After appearing on Saturday Night Love, Cohen left to attend a Manhattan bar with friend Hugh Laurie, who plays the titular miserable genius on medical drama House. On the way, Cohen approached a man, slipped into his Kazakh journalist alter ego, and taunted, “I like your clothings. Are nice! Please may I buying? I want have sex with it,” the U.K. Sun reports. ...

Laurie had previously told friends he feared the comedian would get a shit-kicking for his controversial antics, but he reportedly came to Cohen’s aid, helping him to his feet. “Sacha couldn’t resist playing the fool as Borat, but picked on the wrong person,” a friend of Cohen’s tells the Sun. “I guess this guy thought he was being attacked by someone unstable and lashed out. Sacha is very lucky he didn’t get a much worse beating.”