Sacha Baron Cohen tricks gun-rights advocates, politicians in first preview of new show 'Who Is America?'
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WHO IS AMERICA? Photo: Gavin Bond/SHOWTIME (Copyright: 2018 Showtime)
Showtime has released 10 minutes of Sacha Baron Cohen’s new stunt series, which has already been making headlines for mocking Donald Trump and tricking Sarah Palin, Ted Koppel, Roy Moore, Joe Arpaio and more.
In the clip for his new series “Who Is America?” Cohen dons the disguise of a new character, Colonel Erran Morad, a so-called anti-terrorism expert. In the preview, Morad does an exploration into America’s issue with school shootings mockingly advocating for arming children as young as four. He sits down with Virginia Citizens Defense League president, and gun-rights advocate, Philip van Cleave, to trick him into saying some questionable things about 2nd Amendment rights in the U.S.
He even goes as far as to get van Cleave to star in a fake instructional video that seeks to use pleasant animals and cartoon characters to explain how to use guns, rifles and even rocket launchers to kindergarteners.
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“Remember to point Puppy Pistol’s mouth right in the middle of the bad man, if he has a big tummy, point at that,” van Cleave says.
Cohen doesn’t stop there. He even gets a slew of republican congressmen and senators to voice their support for the prankster’s fake program “Kinderguardians,” a fictional three-week program that boasts giving toddlers training with arms. Despite one congressman noting that politicians typically don't hear about a program and then voice their support for it publicly, several do on camera.
However, perhaps the person that comes off looking the most scathed by Cohen’s prank is executive director of emeritus of Gun Owners of America Larry Pratt. At the end of the video, he recites language that’s apparently from a teleprompter citing fake facts that include the misused names of pop culture figures like Cardi B, Rita Ora and Blink-182.
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“Toddlers are pure, uncorrupted by fake news or homosexuality. They don’t worry if it’s politically correct to shoot a mentally deranged gunman, they’ll just do it. The science behind this program is proven. At age 4, a child processes images 80 percent faster than an adult, meaning that essentially, like owls, they can see in slow motion. Children under five also have elevated levels of the pheromone ‘Blink-182’, produced by the part of the liver known as the Rita Ora,” he says in the video. “This allows nerve reflexes to travel along the Cardi B neural pathway to the Wiz Khalifa 30 percent faster, saving time and saving lives.”
You can watch the 10-minute teaser for “Who Is America?” below.