'Who Is America?' review: Sacha Baron Cohen shocks with segment on guns for pre-schoolers and baffles Trump supporters in new series
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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Hello and welcome to our coverage of Sacha Baron Cohen's new comedy Who is America? which is set to air on Showtime at 10pm ET (3am UK) and is then show across the pond in Britain on Channel 4 on Monday night.
American celebrities have taken to Twitter to show their support for the launch of Who Is America? Writer, actor and comedian Sarah Silverman posted a clip about arming children that is already going viral:
One of the main focuses of tonight's episode is gun violence in Trump's America. In particular, Baron Cohen manages to get various politicians to show support for arming kindergarten children; the 'kinderguardians'.
Trent Lott, former US senator, was filmed saying: "I support the kinderguardians program. We in America would be wise to implement it too. It is something we should think about in America, about putting guns in the hands of law abiding citizens, whether they be teachers or whether they actually be talented children or highly trained pre-schoolers."
In the same style as Borat and Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen adopts various different characters for Who Is America? One of them is Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr. PhD (who's parody Twitter account can be found here).
The new character is a journalist who runs the website Truthbrary.org, a US right-wing conspiracy theory site that is genuinely hilarious. With bizarre posts such as '21 Goals of the Illuminati' and 'Aliens/Pyramids', it is safe to say Baron Cohen has been thorough in his backstory for Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr. PhD.
Defeated Republican senatorial candidate Roy Moore is also on the list of politicians to admit Sacha Baron Cohen deceived him. It seems Mr Moore was invited to Washington D.C. where he was interviewed by Baron Cohen in disguise.
Mr Moore has had a highly controversial year. The Republican has been accused of unwanted sexual advances by multiple women who were teenagers at the time, however he denies all allegations.
After realising the man interviewing him was in fact a Hollywood star, Mr Moore accused Baron Cohen of "trickery, deception and dishonesty" and claimed that the new show seeks to "embarrass, humiliate and mock".
Sacha Baron Cohen has hit back at Sarah Palin after she branded the comedian "evil, exploitative" and "sick" after posing as a wounded US veteran to get an interview with her.
In character as Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr, PhD, Cohen continued to tear into political figures as part of the promotion of Who Is America? which will land on Showtime tonight at 10pm.
He responded to the damning Facebook post by releasing a statement under the guise of a right-wing journalist branding her comments as "FAKE NEWS".
The full list of people said to be have been duped by Baron Cohen includes Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Howard Dean, Alberto Gonzales, Bernie Sanders, Trent Lott, David Petraeus and Ted Koppel
There are a few tweets going around suggesting that anyone that has been duped by the new programme should probably not be involved in any discussions of classified information
We are less than 20 minutes away from the start of the programme, but some of those involved have spent all day looking to explain there participation. Former Congressman Joe Walsh says he will "live with" being "got" by Baron Cohen.
Well, we have started as we mean to go on. The 'truther' Republican character is talking to Bernie Sanders about healthcare and has said he would rather be 'raped' then send another dollar to the government.
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
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