Sacha Baron Cohen gave politicians a break for one segment of Sunday night’s episode of Who Is America?, conning controversial Bachelor alum Corinne Olympios into lying about outrageous acts of goodwill.
In character as an Italian photographer/playboy named Gio Madando, the comedian convinced Olympios to endorse his (fake) charity for relief in Africa, prompting her to pose in a bikini and half-zipped HAZMAT suit so he could Photoshop her into a picture of workers aiding those affected by the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone.
He also interviewed her about her contrived volunteer work, suggesting she pretend she’d been on the ground for a month.
“”Yeah, but they’re gonna know I wasn’t there,” she whispered to him.
“”No, no, no, I run the charity, so don’t worry,” he assured her.
Her claims only got more outlandish from there.
“There was a war lord in Sierra Leone and he wanted to do a massacre, and apparently he recognized you, and you can tell us the story?” Baron Cohen asked.
She looked panicked for a moment, eyes darting around the set.
“He was gonna do a massacre of this village, and what happened?” Baron Cohen cajoled.
“So he recognized he, and he was a really big fan. … He was just really nice, actually, and he was really surprised to see me. I was surprised he knew who I was, and yeah, it was just really humbling,” she said, elaborating on her own, “It was good, because I saved 6,000 people. … I feel like because I was so kind back and I was so positive back, it really helped with the whole massacre situation.”
Unlike fellow Who Is America? targets like Sarah Palin and Joe Walsh, Olympios — who gained fame on Nick Viall‘s season of the ABC dating show — seems amused and even flattered about getting duped.
“Hopefully people just see that it is a Sacha Baron Cohen prank. He’s pranked a bunch of people with big names. It’s light, it’s funny, it’s nothing serious,” she told The Daily Beast. “I hope people can see that and they’re not going to freak out about me saying certain things, because people that know me know that I’m a really amazing person. And so, yeah, I just hope that I don’t offend anyone, but none of it was serious anyways!”
Who Is America? airs Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.
