Sarah Cooper has made a name for herself by trolling President Donald Trump on TikTok with her lip-synching impersonations of him. While her rising star nabbed her a spot as a guest host on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday, the viral comedian isn’t stopping there. According to Variety , Cooper is getting her own Netflix special.
The special, Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine , is slated to premiere in the fall. She will be supported by some major talent, including Natasha Lyonne, who is set to direct the show, and Maya Rudolph, who will executive produce.
Rather than a stand-up performance, the special will feature vignettes, interviews, and sketches. Cooper will riff with her guests about “politics, race, gender, class, and other light subjects.”
Cooper used to work for Google before she began filming videos from her home during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Her first one was a lip-synch mocking Trump’s interview during which he suggested that disinfectants, light, and bleach could be used internally somehow to battle COVID-19.
In the video, Cooper wears a blue suit jacket and mouths the words from the speech. She also appears briefly as a confused Dr. Deborah Birx. It rapidly took off, garnering more than half a million likes and thousands of comments.
How to medical pic.twitter.com/0EDqJcy38p
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) April 24, 2020
Cooper has written several books, including 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings: How to Get By Without Even Trying.
Cooper told the Daily Beast that she decided to get familiar with TikTok after she was introduced to it by a nephew.
She said that she isn’t a good dancer — something that many of the app’s users play around with — so she started experimenting by lip-synching over a clip of Trump.
“The thing about Trump that I noticed in these daily press briefings was that he has no idea what he’s talking about, and he can talk for so long about anything,” Cooper said.
This sort of off-the-cuff riffing reminded her of the corporate world and “the people that would be in meetings and just, like, B.S. their way through an answer. I’ve always been jealous of those people.”
Cooper, who has been blocked by Trump on Twitter, usually appears in minimalist costume, often with just a blazer or a few props. She said that this helps emphasize how someone like her couldn’t get away with speaking in the same way that Trump does.
Some have suggested that Cooper’s impersonations have been part of the impetus that has driven the president to ban the popular TikTop app in the United States.
