Idi Amin and alluded to in the film "The Last King of Scotland" in 2006, a movie which earned actor Forest Whitaker an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Amin. During Amin's time in power, popular media outside of Uganda often portrayed him as an essentially comic and eccentric figure. In a 1977 assessment typical of the time, a "Time" magazine article described him as a "killer and clown, big-hearted buffoon and strutting martinet". The comedy-variety series "Saturday Night Live" aired four Amin sketches between 1976 and 1979, including one in which he was an ill-behaved houseguest in exile,
Alan Coren of children's books. One of his most successful books, "The Collected Bulletins of Idi Amin" (a collection of his "Punch" articles about Amin) was rejected for publication in the United States on the grounds of racial sensitivity. These Bulletins were later made into a comedy album, "The Collected Broadcasts of Idi Amin" with the actor John Bird. After the Tanzanian capture of Kampala in 1979 the American journalist Art Barrett discovered a copy of Coren's book on Idi Amin's bedside table. Coren's other books include "The Dog It Was That Died" (1965), "The Sanity Inspector" (1974), "All Except The Bastard"