Watch Sacha Baron Cohen Dupe Gun Lobby in ‘Who Is America?’ Clip
UPDATE: The art gallery owner featured in the debut episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America? has responded to her segment, in which Cohen plays an ex-con looking to break into the art world as an artist whose medium is his own feces and sperm. “Sacha Baron Cohen owes me a face-to-face meeting as compensation for his underhanded tactics and his preying on the vulnerable, especially by pretending to be someone who suffered when he probably hasn’t suffered a moment in his life,” Christy Cones told the Washington Post. “That’s the least he could do after putting me through this. That, and buy a painting.”
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Sacha Baron Cohen takes a frightening yet funny look at gun rights in America in the first clip from Who Is America?, the new Showtime series that finds the well-disguised comedian duping the likes of Sarah Palin, Roy Moore and Dick Cheney.
In this first look at the seven-episode series, premiering Sunday on Showtime, Cohen plays Israeli anti-terrorist expert Col. Erran Morad. The character’s fuzzy logic goal is to “get deadly weapons in the hands of schoolchildren” in an effort to prevent school shootings.
Cohen’s character sits down with gun rights activist Philip Van Cleave to expose the lengths the gun lobby goes to stop any gun control measures, including one bill that would have prevented ages children 4 to 12 from handling weapons.
“They tried to stop four-year-old children from having access to guns? What is the logic that these people come up with,” Morad asks Van Cleave before recruiting the activist’s help on a “common sense training” instructional video for three-year-olds.
“Just remember to point Puppy Pistol’s mouth at the middle of the bad man,” Van Cleave says in a cartoon schoolroom setting. “Aim at the head, shoulders, not the toes, not the toes.”
With instructional video in hand, Morad then sits down with lobbyist Larry Pratt, head of the 1.5 million-member Gun Owners of America, to help pass a law allowing four-year-olds access to weapons.
“The good thing about toddlers is that they don’t really have fear of guns. This fear is given to them by the media,” Morad says. “Let’s see if we can stop these anti-gun people from getting everyone killed.”
Pratt’s support gives Cohen’s character access to politicians like former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, California congressman Dana Rohrabacher, South Carolina congressman Joe Wilson and radio host Joe Walsh, all of whom back Morad’s proposal to arm preschoolers.