he said.
Many have speculated that the stunt was being filmed for a second season of Baron Cohen's Showtime show, "Who is America?" where he routinely tricks right-wing figures into compromising positions.
However, a person familiar with "Who Is America?" production told The Wrap there are no flans for a second season.
Baron Cohen's prank is similar to one he pulled on a bar in Arizona for "The Ali G Show." Dressed as his character Borat, he encouraged bar patrons to sing along to the antisemitic song "Throw the Jew Down the Well."
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You may have missed the actual meaning behind these 5 popular songs.
'Every breath you ...' what? 5 classic songs where people totally missed the meaning
I’ve never been a "lyrics guy"—as long as the words sound pleasing to the ear, are relatively interesting, and aren’t evil or distractingly dumb, I don’t care all that much what the singer is going on about. I’m focused on the dynamics, the color of the arrangements, the rhythms, and harmonies. It’s only natural that I’d misinterpret some songs over the years, including ones that I’ve heard a thousand times while walking around malls and supermarkets.
I know I’m not alone. And I’d argue there are plenty of factors behind this phenomenon: Some people take lyrics too literally, while others only focus on hooky choruses and fail to notice nuance in the verses. Context can also blind us—if the music is danceable and upbeat, you might fail to catch darker elements in the words. Still, it can be hilarious and/or shocking when hugely popular tunes are misinterpreted on a mass scale.
Speaking of which: Let’s consult a viral Reddit thread titled "Any songs that are (or were) misunderstood by the public?" There's a mountain of suggestions—everything from '90s Latin-pop hits to '80s heartland-rock epics. But five of them felt especially perfect, so let’s dig a little deeper below.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
The Police - "Every Breath You Take" (1983)
As someone argues in the comments, "Pointing out the real meaning behind 'Every Breath You Take' has to have become so commonplace that it can't really be misunderstood anymore." Point taken. But still…this eerie Police track continues to be used in pop culture and everyday life as a signifier of romance—appearing as the soundtrack to TV slow dances and being arranged for weddings by string quartets. It’s easy to assume, at first glance anyway, that the song's protagonist is pledging their devotion—sticking around for "every breath" their partner takes. Instead, the atmosphere is more disturbing, given the whole "I’ll be watching you" thing. "I didn't realize at the time [I wrote it] how sinister it is," Sting told The Independent in 1993. "I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance, and control."
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Bruce Springsteen - "Born in the U.S.A." (1984)
"Born in the U.S.A." is one of Bruce Springsteen's signature songs—but also likely his most misinterpreted. As an official explainer video notes, the words "center around America's industrial decline and loss of innocence during the Vietnam War"—a message that became somewhat diluted as politicians began using the stadium-sized track for their campaigns. "Conservative commenters praised the song, and it earned the approval of both candidates in the 1984 presidential election," the clip's narrator adds. "Despite being adopted as a patriotic anthem, 'Born in the U.S.A.' is far from nationalistic." In a deep-dive piece, NPR quotes Springsteen talking about the song on stage: "'After it came out, I read all over the place that nobody knew what it was about,' he said before performing 'Born in the U.S.A' to a crowd in 1995. 'I'm sure that everybody here tonight understood it."
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Los Del Rio - "Macarena" (Bayside Boys remix) (1995)
Most Americans probably know the bubbly Bayside Boys remix of Los Del Rio's Spanish-language hit—it became the marquee moment of many a mid-'90s wedding reception and middle-school dance, thanks to its once-ubiquitous choreography. Maybe it's because people were too distracted by remembering the dance moves, but lots of us didn’t notice the lyrics. Of course, the chorus is in Spanish, which could have been a barrier for some, but the remix features English lines like the following: "Now don't you worry about my boyfriend / The boy whose name is Vitorino / Ha! I don't want him, can't stand him / He was no good so I, ha ha ha / Now come on, what was I supposed to do? / He was out of town, and his two friends were so fine."
"My little teenage mind was blown when I learned 'Macarena' was about cheating on a boyfriend with his friends," one Redditor wrote. "[Thank you] for the correction, it was 2 friends! Was sleep deprived writing this. I just did the moves, never questioned the lyrics." Yeah, gotta admit—this legitimately never crossed my mind either. Same with some of the people who took part in a reaction video for Distracify: "It’s definitely about dancing," one person said, before learning the truth. Another added, "I have no idea what it’s about still to this day. Please tell me it’s not something really dark."
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Baha Men - "Who Let the Dogs Out" (2000)
The party was nice. The party was pumpin'.' Until, that is, some "flea-infested mongrels" got involved. Back in 2000, you couldn't escape Baha Men's booming cover of "Who Let the Dogs Out"—it became a staple of sporting events everywhere, a kind of bookend for the Jock Jams era. "I know I definitely misunderstood 'Who Let the Dogs Out' to be about actual dogs," one Redditor wrote, likely speaking for most of the listening public. There's probably a good chance most of those people chanting the chorus weren't thinking about the song's real meaning, crafted by Trinidadian artist Anslem Douglas for his 1998 original. But if you pay attention to the lyrics, "Who Let the Dogs Out" has a feminist theme, telling the story of women who stand up against crass catcalling. "This is going to be a revenge song where a woman tells men, 'Get away from me—you're a dog,'" Douglas told Vice in a 2021 video history of the track. "[Offensive] slang was everywhere. It was just degrading women and calling them all sorts of derogatory names. I tried to do a social commentary as a party song, but the party song overshadowed the social commentary aspect of it."
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Hozier - "Take Me to Church" (2013)
One section of the Reddit thread is devoted to songs interpreted as pro-religion, when the truth is... well, more complicated. "'Take Me to Church' by Hozier is often used by Churches for things, and I’m like 'Oh, that’s not…,'" wrote one user. The bluesy, slow-burning ballad may use religious imagery. Still, it's about something more human—"[It's] this idea that powerful organizations use people’s sexuality in order to mobilize people against women, against gay people," the Irish songwriter told Genius in 2023. "And the justification behind that is often religious in nature." Hozier even isolated one particular lyric that highlights this misconception: "'She tells me, ‘Worship in the bedroom' [is] something tongue-and-cheek, a bit of humor to it, also revealing that this is not necessarily a traditional worship song," he said. "I think I still see my name put into playlists for Christian music, and I’m not averse to that—I don’t think the two are necessarily mutually exclusive. But that line I would’ve thought would’ve disqualified it from something like that."