Glock a bye baby...
IN Sacha Baron Cohen’s new comedy show, Who is America, the Brit disguises himself as an Israeli anti-terrorist expert.
Speaking to a series of politicians he tries to promote a new program to arm children as young as three years old to stop school shootings.
In character as Erran Morad, he says: “The only thing that stops a bad man with a gun is a good boy with a gun,” as several US lawmakers then endorse his idea of creating “kinder guardians”. The scheme included a fake instructional video featuring children’s songs and “gunimals” – weapons covered with soft toys – that would help kids confront the school shootings that have plagued the States for the past decade.
Republican congressmen Dana Rohrabacher of California and Joe Wilson of South Carolina, along with former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, were all shown enthusiastically backing the idea.
“It’s something we should think about, America. About putting guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens — good guys — whether they be teachers, or whether they actually be talented children or highly trained pre-schoolers,” said former Senate majority leader Lott.
“A three-year-old cannot defend itself from an assault rifle by throwing a Hello Kitty pencil case at it,” added Wilson.
The programme’s airing led to a string of complaints with many saying Cohen had duped his interviewees.
Although the Brit is known for his pranks, that does not explain or excuse the stupidity of supposedly reasonable adults backing the arming of nursery school toddlers.
The television series may be satirical, but it turns out not to be the biggest joke in town.