A US politician has announced his resignation after an embarrassing appearance on Sacha Baron Cohen's new TV show.
Jason Spencer, a Republican from Georgia, featured in the second episode of Who Is America?, a satirical mockumentary series in which political figures are interviewed by Baron Cohen in disguise as a number of outlandish characters.
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While in character as an Israeli anti-terrorism expert, Baron Cohen persuaded Mr Spencer to participate in several humiliating exercises which would supposedly ward off terrorists.
He told the politician that in the US there is "one forbidden word - the n-word". The two men then began a role-playing exercise in which Baron Cohen pretended to be a terrorist threatening Mr Spencer, who had to attract attention to get himself help.
The Republican loudly screamed the word 'n****r' a number of times, seemingly needing little encouragement from Baron Cohen. He was then told that the 'n-word' he was meant to say was actually 'noonie'.
Later in the episode Mr Spencer was told to drop his trousers and back towards Baron Cohen while repeating the phrase 'USA, motherf****r', which he enthusiastically did. He was told this tactic would scare off homophobic jihadists trying to attack him.
The segment also featured Mr Spencer trying to convince a terrorist that he was Chinese by holding a selfie stick and repeating the words 'Beijing', 'chopsticks' and 'konnichiwa'.
After the episode aired on Sunday (local time), Mr Spencer was widely condemned for his actions. Georgia House speaker David Ralston said that the footage was "reprehensible".
"Representative Spencer has disgraced himself and should resign immediately," he said.
Nathan Deal, the governor of Georgia, tweeted that his behaviour was "appalling and offensive".
Top Republicans even considered filing an ethics complaint against Mr Spencer before he announced on Wednesday (local time) that he would resign, effective on July 31.
He was already on his way out of office after losing the primary in May, but could have remained in his position until the November mid-term elections.
In a statement to the Washington Post, Mr Spencer said he was pressured into the outrageous exercises.
"As uncomfortable as I was to participate, I agreed to, understanding that these 'techniques' were meant to help me and others fend off what I believed was an inevitable attack," he said.
"My fears were so heightened at that time, I was not thinking clearly nor could I appreciate what I was agreeing to when I participated in his 'class'."
Mr Spencer has expressed anti-Muslim beliefs in the past, and proposed a bill in 2016 that would have heavily restricted women from wearing the burqa or veil in public.
Newshub.
