Sacha Baron Cohen

aka Borat and well known as "Ali G" for about the last ten years in the UK. The "Ali-G" character has a number of sayings, one which a white colleague of mine said to a black policeman outside of a Manchester United football game, my colleague -- mildy the worse for wear after pre-match beer drinking - felt that he was being harrassed and stupidly said the famous Ali-G quote:

"Is it coz I is black?"

And sat the match out behind bars in the local cells :-)

Cohen is of course a white, upper-middle class jew who went to Cambridge University. Some of his sketches are rather funny (to me), but he does have this habit -- like you say -- of making fun at the expense of other people. He seems to be trying to expose what he sees as stupidity and double standards and the pompousness that some western folk have. I think possibly he has gone too far and that it's no longer funny to many, as people will not allow their basic beliefs to be attacked with impunity. There are a couple of legal cases pending on that movie now I believe, Cohen is being sued.

Expect to see more of him in the news, his next movie is about one of his other characters a gay fashion stylist (I think) called "Bruno". He'll be targetting American Christianity and constitutional racism again no doubt, I can take it or leave it.