Just over halfway into its first season, there is no formal decision from Showtime about whether Sacha Baron Cohen’s controversial Who Is America? will be coming back. But the network’s CEO wants more.
“I’m dying to bring it back,” premium cabler boss David Nevins said Monday at TCA of the gotcha series from the Borat creator, admitting it “will be a process” because of the secrecy involved.
“There have been casual conversations, but the goal has been to launch Season 1, and he’s still knee-deep in it,” Showtime programming president Gary Levine said of Cohen and the series after today’s panel.
Noting in his opening remarks at the Beverly Hilton that Who Is America? created “a lot of controversy and a lot of signups,” Nevins himself stated that the series is “a risk I am are really glad we took.”
“I think Sasha is one of...
“I’m dying to bring it back,” premium cabler boss David Nevins said Monday at TCA of the gotcha series from the Borat creator, admitting it “will be a process” because of the secrecy involved.
“There have been casual conversations, but the goal has been to launch Season 1, and he’s still knee-deep in it,” Showtime programming president Gary Levine said of Cohen and the series after today’s panel.
Noting in his opening remarks at the Beverly Hilton that Who Is America? created “a lot of controversy and a lot of signups,” Nevins himself stated that the series is “a risk I am are really glad we took.”
“I think Sasha is one of...
- 8/6/2018
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Sacha Baron Cohen ended the premiere episode of his new Showtime comedy “Who Is America?” with a shocking 10-minute segment in which he introduced a plan to give guns to schoolchildren in order to start preparing young Americans to defend themselves. The segment, titled “Kill or Be Killed,” featured Cohen in character as anti-terror expert Colonel Erran Morad. Morad’s plan is to give guns to kindergarteners and to children as young as three years old.
The segment found Morad recruiting Virginia Citizens Defense League president Philip van Cleave to his cause. Cleave appeared with “Morad” in a children’s commercial to promote the initiative. The campaign tried to make guns appealing to kindergarteners by dressing up the weapons in animal costumes (see the above photo) and giving the guns names such as “Puppy Pistol.” Cohen also interviewed several Republican politicians who expressed interest in arming kindergarteners, including former congressman Joe Walsh.
The segment found Morad recruiting Virginia Citizens Defense League president Philip van Cleave to his cause. Cleave appeared with “Morad” in a children’s commercial to promote the initiative. The campaign tried to make guns appealing to kindergarteners by dressing up the weapons in animal costumes (see the above photo) and giving the guns names such as “Puppy Pistol.” Cohen also interviewed several Republican politicians who expressed interest in arming kindergarteners, including former congressman Joe Walsh.
- 7/16/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Update: The art gallery owner featured in the debut episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America? has responded to her segment, in which Cohen plays an ex-con looking to break into the art world as an artist whose medium is his own feces and sperm. “Sacha Baron Cohen owes me a face-to-face meeting as compensation for his underhanded tactics and his preying on the vulnerable, especially by pretending to be someone who suffered when he probably hasn’t suffered a moment in his life,” Christy Cones told the Washington Post.
- 7/15/2018
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
(Note: This post contains spoilers for the first episode of “Who Is America?” on Showtime.)
Sacha Baron Cohen blasted pro-gun advocates in the first episode of his new series, “Who is America,” mostly by just letting them talk on camera, and goading them on. Playing an Israeli former soldier named Col. Erran Morad, Baron Cohen discussed gun control with a number of pro-gun advocates, and got them to go all-in on advocating arming toddlers.
You can watch this portion of the episode in the video embedded at the top of this post.
Baron Cohen started with Virginia Citizens Defense League President Philip Van Cleave, with whom he discussed the idea of arming children. Van Cleave mentioned that he had worked on a program that would train seventh and eighth graders in gun usage. He also basically discusses the virtue of child soldiers.
Also Read: What Really Is the Point of...
Sacha Baron Cohen blasted pro-gun advocates in the first episode of his new series, “Who is America,” mostly by just letting them talk on camera, and goading them on. Playing an Israeli former soldier named Col. Erran Morad, Baron Cohen discussed gun control with a number of pro-gun advocates, and got them to go all-in on advocating arming toddlers.
You can watch this portion of the episode in the video embedded at the top of this post.
Baron Cohen started with Virginia Citizens Defense League President Philip Van Cleave, with whom he discussed the idea of arming children. Van Cleave mentioned that he had worked on a program that would train seventh and eighth graders in gun usage. He also basically discusses the virtue of child soldiers.
Also Read: What Really Is the Point of...
- 7/15/2018
- by Phil Hornshaw
- The Wrap
Sacha Baron Cohen’s new series “Who is America?” finds the chameleon comedian back to his pranking ways, setting up “gotcha” interviews with various people, both famous and not-so-famous, and tricking them into going along with dumb stuff. And like on “Da Ali G Show,” Baron Cohen is playing several different characters — four, in fact, in this first episode.
All those characters mean each episode finds Baron Cohen interviewing a variety of people, and making them look dumb. His characters have quite a few ridiculous jokes to dispense in that effort, largely born from the caricatures of people and their politics that he brings to the show. Here are the best jokes from the first episode of Baron Cohen’s “Who is America.”
The 99 percent solution chart
In interviewing Bernie Sanders, Baron Cohen’s character, a right-wing Infowars-esque guy called Dr. Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., Ph.D., discusses income inequality.
All those characters mean each episode finds Baron Cohen interviewing a variety of people, and making them look dumb. His characters have quite a few ridiculous jokes to dispense in that effort, largely born from the caricatures of people and their politics that he brings to the show. Here are the best jokes from the first episode of Baron Cohen’s “Who is America.”
The 99 percent solution chart
In interviewing Bernie Sanders, Baron Cohen’s character, a right-wing Infowars-esque guy called Dr. Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., Ph.D., discusses income inequality.
- 7/15/2018
- by Phil Hornshaw and Phil Owen
- The Wrap
When David Nevins called Sacha Baron Cohen “the premier provocateur of our time” in announcing the new Who Is America? series, the Showtime boss was certainly honest to a fault. Full of mild shock, zero awe and a lot of recycled scenarios, the flabby, seven-episode dupe-the-dimwits endeavor from the once blighting satirist certainly provokes a great inducement to change the cable channel.
Or to paraphrase a true great provocateur, Johnny Rotten: Boring, Sasha, boring
Debuting tonight on streaming, online, and On Demand – and on Showtime proper tomorrow at 7 Pm Pt – the spoof series starts off with a quickly irritated Sen. Bernie Sanders being mildly grilled by a prosthetically enhanced Cohen, who is not that well-disguised as motorized scooter-bound, Alex Jones wannabe Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr. of Truthbrary.org.
Though Ali G was genius and Borat was brilliant, the subsequent offerings leading to Who Is America? intimate that the decline and...
Or to paraphrase a true great provocateur, Johnny Rotten: Boring, Sasha, boring
Debuting tonight on streaming, online, and On Demand – and on Showtime proper tomorrow at 7 Pm Pt – the spoof series starts off with a quickly irritated Sen. Bernie Sanders being mildly grilled by a prosthetically enhanced Cohen, who is not that well-disguised as motorized scooter-bound, Alex Jones wannabe Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr. of Truthbrary.org.
Though Ali G was genius and Borat was brilliant, the subsequent offerings leading to Who Is America? intimate that the decline and...
- 7/15/2018
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
In an explosive, wide-ranging interview on MSNBC, Chris Matthews and the executive director of Gun Owners of America, Larry Pratt, battled over his organization’s opposition to any new federal gun control legislation. “We don’t trust people like you,” Pratt exclaimed when pressed about his opposition to laws which he claimed could lead to a creation of a national gun registry.
- 4/4/2013
- by Noah Rothman
- Mediaite - TV
"War has Rules. Mud wrestling has rules. Politics has no rules" - Ross Perot, Presidential Candidate, 1988
If you were asked to pick a quote worthy and capable of describing a [Will] Ferrell and [Zac] Galifiankis production, you could do worse than the above.
An honest quote (unbelievably) from Ross Perot - a well known businessman best remembered as an ex Presidential candidate - it perfectly sums up the tone and attitude of both the film and it's leading co-stars. And yet, a simple Google search later and it would seem that The Campaign borrows more than just Mr. Perot's wholly ridiculous - but worryingly accurate - quote...but more on that later.
As Cam Brady and Marty Huggins, Ferrell and Galifiankis (respectively) present an intriguing mix of slapstick, ingenuity and mockery at it's finest. Ferrell's superbly smug and condescending demeanor - the same demeanor we came to idolise when associated with Burgundy,...
If you were asked to pick a quote worthy and capable of describing a [Will] Ferrell and [Zac] Galifiankis production, you could do worse than the above.
An honest quote (unbelievably) from Ross Perot - a well known businessman best remembered as an ex Presidential candidate - it perfectly sums up the tone and attitude of both the film and it's leading co-stars. And yet, a simple Google search later and it would seem that The Campaign borrows more than just Mr. Perot's wholly ridiculous - but worryingly accurate - quote...but more on that later.
As Cam Brady and Marty Huggins, Ferrell and Galifiankis (respectively) present an intriguing mix of slapstick, ingenuity and mockery at it's finest. Ferrell's superbly smug and condescending demeanor - the same demeanor we came to idolise when associated with Burgundy,...
- 1/25/2013
- Shadowlocked
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