Sacha Baron Cohen's spoof characters have fooled an admirable tally of people over the years.
In his first incarnation, as Ali G, the British comedian tricked Buzz Aldrin, Donald Trump, Noam Chomsky and Tony Benn.
And his recent mockumentary, presented by Borat, an alter ego from Kazakhstan, managed to offend an entire nation, as its ambassador wrote on these pages.
So when word emerged that the Golden Globe-winning actor's next movie would star a flamboyantly gay Austrian named Bruno, homophobic men in redneck states must have shuddered.
The clue, you see, was hidden in the title: Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt.
So what exactly has Bruno been up to? Huffington spotted that California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, narrowly escaped a Bruno prank thanks to an SUV and "a few bodyguards".
Now the Dallas Morning News is reporting that a crowd of 1,600 unsuspecting wrestling fans lured to a "cage-fighting" event in Arkansas were less lucky.
Instead of a dose of healthy, hetero fighting, the audience was presented with two men ripping their clothes off and - something presumably not seen around those parts - kissing.
Cohen reportedly lured the Arkansas folk with posters for a Blue Collar Brawlin' event promising Hot Chicks, Cold Beer, Hardcore Fights.
They almost got the last part: "It set the crowd off lobbing beers," Fort Smith police sergeant Adam Holland told the Dallas paper, adding that the two actors had sprinted away through a specially set-aside tunnel.
The cop added that Cohen "went right up to the line" of the city's morality laws.
And there's more. A few days ago, a Yossi Alpher, a former Israeli spy, wrote a column about an interview with "a tall, blondish man in his thirties, dressed in leather and studs, his face heavily powdered, his arms and chest shaven".
Alpher, who was told he was contributing to a film alongside a Palestinian academic explaining the Middle East conflict to young people, said the interviewer had confused "Hamas" with "hummus" and concluded: "Your conflict is not so bad. Jennifer-Angelina is worse."
If Sacha Baron Cohen's previous controversies are anything to go by, there will be many people, particularly his victims, who view this as bad-taste comedy.
But the comedian has his supporters, too. And according to USA Today, they include the US State Department.
