{"id":935305,"date":"2026-10-20T19:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T19:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935305\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T19:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T19:54:09","slug":"sacha-baron-cohen-says-of-problematic-ali-g-the-joke-is-on-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935305\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacha Baron Cohen Says of ‘Problematic’ Ali G: ‘The Joke is on Him’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSacha Baron Cohen<\/a> has explained why he decided to resurrect his buffoon alter-ego Ali G<\/a> after more than a decade.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe fact that Ali G is outdated and problematic is the very reason I resurrected him,\u201d Baron Cohen writes in a cover essay for Time<\/a> magazine.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe world he\u2019s returned to is, in many ways, worse than the one he left 20 years ago. All the prejudices my characters are designed to expose haven\u2019t just lingered\u2014they\u2019ve metastasized. They\u2019re fueled by the greatest propaganda machine in history\u2014social media\u2014and now by its monstrous child, AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe tracksuit-clad character, whose full name is Alistair Graham, returns in \u201cAli G: Who Iz I?\u201d alongside Morgana Robinson as Julie. Production of the satirical film was shrouded in secrecy. But his return has prompted mixed reactions, with some people voicing their disapproval of Ali G, who has been criticized for his sexism, cultural appropriation and even racism.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the film\u2019s recent premiere, Baron Cohen \u2013 in character as Ali G \u2013 was asked by Variety about the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, to which he replied: \u201cThe only merger that\u2019s happening tonight is me and Sydney Sweeney\u2019s babylons\u201d \u2013 a response that stoked the controversy.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his essay, Baron Cohen says that\u2019s the point, because the character is a satirical figure designed to expose prejudice.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always designed my characters and comedy as vehicles to expose prejudice, bias, and stupidity, though I realize not everyone sees them that way,\u201d Baron Cohen writes in Time. \u201cAli G is a white imbecile\u2014a delusional cultural appropriator\u2014who steals the fashion and lyrics from his favorite gangsta rap and dancehall idols, from Compton to Kingston.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe joke is on him, and on the predominantly white male establishment who take him seriously enough to believe that HBO would hire the stupidest man in the world as an interview host. Like a good bouffon, he undermines that establishment\u2014not the culture he loves and borrows from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the piece, the actor and writer referenced the history of satire, from Ancient Greece through to \u201cMonty Python.\u201d \u201cRegardless of the madness, the method is the same: make the audience laugh as hard and as much as possible, while holding up a mirror to reflect back things that aren\u2019t always comfortable to see or warn of trends we\u2019d rather look away from.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sacha Baron Cohen has explained why he decided to resurrect his buffoon alter-ego Ali G after more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[371081,64,63,447,134,18297],"class_list":["post-935305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ali-g","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-sacha-baron-cohen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}