Bernie Sanders, Trent Lott and an unfortunate art gallery consultant in California are victims in the Showtime comedy’s debut.
As promised, the first episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s top-secret new series, Who Is America?, hoodwinked some of the biggest names in politics — on the left (Bernie Sanders) and the right (Trent Lott and more). There were also segments involving non-celebrities (a Trump delegate from South Carolina and an art gallery consultant from California) and a PSA with multiple, real-life Republican members of Congress encouraging Americans to support a program called “Kinderguardians” that would teach 4-year-olds how to shoot guns.
Here’s everything that happened in the first episode (read the review here):
Victim: Bernie Sanders
Character: Billy Wayne Ruddick, Jr., PhD
What Happened: Pretending to be a character who runs an Infowars-esque website called Truthbrary.org, Baron Cohen spoke with Bernie Sanders about redistributing the wealth of the 1 percent to the 99 percent — but wouldn’t acknowledge basic math (i.e. the way percentages work, and that everyone can’t be a member of the 1 percent because then that would equal 100 percent). After some frustrating circular logic and nonsensical flow charts (on Ruddick’s part), Sanders ended the interview, saying, “Billy, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Response: None as of air.
Victims: Philip Van Cleve, gun rights advocate; Larry Pratt, Gun Owners of America founder; Trent Lott, former Senate Majority Leader; Dana Rohrabacher, Republican congressman from California; Joe Wilson, Republican congressman from South Carolina; Joe Walsh, talk show host and former Republican congressman from Illinois; and Matt Gaetz, Republican congressman from Florida
Character: Col. Erran Morad
What Happened: Purporting to be an Israeli anti-terrorism advocate, Baron Cohen convinced gun pundit Van Cleve to film a children’s show about arming toddlers, teaching them how to load toddler-friendly guns (with stuffed puppy faces). He then interviews Pratt about the same thing (where Pratt jokes along when the Morad character says “it’s not rape if it’s your wife”), and convinces Lott, Rohrabacher, Wilson and Walsh to film a PSA encouraging people to support a toddler-arming program called “Kinderguardians.” The only person shown refusing to participate was Gaetz.
Response: After Sarah Palin was the first politician to publicly admit she’d been duped by the comedian, Walsh came forward with his won story on Twitter. Gaetz later confirmed he was approached by the same person Walsh was, but he wouldn’t endorse anything when he was asked.
Victim: June Page Thompson, South Carolina Trump delegate, and her husband Mark Thompson, a Trump voter
Character: Dr. Nira Cain-N’Degeocello
What Happened: Purporting to be a liberal man riding his bike across the country and talking to Trump voters to bridge a cultural divide, the ultra-liberal character went to the Thompsons’ home for dinner and told more and more outrageous stories about his life — that he forces his daughter to pee standing up, that he she free bleeds on American flags instead of using sanitary products, that his wife had an affair with a dolphin — as the couple politely nodded and played along. They were exceedingly polite, and never once called him out on the obviously ridiculous stories. At the end, once he was gone, they confessed they thought his values were “fucked up.”
Response: None as of air.
Victim: Christy Cones, fine art consultant, Coast Gallery, Laguna Beach
Character: Rick Sherman
What Happened: Posing as an ex-con who paints on cardboard with his bodily fluids, Baron Cohen fed a Laguna Beach gallery consultant a story that got more and more outlandish about his art — at one point he went to the bathroom and “drew” a picture of her (purported to be with his own feces) — that ended with her pulling up her skirt to donate a pubic hair to his special paintbrush, which he said was made with pubes from famous artists.
Response: In a story posted Sunday on The Washington Post’s website, Cones was shocked to learn the truth of what happened. “Oh my God, it was all an act? He faked his tears? I don’t care. Am I supposed to say I’m embarrassed? All conversations about art are important.”
The series also revealed its sizable writing staff: creator Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Dan Mazer, Lee Kern, Adam Lowitt, Brian Reich, Kurt Metzger, Eric Notarnicola and Aaron Geary, with Hines, Todd Schulman, Andrew Newman, Dan Mazer and Lowitt exec producing. The law office of Wendy Heller, Christina Tajalli and Jillian Waldrom provided legal services.
What did you think of the series premiere? Sound off in the comments section, below. Who Is America? runs Sundays on Showtime for another six weeks.
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