After fooling lawmakers and politicians into backing guns for schoolchildren and trying out “paedophile detectors”, Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest prank on his satirical show “Who is America?” involved convincing a food critic that he was eating human flesh.

Cohen took on the persona of an ex-convict, Rick Sherman, and served a series of “prison-inspired” dishes to Bill Jilla, a relatively lesser-known food critic who is the editor of the website DinnerReviews.com. The last of these dishes, which became progressively more repulsive, was something called “filet of vegetarian-fed Chinese dissident and cauliflower purée.”

After being convinced by Cohen’s Sherman that it was “ethically sourced human flesh”, Jillia began digging in and even praising its taste. He actually turned to the camera and thanked the family of the supposed person whose flesh he believed he was eating after being told that it “would be a great honour for the family to know someone in the West is enjoying their son”.