Sacha Baron Cohen premiered his new Showtime series Who Is America?on Sunday night. While the most talked-about part of the first episode seems to be his jaw-dropping skewering of the American approach to gun regulation—he convinces several gun advocates, including a former member of Congress, to back the arming of toddlers in a fictional initiative dubbed “KinderGuardians”—another segment sees the comedian set his sights on a softer target: the art world.
Cohen has previously assumed the personas of such audacious fictional characters as Borat, a Kazakh TV journalist, and Ali G, a cringe-inducing poseur talk-show host, to gain access to unlikely interview candidates. Now, his latest prank show follows him as he travels across the United States under the guise of several new ridiculous characters—including the over-the-top gun-rights activist and a reflexively apologetic straight white liberal male—in an often-successful attempt to dupe the likes of Alaska governor Sarah Palin, former vice president Dick Cheney, and senator Bernie Sanders.
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