Bruno (sometimes written as Brüno) is a fictional television personality, created as satire and played by Sacha Baron Cohen on Da Ali G Show. He claims to be the voice of Austrian youth television and commonly discusses issues of homosexuality and fashion with his guests on his show, Funkyzeit mit Bruno (Funkytime with Bruno). The song "Crank It Up" by Scooter is used as the theme.
Bruno's apparent homosexuality is often the main focus of his interviews. He questions religious ministers and other heterosexual men about their feelings on the matter, and often provokes them by suggesting that they themselves are homosexual. For one show, Bruno filmed a segment with college wrestlers on spring break at Daytona Beach and had them perform a number of acts for the camera, including teaching him how to wrestle and flashing their backsides for the camera. At the end of the segment, Bruno instructed one of the boys to say "hello" to "Austrian gay TV." Upon learning the filming was for a gay television show, the wrestler, previously enthusiastic, became disgusted and hostile, shoving the microphone away and punching the camera man. The obvious purpose of this deception (through not fully informing his "victims") is to showcase the ignorance behind homophobia. The clip could be seen to typify the often excruciatingly uncomfortable-to-watch style Cohen is best known for.
Bruno also interviews fellow fashion aficionados and exposes their extreme views of how unfashionable people should be treated. He once asked an interviewee if these people should be "put on trains, send them to a camp and say 'bye-bye'," a clear reference to Nazi atrocities such as Auschwitz, to which the fashionist interviewee agrees, saying: "I would love to say bye bye to most of them!" Bruno's use of the camaraderie between himself and fashion designers leads them to make ridiculous statements that they would not normally make. He also asks strange questions about the themes of fashion shows, such as "What did you think about the nautical theme?" despite there not being a nautical theme. Some of the people interviewed respond by telling him there was no nautical theme, while others play along with it.