Sacha Baron Cohen explains why 'Who Is America?' won't be back: 'I'm too lazy to do this'

Conservative politicians can breathe a sigh of relief: Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has ruled out doing a second season "Who Is America?"

In the Showtime sketch show's one-and-only season, a disguised Cohen duped his way into interviews with former Vice President Dick Cheney (whom he asked to autograph a waterboarding kit), 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson (in a segment about arming toddlers). And then there was Alabama judge-turned-Senate candidate Roy Moore, who walked out after the comedian's fake pedophile detector went off.

Palin complained bitterly in public, accusing Cohen and Showtime of mocking wounded veterans, while Moore filed a $95 million defamation suit.

The British comic is quitting while he's ahead because knows he's lost the ability to ambush his subjects.

"I will never be able to get a politician to bare his buttocks while screaming 'God bless America!' and screaming the N-word," Cohen says in the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporter's "Awards Chatter" podcast.

In a July episode, he posed as an Israeli anti-terrorism expert and got Georgia state lawmaker Jason Spencer to drop his pants and yell racial slurs in public. Within a few days, Spencer resigned from the Georgia House of Representatives.

Cohen cited a couple of other reasons for making "Who Is America" a one-and-done deal. In order to pull off any new stunts, he'd have to retire the Season 1 characters and come up with new ones, which he doesn't have.

Plus, he says, doing those characters requires him to spend five hours in a makeup chair every day.

"It is grueling," he told host Scott Feinberg. "I'm too lazy to do this."

Cohen's most memorable moments: From Borat's mankini to Seacrest ash-dumping

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sacha Baron Cohen explains why 'Who Is America?' won't be back: 'I'm too lazy to do this'