British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest comedy sees him trick US congressmen into supporting a program to arm toddlers
BRITISH comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest comedy stunt has seen him trick US congressmen into supporting a programme that would give toddlers guns.
The headline-grabbing segment from his controversial new show Who Is America? is just one of several outrageous tricks he played in the first episode.
It aired in the US last night, marking the comedy star's first return to TV since the runaway success of his breakthrough program, The Ali G Show.
Who Is America? features four new characters who coax hilarious and sometimes extremely shocking statements and reactions from interview subjects.
His characters include the gun-happy Israeli and former Mossad agent Erran Morad, who has created a series of child-friendly firearms.
There is also Clinton-hating conspiracy theorist Billy Wayne Ruddick, liberal professor Dr Nira Cain-N’Degeocello and British ex-convict Ricky Sherman.
Here, we take a look at some of the show's most shocking moments...
Posing as Israeli anti-terror expert Colonel Erran Morad, Cohen gets politicians to voice support for his fictional "Kinderguardians" scheme.
The episode includes a fake video featuring children's songs and "gunimals", weapons decorated with soft toys which would help kids confront school shooters.
Prominent firearm advocate Philip Van Cleave is seen demonstrating the so-called "puppy pistol", a gun with a cuddly dog attached to it.
"Today we can teach you how to stop these naughty men and make them take a long nap," van Cleave tells the audience.
Pointing the gun at the camera, he adds: "Point puppy pistol's mouth right at the bad man. If he has a big, fat tummy, point it at that."
Republican congressmen Dana Rohrabacher and Joe Wilson, along with former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, are filmed enthusiastically backing the idea.
Rohrabacher said in the footage: "Maybe having young people trained and understanding to how defend themselves and their schools, might actually make us safer here.”
Wilson said: "A three-year-old cannot defend itself against an assault rifle by throwing a Hello Kitty pencil case at it."
In another segment as Erran Morad, Baron Cohen interviews Larry Pratt, the director of Gun Owners of America.
He explains how he was shot by his wife because he "got horny in the middle of the night".
He adds this is OK, because: "It’s not rape if it’s your wife."
Pratt appears to find this concept hilarious and bursts in to a fit of laughter until he's red in the face.
A central character in the first episode is Charles Bronson-esque prisoner Rick Sherman, a British ex-con who found solace in painting behind bars.
The only catch is, Sherman makes his pieces - some of which feature Stephen Lawrence's killers - using his own bodily fluids and faeces.
In true Cohen fashion, a stoney-faced Sherman takes his dark drawings to a Laguna Beach art gallery and shows them off to its director.
At the end of the segment, the gallery director cuts off some of her pubic hair to donate to Sherman's paintbrush, the Mirror reports.
Former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who was tricked into doing an interview for the show, has since accused Cohen of being "exploitative and sick".
In a scathing Facebook post, the ex-governor of Alaska revealed Cohen convinced her he was a wheelchair bound former serviceman named Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr.
She wrote: "Yup - we were duped. Ya' got me, Sacha. Feel better now?
"I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitative, sick 'humour' of the British 'comedian' Sacha Baron Cohen."
Palin claimed she sat through a long interview with Baron Cohen posing as conspiracy theorist Ruddick but eventually stormed out.
She claimed the final straw was when he tried to claim Chelsea Clinton was the recipient of a government-funded sex change.
Posing citizen journalist Ruddick Jr on Twitter, Cohen hit back to demand and apology from Palin, saying: "I did NOT say I was a War Vet.
"I was in the service, not military, but United Parcel, and I fought for my country once... when I shot a Mexican who came onto my property."
This first episode of the TV show featured a hilarious segment in which Erran Morad managed to get Pratt to read a script about why kids should be armed.
Unbeknown to him, the dialogue he was given was nonsense and laced with the names of popular musicians and bands in the place of scientific nouns.
Pratt declared: "Children under five also have elevated levels of the pheromone Blink-182, produced by the part of the liver known as the Rita Ora.
"This allows nerve reflexes to travel along the Cardi B neural pathway to the Wiz Khalifa 40% faster, saving time and saving lives."
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