Sacha Baron Cohen Teases New Show With 10 Minute Video Clip

Sacha Baron Cohen's new show, Who Is America, got a special ten-minute-long teaser on Sunday just [...]

By Michael Hein

Sacha Baron Cohen's new show, Who Is America, got a special ten-minute-long teaser on Sunday just hours ahead of its official premier.

The new satirical series premiers on Showtime at 10 p.m. on Sunday night. Early that morning, Cohen stirred up the hype even more with a full segment showing just how far the show will go. In it, Cohen assumes the character of a gun rights activist from Israel. He advocates a program called Kinder Guardians, where children as young as three years old would be trained to carry guns in school to help prevent mass shootings.

As promised, Cohen shows off just how far he can push the envelope with politicians and, in this case, an activist and a lobbyist. He met with gun rights supporter Philip Van Cleave, who was easily convinced that Israel has a program in place to arm pre-schoolers to defend their classrooms. He supported the idea of enacting a similar program here in the United States.

"We've been pushing something along this line for years, but we haven't really gotten any traction," Cleave said. "We were thinking seventh or eight grade, you're talking much younger than that.

"My son was in the very same program," Cohen said in character. "May he rest in peace. He died doing what I love."

"Yeah, they haven't quite developed what we call conscience," Cleave said. "If they haven't developed that yet they can be very effective soldiers."

Later in the same segment, he travels to Washington, where a real gun lobbyist Larry Pratt helped him pitch the Kinder Guardians program to real Republican lawmakers. They took to it easily, endorsing the program on camera and extolling its values. Only one clip featured a congressman turning down the idea.

Though it has not even aired yet, the show is already at the center of a storm of controversy. It features more than a year's worth of Cohen's interviews with politicians, all of which were performed entirely in character and under false pretenses.

Another, shorter teaser released earlier this month showed former Vice President Dick Cheney agreeing amicably to sign a "waterboard kit."

"Sure," he said smiling. "That's the first time I've ever signed a waterboard."

Sarah Palin has also offered a glimpse of the show's premise in an outraged Facebook post about her run-in with Cohen. Cohen responded to this vitriol in kind, creating a Twitter account for his character and responding to Palin there.

Who is America premiers on Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.

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