Sarah Palin and other US rightwingers have railed at being duped, but Cohen’s Who is America? is shrouded in mystery. Did he get as far as the White House?

It is already one of the most talked-about TV series of 2018, before a single episode has even aired. Yet little has been publicly revealed about Who Is America?, the new comedy from Ali G and Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen, which has been filmed undercover for a year and kept under wraps by its stateside broadcaster Showtime. However, judging by the furious responses of those who have fallen foul of the notorious British comic’s latest setups, the show seems certain to generate intense controversy within the febrile world of US politics.

Will Sacha Baron Cohen's undercover series be the TV event of the year? Read more

A number of unwitting victims have already reacted angrily after realising that they have been hoodwinked by the series, which begins on Sunday in the US and on Monday on Channel 4. On Tuesday, Sarah Palin shared on Facebook that the satirist had “duped” her into an interview by disguising himself as a disabled American military veteran. “I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive, sick ‘humor’ of the British ‘comedian’ Sacha Baron Cohen,” Palin wrote.

In the wake of Palin’s admission, a number of other conservative figures have revealed that they too were tricked by Baron Cohen. Roy Moore, the Alabama senate candidate whose campaign was derailed by accusations of sexual misconduct that he denies, threatened to sue the satirist after being duped into appearing at a mock event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel, while disgraced former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio says Baron Cohen interviewed him while disguised as a Finnish comedian. Rightwing radio hosts Joe Walsh and Austin Rhodes have also confirmed they had been interviewed undercover by the satirist.

Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) I was invited to a pro-Israel dinner that honored defenders of Israel. The producers said they needed to film a pre-interview that would air as a part of Israel’s 70th birthday celebration. #BoycottShowtime

Another confirmed victim is former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who, in one of the few clips released in advance of the series’ launch, is seen enthusiastically autographing a “waterboarding kit”.

While the majority of those who have admitted to being duped by Baron Cohen are Republicans, his undercover operation is thought to have targeted a number of other personalities. Veteran broadcaster Ted Koppel has said he was interviewed for the series.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dick Cheney signs a ‘waterboarding kit’ on the show. Photograph: Youtube

According to rightwing commentator Matt Drudge, former Democratic presidential candidates Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders have also been duped into appearing on Who Is America?, while OJ Simpson is rumoured to appear in the series.

That Baron Cohen has seemingly managed to deceive so many political and cultural big beasts will be unsurprising to anyone familiar with his career to date. Over the past two decades, the satirist has acquired a fearsome reputation for embarrassing high-profile figures on both sides of the Atlantic. In the guise of his rude-boy character Ali G, he was able to score interviews with Jacob Rees-Mogg, Tony Benn and Noam Chomsky, while as the hapless Kazakh journalist Borat he managed to convince a Virginian rodeo to let him sing a mangled version of the Star-Spangled Banner.

Yet in recent years Baron Cohen has moved away from pranks and into scripted films such as The Dictator and Grimsby, fuelling suggestions that he had become too recognisable to pull off ambush TV.

That risk of being rumbled perhaps explains the secrecy around Who Is America?. The series was announced only a week before its air date, a highly unusual move in an industry where shows tend to be promoted months or even years in advance, and – aside from the brief clip of Cheney – no footage from it has been released to the public. An early trailer, released before the show’s official announcement on Monday, played up to the sense of mystery.

“We’d like to tell you about a new comedy that’s coming, but we can’t,” a voiceover says. “The creators won’t let us show you a scene, the lawyers won’t let us tell you the name of the star and we can’t even reveal the show’s title or we’d be breaking our non-disclosure agreement.”

Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) A message from your President @realDonaldTrump on Independence Day pic.twitter.com/O2PwZqO0cs

The reactions from Palin and others suggest that such secrecy has reaped results, but it remains to be seen whether Baron Cohen’s powers of deception extend to the current occupant of the White House. The satirist and Donald Trump have history: Trump walked out of an interview with Ali G in 2003, and later published a video criticising a stunt in which Baron Cohen spilled “the ashes of Kim Jong Il” on TV presenter Ryan Seacrest at the 2012 Oscars.

Baron Cohen has used footage from that Trump video – in which the then-Apprentice host tells him to “go to school, learn about being funny” – in a trailer teasing the new series. It concludes with the logo for the now-defunct Trump University and the message “Sacha graduates soon”. Given Baron Cohen’s past form, it’s a threat that even the president of the United States should take seriously.