Who is America? gets 'food critic' Bill Jilla eating what he believes is gourmet human flesh: 'It's simply melting on my palate'

He was told it had been 'ethically sourced' from the body of a Chinese dissident

Christopher Hooton
Monday 20 August 2018 03:55 BST
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Sacha Baron Cohen tricks food critic Bill Jilla into eating what he believes is human flesh

So far in its first season, Who is America? has shown the extraordinary things people will do under the ostensible legitimacy of a documentary TV series.

We’ve seen Trump voters try and repel ‘Islamist terrorists’ by brandishing pork and a luxury yacht salesman take business from a supposed stooge for Assad, but episode 6 of the Showtime series saw perhaps the most stunning prank yet.

In the regular ‘Ex-Con Second Chance’ segment, Sacha Baron Cohen’s reformed criminal character Rick Sherman showed off the culinary skills he developed while behind bars.

It culminated in him preparing a tasting menu for Bill Jilla, the editor of dinnerreviews.com (though it should be noted that the site is now defunct and Jilla is not a widely-recognised food critic) that started with a “beans on toast medley”, took in “anally-aged veal in a strawberry prophylactic” (inspired by how veal was smuggled into Rick’s prison) and finished with “filet of vegetarian-fed Chinese dissident and cauliflower purée”.

(Showtime

Jilla initially looked shocked by the prospect of “ethically-sourced human”, but ultimately grabbed a fork and got stuck into what he appeared to genuinely believe was the loin of a Chinese man.

“Mmmmm. Butter; it’s like butter soft,” he enthused. “Who needs a knife? It’s melting on my palate. I don’t even need to chew it.”

Jilla seemed unfazed when Rick said that the meat was so fatty because the dissident had been kept in a confined space, and the prank concluded with Jilla doing a piece to camera thanking the dead man’s family for allowing him to sample their son. “It’s truly an honour and a pleasure,” he summarised, “superb.”

Who is America?’s final episode airs Sunday night on Showtime in the US and Monday night on Channel 4 in the UK.

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