In Sacha Baron Cohen’s provocative new comedy show, US politicians are filmed backing a fictitious program to teach kindergartners how to use guns to defend themselves in school shootings.
In a seven-episode series that launched on cable channel Showtime yesterday, the British prankster takes on four different personas as he satirizes the political and cultural life of the US in the era of US President Donald Trump.
In the first episode of Who Is America?, previewed for media by Showtime, Baron Cohen poses as an Israeli anti-terror expert who gets two US representatives 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 US for the past decade.
Republican US representatives Dana Rohrabacher and Joe Wilson, along with former US 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 US representative-turned-talk radio host, Joe Walsh.
Showtime and Baron Cohen declined to comment on the series.
Those shown endorsing the fake scheme, including the politicians, had not seen the finished show ahead of the show’s premiere.
Rohrabacher, Wilson and Lott did not immediately reply to requests for comment late on Saturday.
The show marks Baron Cohen’s first television project in a decade after he launched his comedy career as subversive white English rapper Ali G, whose interviewees included Trump and Former US House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich.
His 2006 faux documentary film Borat ridiculed Kazakhstan and Middle Americans.
In Who Is America?, Baron Cohen also takes aim at the media and political correctness, with the comedian posing as a pony-tailed liberal radio reporter on a post-2016 election cycling tour, and a man in a disability scooter who purports to investigate fake news.
In the first episode, Baron Cohen’s radio journalist persona is shown dining at the home of two Trump supporters in South Carolina and regaling them with lurid stories about his supposed family.
Walsh 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.
“I’ll probably laugh at myself” when the episode airs, Walsh said, adding that he is a fan of Baron Cohen. “He’s a funny guy because he gets people to say stupid things.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including