\n\tAli G\u2019s grand return has not exactly been met with overwhelming celebration. <\/p>\n
\n\tThat\u2019s at least the case from various corners of his home soil in the U.K., where a campaign has been launched aimed at stopping the character\u2019s latest outing from hitting cinema screens.<\/p>\n
\n\tFollowing the release earlier this week of the trailer for Amazon MGM<\/a>\u2018s \u201cAli G: Who Iz I?<\/a>,\u201d a new mockumentary following Sacha Baron Cohen<\/a>\u2018s famed faux rude boy, online negativity against the satirical figure and film has steadily grown. Many have taken to social media to accuse Ali G, who in the trailer is seen wearing fake dreadlocks and a Rastafarian hat and discussing his desire to be an \u201cabsent\u201d father, of being an \u201coutdated\u201d and \u201cracist\u201d caricature.<\/p>\n \n\tOn Wednesday, NewsCord \u2014 a news comparison and media monitoring platform \u2014 started a campaign urging cinemas around the world to refuse to screen the film, emailing major chains with the request on behalf of those who register. As of Friday, it claims to have been instructed to send more than 36,000 emails.<\/p>\n \n\tThe campaign accuses Cohen of using satire as a \u201ccover for enforcing racist stereotypes,\u201d citing a newspaper report from 2000, just two years after Ali G first hit British TV screens, in which Black British comedians claimed the character was an \u201calibi for racism.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOriginally launched by Cohen in 1998 as part of Channel 4\u2019s \u201c11 O\u2019Clock Show,\u201d Ali G was created as a dim-witted white man imitating urban British hip-hop and Jamaican culture, the joke being that his deliberately offensive nature poked fun at his own ignorance and cultural appropriation in general. But in the 2000 article,\u00a0the comedian Felix Dexter argued that the character \u201callows the liberal middle classes to laugh at Black street culture in a context where they can retain their sense of political correctness\u201d \u2014 \u00a0views now echoed by many 26 years on and repeated as part of the NewsCord campaign. Meanwhile, Jeanette Winterson added: \u201cI don\u2019t know what the difference is between him and the Black and White Minstrels.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn a new Substack post, British writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch asserted that, as offensive as she found Ali G in her youth \u2014 \u201cI just knew he was mocking us,\u201d she wrote \u2014 the character is now widely out of sync with today\u2019s times.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBlack people don\u2019t dress like that anymore. Even white people imitating Black people don\u2019t talk like that anymore. Sexualizing black women and casually mocking working class women is not accepted anymore,\u201d she wrote. \u201cBaron Cohen\u2019s so-called \u2018humor\u2019 is a crude compound of all these things.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHowever, reports that NewsCord\u2019s campaign against \u201cAli G: Who Iz I?\u201d had already landed a major victory appear to be untrue. The site posted a reply from Picturehouse Cinemas to one its emails in which the U.K. exhibitor stated, \u201cWe currently do not have any plans to screen this film on its release,\u201d which NewsCord claimed meant the chain would \u201cnot\u201d be showing the title. This was subsequently picked up in the U.K. press.<\/p>\n \n\tVariety understands that the email was actually a standard customer response from Picturehouse to any release query about a film that hasn\u2019t yet been booked by the company and didn\u2019t appear on its schedule, with no decision yet made about \u201cAli G: Who Iz I?.\u201d That being said, given the Picturehouse\u2019s usual lean towards arthouse cinema and the film\u2019s release date during the London Film Festival and the start of awards season, it\u2019s perhaps unlikely that Ali G: Who Iz I?\u201d would be a major focus for the chain anyway.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cCinemas are there to engage and entertain the widest possible audience. They are not there to act as censors or arbiters of public taste,\u201d Phil Clapp, head of the U.K. Cinema Association, told Variety regarding the campaign. \u201cSo where a film has been given a certificate by the BBFC, they will decide whether or not to play it solely with the likely response of their audience in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhile it\u2019s unknown whether Cohen expected the level of backlash to \u201cAli G: Who Iz I?\u201d that has arisen, it\u2019s clear he at least anticipated some negative retaliation. In a tweet linked to the trailer for \u201cAli G: Who Iz I?,\u201d he wrote: \u201cIn an age when a single comedian\u2019s career can be ended by a single un-PC joke, I thought I\u2019d play it safe and bring this guy back.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt should also be noted that, despite the sizeable number of detractors, \u201cAli G: Who Iz I?\u201d has also received considerable enthusiasm online from those looking forward to the film. Among those voicing their support on social media are both Kevin Durant and A$AP Rocky. <\/p>\n \n\tVariety has reached out to Amazon and Cohen\u2019s reps at CAA for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ali G\u2019s grand return has not exactly been met with overwhelming celebration. 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