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With the Bruno movie scheduled to hit cinemas world-wide this weekend, including at least one in Jerusalem, the thoughts of pop culture hounds have undoubtedly returned to the realm of British superstar comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Poor Baron Cohen - one by one, he is being forced to retire his characters, as publicity of their exploits renders their deliciously incognito fun toothless.

As a result, he has been forced to take his brigade of comic caricatures to the (alarmingly few) countries where the words "Is niiiiiiice!" never became the irksome refrain of an era. And Israel has not been spared. Of course, Baron Cohen is no stranger to Israel: The son of an Israeli mother and a Welsh-Jewish father, he spent much time in the country in his youth, including a year on a kibbutz as part of left Zionist youth movement Habonim-Dror's Israel program.

His last film, the inescapable Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which centered around the travels of the titular character, a bumbling, bigoted and misogynistic Kazakh reporter, received a wide release here - although with little previous exposure to Baron Cohen's semi-documentary brand of comedy, the thrust of the movie's central joke seemed to go a bit over the local audience's heads. Despite Borat’s headline-making staunch anti-Semitism, the blockbuster Cohen persona promoted his movie extensively here, even giving interviews in Hebrew – er, Kazakh.

But with his face still mostly unknown, the Holy Land had become a ripe target for Baron Cohen, and he arrived in the country about a year ago in the guise of flamboyant gay Austrian fashion devotee Bruno, hoping to inject some trenchant political commentary into his then-new film project, 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. Among Bruno's targets were two Jerusalemite academics, one Jewish and one Palestinian, brought together to explain the Arab-Israeli conflict at an unnamed meeting place just outside of Zion Gate:

Then one of us mentioned Hamas, and the exchange that ensued went something like this:

"Vait, vait. Vat’s zee connection between a political movement and food. Vy hummus?" We exchanged astonished glances. "Hamas," we explained, "is a Palestinian Islamist political movement. Hummus is a food." "Ya, but vy hummus? Yesterday I had to throw away my pita bread because it vas dripping hummus. Unt it’s too high in carbohydrates."

The Hamas-hummus confusion went on for several minutes. Then, the interviewer declared: "Your conflict is not so bad. Jennifer-Angelina is worse."

No word on to what extent he messed with protesters and participants at last summer's gay pride parade, or if he'll be dropping any tea bags at the Jerusalem Film Festival this week. But if the movie's official trailer is any indication, last summer's visit to the Holy City should feature significantly in the final cut. Brace yourselves, Jerusalem.