Politicians back arming kids in Who is America?

Who is America?’ s debut won attention on Sunday for hoodwinking Republican politicians into endorsing a made- up plan to train pre- schoolers how to fire a gun

New York: Who is America? is both the title of Sacha Baron Cohen’s first foray into television satire in more than a decade and the existential question on the lips of liberals living through the Trump presidency.

Trailed by a blaze of prelaunch publicity and a furious backlash from public figures who believe they have been pranked, its splashy debut won most attention on Sunday for hoodwinking Republican politicians into endorsing a made- up plan to train pre- schoolers how to fire a gun. The series brings seven episodes to pay- to-view channel Showtime. In Who is America? Cohen conjures up four new characters. Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., is an opponent of “mainstream” media who debates healthcare with left- leaning Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.

There is Nira Cain-N’ degeocello, who dines at the home of a Trump- voting couple and Rick Sherman is an ex- con turned artist who works in the medium of human feces and bodily fluids.

Finally, Israeli “anti- terror expert” Colonel Erran Morad pranks Republicans into endorsing a concocted plan to teach children as young as three and four how to fire a firearm, along with a Puppy Pistol.

The New York Times called the first episode “tepid and inconsequential,” and ill- suited to the times. If The New Yorker waxed lyrical about “sporadically excellent conceptual art,” trade magazine Variety warned Cohen’s nihilism can “itch and irritate more than enlighten and entertain.” The Guardian praised “one moment of viral gold”.