Sacha Baron Cohen, Rebel Wilson and the grim truth about his tasteless comedy Grimsby

Long before its stars' latest war of words, the 2016 box office bomb united northerners, Trump supporters and audiences in revulsion.

Grimsby named one of biggest box office turkeys of 2016

Sacha Baron Cohen's spy caper Grimsby has been named one of 2016's biggest turkeys, according to business magazine Forbes.

Sacha Baron Cohen's Norman "Nobby" Butcher, a Grimsby Town football fan suddenly thrust back into the life of his elite government assassin brother Sebastian (Mark Strong), is sadly not a comedic gem of a character to rank with Borat and Brüno. There's some fun in the brothers' riotous, sub-Bond action antics, but the constant stream of gross body-fluid jokes and the mock-northern accent soon grow tiring, while a cast including Penélope Cruz and Ian McShane is pretty much wasted.

Punching down: Sacha Baron Cohen & working-class cinema

British cinema has a proud tradition of telling working-class stories properly. But Cohen's Grimsby echoes the spirit of our times - embodied by Donald Trump - by beating on the little guy.

Do you laugh at Grimsby, or does it laugh at you?

I wish I could believe more avidly in Baron Cohen's brand of guerrilla comedy, in what he views as his moral imperative to entrap and then push the buttons of bigots, anti-Semites, and members of the wealthy ruling class. In the course of planning the above prank, he tells his crew that you "don't have to be funny to be satirical." But what in the end was he satirizing? All I can see is a peculiar -- and unexamined -- sadism.

Grimsby bombs at the Box Office

The movie, which reportedly had a $35-$37million (roughly £25million) budget, pulled in just $1.2million in North America and $7.1million in other territories - resulting in a worldwide total of about $8.3million (£5.5million).

Review: Sacha Baron Cohen hits comedy rock bottom

Sacha Baron Cohen is a very smart, very funny man. One of the best parts of his publicity tour for The Brothers Grimsby has been hearing him give interviews out of character about his process when working on Da Ali G Show, Borat, and Bruno. The worst part of it, unfortunately, is the movie The Brothers Grimsby, which is an entirely laughless affair and easily the low point of Cohen's career so far.

Review: Grimsby, a bad taste comedy of epic proportions

Grimsby] is the kind of film you know you shouldn't laugh at, it's unbelievably disgusting and in no way witty or topical like Cohen's past ventures, but there's an audience for this type of comedy and I dare say they will lap it up in spades - just make sure you shower afterwards.

John Prescott takes swipe at Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen is another "spoilt public schoolboy from the south kicking the north" John Prescott has said following the release of the comedian's new film, Grimsby.

Grimsby: 'the scum' vs Malthusians

Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie has a surprisingly radical twist.