'Who Is America?' review: Sacha Baron Cohen shocks with segment on guns for pre-schoolers and baffles Trump supporters in new series
As it happened: Bernie Sanders and former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott among those caught up in first episode of comedy series
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Your support makes all the difference.Sacha Baron Cohen has returned to screens with a provocative new comedy show - and Who is America? is already courting controversy.
In a seven-episode series launched on US cable channel Showtime on Sunday, the British prankster takes on four different personas as he satirises the political and cultural life of the United States in the era of President Donald Trump.
The first is Dr. Billy Wayne Ruddick, founder of fictional right-wing news site Truthbrary.org, whose aim is to take down the “mainstreme” media. In the first episode his target was Bernie Sanders. Dr Nira Cain-N’Degeocello is an extreme liberal shocking Republican Trump supporters.
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There is also freed criminal Ricky Sherman, whose 'personal' paintings are taken to one fine art expert and Erran Morad is a harsh Israeli anti-terrorism expert waving the flag for a new program he calls “Kinderguardians,” which would train kids aged to 16 how to use gun
In the first episode Morad gets two US congressmen to voice support for his fake "Kinderguardians" scheme for children as young as three.
The scheme includes a fake instructional video featuring children's songs and "gunimals" -- weapons adorned with soft toys -- that would purportedly help kids confront the school shootings that have plagued the United States for the past decade.
Republican members of Congress Dana Rohrabacher of California and Joe Wilson of South Carolina, along with former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, who is now a lobbyist at a Washington law firm, are shown enthusiastically backing the idea, alongside gun rights advocates and a former congressman-turned-talk radio host, Joe Walsh.
Mr Walsh told CNN on Saturday that he was tricked into reading the words off a teleprompter. Mr Walsh, the former congressman from Illinois, told CNN on Saturday that he had been asked by a documentary crew to read lines from a teleprompter endorsing various supposed Israeli innovations, including the idea of arming four-year-olds to defend themselves against terrorists.
Mr Walsh added that he is a fan of Baron Cohen. "He's a funny guy because he gets people to say stupid things."
Reuters contributed to this report
Ricky Sherman is now off to 'make' some art.
It is a portrait of the gallery worker he is talking to done with his own excrement.
To be fair, the poor woman is dealing with it beautifully.
The woman, Christy Cones - a fine art critic - is now offering her own pubic hair for his 'special' paint brush, as he asked for it. Dear me.
Here is the biggest section of the show - using Israeli character Erran Morad getting a number of gun advocates to talk about arming kids.
Firearms include the Uzicorn and the dino-gun for 'Kinderguardians'
We now have a song about where to shoot.
'Heads, shoulders - not the toes, not the toes'
The actions are something else. The gun involves a bunny cover, that gives you a sense of where we are at with this segment.
Baron Cohen now speaking to former members of Congress about the arming kids idea.
Reminder: They are talking about children aged four.
'The way to stop a bad man with a gun is a good kid with a gun'
Most interesting thing about that is the fact people are Googling the chairs being used for the interviews.
One of the most obvious ways Baron Cohen tried to get his guests was via the autocue.
This was genuinely said:
That was one of the most-shared elements of the show. I'm sure you are all aware, but those are all musicians in that statement. That is why you should never blindly read an autocue.
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