He is a British comic, actor, writer and producer and he has launched upon an unsuspecting world, characters such as Admiral General Aladeen, Ali G, very memorably Borat Sagdiyev and many others. BAFTA-winning satirist Sasha Baron Cohen is now making headlines because of his new show Who is America? Here he poses as an anti terror expert from Israel and actually manages to con several American politicians/congressmen into supporting a fake scheme to arm small kids with deadly guns. Yes, it is true - horrifyingly true, as you will see:
Baron Cohen assumes a fake personality as he does with such ease in other projects (like his idol Peter Sellers). He plays ‘terror terminator’ Col. Erran Morad. He introduces the problem of the spate of school shootings in the USA and proposes a ‘solution’. It is a programme he calls ‘Kindergaurdians’.
In this video we see Philip Van Cleave, an American gun lobby supporter getting taken in by Baron Cohen – his utterly outlandish suggestion of arming kids. Watch closely as the congressman speaks about ‘killing’ a bill that prevents access of children aged 4 to 12 to guns. At first you think that the congressman is in on it; but astonishingly, the man is perfectly serious! The duper and the dupee then proceed to make an ‘instruction’ video where kids are taught to load guns and shoot using fluffy animals and nursery rhymes. Again that congressman is perfectly serious! And then there is the segment with Larry Pratt who again speaks perfectly seriously about arming toddlers and even appears to endorse marital rape in a hideously nauseating nudge-nudge-wink-wink bit (later demonstrates his homophobia as well). By the twisted logic of Pratt’s world, the anti-gun people have “blood on their hands”. More follows; watch it all, I urge you.
“Happy shooting kids”, says Joe Walsh who also got conned. This is the explanation that he gave about being ‘set up’ under the guise of being presented an award from Israel. He also speaks about watching a video about Israel arming preschool kids and realizing much later that he had been ‘duped’.
One of the people targeted by the show was Republican Sarah Palin (who will feature in other episodes of the show) who expressed outrage that Baron Cohen posed as a disabled veteran. His disguise, according to her and many of her supporters, ‘crossed the line’. The claim is refuted by the Showtime network who issued a clarification that Cohen did not pose as a veteran at all.
Many have reacted in outrage; criticizing the show and Baron Cohen for being non-funny, bullying, obnoxious, dishonest and pathetic.
The general reaction has been of amazement, hilarity and complete admiration for the audacity of Cohen and everyone involved in creating the show as well as the kind of extremist political thought he has been able to expose via his show.
All things considered, the way that Cohen managed to con so many into making revealing statements about their beliefs and political ideologies exposes them as being exceedingly dim. What is really staggering is that he fooled them so successfully with his revolting ‘arm the kids’ project; that so many thought it was a good idea to put deadly weapons in the hands of ‘good kids’.
It would have been hard to believe if the stated pro-gun stances of those who were fooled weren’t already well established in the public domain. How on earth did they manage to hoodwink so many into supporting an absolutely deranged program to arm little children with deadly guns!
As the precursor to a new TV show, the released 10-minute clip has created headlines like few other shows would have. No TV show could have hoped to receive better pre-release publicity. Will it be able to convince people about the dangers of lax gun control laws? Will the show help people laugh while apprising them of the incredible extent to which their elected leaders will go to support the gun lobby?
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