Who is America? first look: Sacha Baron Cohen gets American politicians to support arming of school children

Who is America?, Sacha Baron Cohen’s brand new mockumentary on American network Showtime, is a must-watch political satire that is as hilarious as it is disturbing. Terming Who is America? disturbing will be an understatement. The show, where Cohen portrays different characters belonging to various political leanings, is scary to watch. The show tackles relevant and highly controversial topics raging through American media in the aftermath of Donald Trump being elected the President. Showtime posted the first look video of Who is America? on YouTube. Over 10 minutes in length, the first look video introduces Cohen’s character of Erran Morad, an Israeli anti-terrorism expert and colonel in the Israeli military. The first topic of discussion for Morad is the menace of American school shootings. Morad has the perfect solution to the problem: a program called Kinderguardians where children from ages three to 16 are armed with guns. In order to make this program a reality, he sets out to meet a number of right-wing, NRA-backing personalities. If you’re thinking arming toddlers with guns would sound like a crazy idea to many, then wait till you meet Philip Van Cleave; gun rights advocate and President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. When Morad explains to him that he wants American kids to be trained in using guns, Cleave says, “I think it would be a good idea”. Van Cleave explains that children can be “very effective soldiers” as they do not have the ability to differentiate right from wrong. The two then shoot an instructional video for toddlers, featuring products like ‘puppy pistol’, ‘gunny rabbit’, ‘uzicorn’, ‘dino-gun’, ‘rocket ship RPG’ and ‘Best Firearm Forever’. [caption id=“attachment_4759551” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  A still from Who is America?/Image from Twitter.[/caption] Later, Morad arrives in Washington to “find politicians who would fight for the second amendment right of toddlers to bear firearms in preschool”. He interviews Larry Pratt, Executive Director for Gun Owners of America, who exclaims “Oh, that’s great” when told about the Kinderguardians plan. Pratt wholeheartedly agrees with Morad’s statement, “The only thing that stop a bad man with a gun is a good boy with a gun,” and replies, “Yeah, even a good toddler”. A few misogynistic and Islamophobic jokes later, Morad sets off to the US Capitol building to get support for his Kinderguardians plan. The following three minutes of the video show actual American politicians endorse Morad’s Kinderguardians plan using catchphrases such as, “a first grader can become a first grenader,” “the way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good kid with a gun,” and “happy shooting, kids”. Watch the full video here.

Showtime also teased the upcoming episode with a video clip of Bernie Sanders. In the video, Cohen is Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr, a far-right conspiracy theorist who publishes his investigations on his website TRUTHBRARY.org. In the hilarious clip, Sanders can be seen confused as he tries to explain to Barry basic math, and how income equality works. Watch the video here.

Who is America? is scheduled to have seven episodes.