The world’s foremost contemporary comic theorist led a teenage breakdance crew, and wrote his Cambridge thesis on the American Civil Rights movement before he planted his ass in Eminem’s face. After university SACHA BARON COHEN (born 1971) supported himself as a model and developed a series of characters — Ali G, Borat, Brüno — that draw on his erratic resume as a suburban hip hop fan, a student of antisemitism, and a fashion industry hanger-on. Like Andy Kaufman, Baron Cohen explores that squirm-inducing place where comedy might not be funny at all. Whereas most comedy reflects a comic distortion, Baron Cohen doesn’t work as a mirror, but as a blank screen. His unwitting participants project their anxiety about class, race, antisemitism, misogyny, homophobia, and celebrity onto his characters. That’s the genius of his particular, discomfiting method.

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