It was always going to be tough for Sacha Baron Cohen's new show to live up to the advance hype and for much of the first episode it didn't. When it didn't it was still fun in a Dom Joly/Dennis Pennis way, and when it was good it was up there with the best of Brass Eye. Albeit maybe a little too close stylistically to Brass Eye. Though maybe this is aimed more at American viewers, who may not be that familiar with Chris Morris.
The first half featured Baron Cohen in a number of disguises. Thanks to prosthetics he was unrecognisable as dimwit redneck Billy Wayne Ruddick Jnr, complaining to Bernie Sanders about the failings of Obamacare - after all, Ruddick says he went to the doctor and was diagnosed with three illnesses. What a swizz.
Playing self-styled CIS male Dr Nira Cain-N'Degeocello dining with two staunch Republicans in their house Baron Cohen was closer to Borat territory, making increasingly outrageous remarks as he explained that he made his daughter Malala urinate standing up to avoid sexual stereotyping and didn't let her use tampons, letting her bleed when seated on the US flag instead. His hosts looked on horrified but politely as he started talking about inter-species sex. After this an ex-convict aspiring artist who uses his own shit was fairly bog standard humour done very well. In fact isn't there a genuine artist who has done this?
It was in the second half that the political content was cranked up as Baron Cohen played Colonel Erran Morad, an Israeli who believed that children as young as three should be armed. Not any younger though, he added, it's not called the terrible twos for nothing. Arming a two year old would be bonkers.
Naturally it wasn't difficult finding Americans who supported his ideas and were even prepared to take part in his promotional video for "Kinderguardians" where children could shoot bad men with a "puppy pistol" or an "Uzicorn". By the time it got round to Gun Owners of America director Larry Pratt parroting: "children under five also have elevated levels of the pheromone Blink 182, produced by the part of the liver known as the Rita Ora." we were balls-deep into Chris Morris-era "Shatner's Bassoon" territory, but Baron Cohen had certainly made his point about gun control.
Maybe not the most original of programmes but excellently executed, funny and very timely, even if at times this felt like shooting fish in a barrel. No pun intended.
Who Is America?, C4, Mondays, 10pm.
