{"id":656855,"date":"2026-10-25T18:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/656855\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T18:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:00:09","slug":"hes-not-going-to-punk-me-ill-trick-him-ali-g-who-iz-i-stooge-says-he-was-in-on-joke-but-didnt-tell-sacha-baron-cohen-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/656855\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He\u2019s not going to punk me. I\u2019ll trick him\u2019: Ali G: Who Iz I? stooge says he was in on joke but didn\u2019t tell Sacha Baron Cohen | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua Loudermilk, one of two men apparently discredited by the new Ali G movie Ali G: Who Iz I<\/a>?, has said that he was in on the joke, but that the film-makers didn\u2019t realise this.<\/p>\n

Loudermilk, a 54-year-old aspiring actor from North Carolina, has told the Guardian he recognised star Sacha Baron Cohen<\/a> early in the shoot but continued pretending to be a hard-right Maga sympathiser prepared to defend the US border at all costs.<\/p>\n

The movie involves Loudermilk being recruited by another Cohen character, the ex-Mossad terrorist expert Col Erran Morad, to help form a citizens\u2019 warrior force to protect US borders, making use of his top-secret new weapon: a gun disguised as buttocks.<\/p>\n

Along with fellow recruit Michael Aboud, the chair of the El Paso county Republican party, Loudermilk joins Morad on a mission to stop the birth on US soil of the baby of a fictional South American drugs kinpin. This involves abducting a woman apparently in labour, abandoning her in a deserted medical facility, kidnapping her newborn child (a lifelike prosthetic) and driving it in a zipped bag to the border in order to deliver it by drone to Mexico.<\/p>\n

Aboud is shown taking the decision to drop the child from a great height into Mexico rather than have it touch US soil. He has since called Cohen a \u201cliar\u201d and a \u201cpervert\u201d and expressed his intention to sue. The film repeatedly stresses that both men were \u201cnot in on it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Loudermilk has told the Guardian he was surprised the production company did not notice social media updates he posted shortly after the shoot in which he named Cohen and expressed his excitement about the project.<\/p>\n

But rather than being upset about his involvement, Loudermilk \u2013 who recently appeared as Squire Dap in the North Carolina Town of Hudson Fall Dinner Theatre\u2019s production of Camelot \u2013 says he welcomes the publicity boost.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to use this to my benefit,\u201d he says. \u201cI would hope Sacha would read this and laugh, like: \u2018Hey, you got me!\u2019 I had so much fun creating that character. I was trying to see if I was any good at acting in comedy. And I realised: \u2018Oh, I think I\u2019m good at this.\u2019 And that\u2019s what I wanna do for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua Loudermilk. Photograph: Joshua Loudermilk<\/p>\n

His experience began in September 2025 when Loudermilk spotted a post on Craigslist<\/a> by a body called the American Citizen Initiative (whose website is no longer active) recruiting \u201cpatriotic legal Americans\u201d \u201cconcerned about the border crisis\u201d who \u201cbelieve that illegal immigration is out of control\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ad, one of dozens posted across US states simultaneously, invited \u201creal American citizens\u201d to \u201cattend an exclusive, hands-on event experience where you\u2019ll learn the truth about what\u2019s happening on the border and how you can make a difference\u201d. Attendees were promised $300 as well as travel expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like: this seems kind of weird,\u201d says Loudermilk, who describes himself as broadly apolitical. \u201cI don\u2019t really care much about our borders. My mom\u2019s from Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently made redundant, his motivation for responding was primarily financial. \u201cI know rightwing and leftwing organisations have money and will pay people to just hold a sign up. I remember thinking: I wanna get on that gravy train. I want some George Soros money. I\u2019ll pretend to be whatever. Just let me feed my family. It could have been save the whales and I would have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his application, Loudermilk fabricated hard-right views, mentioned that he had been a preacher and neglected to declare his ambitions to become a comedy actor \u2013 in part, he says, out of embarrassment. He then filled in a \u201csilly questionnaire \u2013 very obvious, very slanted to the right\u201d.<\/p>\n

Loudermilk was then called for a video interview, which involved the identification of left-leaning celebrities, as well as figures including Borat, Cohen\u2019s bumbling Kazakh reporter, who Loudermilk duly named.<\/p>\n

He was also asked if he was a Trump supporter. \u201cThe funny thing is: not really. He\u2019s just a leader. But I was like: I\u2019m going to be an improv actor so I said: \u2018Yeah, I support Trump!\u2019 Next thing I know they\u2019re like, \u2018We want you to come out to be a part of this.\u2019<\/p>\n

The company flew him to Ontario, California, with an initial offer of $1,000, plus food and expenses, on top of which Loudermilk received a further $700. \u201cIt was all real secretive. They frisked me down and I got in a truck to go to a karate studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once he arrived, Loudermilk was greeted by security and informed an Israeli commander wanted to meet him. \u201cThat was a red flag. Why would Israeli commander be in America? I go in there and immediately I see this really tall guy with this horrible plastic surgery. My first thought was: that looks like Sacha Cohen. But I was like: nah, that can\u2019t be him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sacha Baron Cohen as ex-Mossad terrorist expert Col Erran Morad in the 2018 show Who is America? Photograph: Showtime<\/p>\n

Loudermilk\u2019s suspicions were further raised, he says, when he met his fellow recruits. \u201cThey were old, old, old white guys who were really out of shape. Everyone\u2019s wearing these Trump shirts. They didn\u2019t seem like warriors. I thought: they could probably get better people for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morad then produced the top-secret new gun in the shape of large, strap-on bottom, out of which bullets are fired from the anus. Initially, Loudermilk was baffled by its logistics. \u201cI kept thinking: no-one\u2019s gonna wear that thing because your butt\u2019s gonna be abnormally large. No one has a butt like that. Are you gonna put a butt on top of a butt? You can\u2019t run in that. And you\u2019d have to wear some really big khaki pants.\u201d<\/p>\n

He volunteered to be first to try the weapon out, whereupon Morad demonstrated the trigger system, which involves the pumping of an attached rubber penis. \u201cAnd he kept calling it \u2018shmeckel\u2019. I\u2019m like: that\u2019s Sacha Cohen. At that moment I knew it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I was like: oh no, I can\u2019t break character. I\u2019ve got to go along with it. So what I decided [was] that whatever he did, I was going to take it another step further. He\u2019s not going to punk me; I\u2019m going to trick him. So I decided to get into character and just have a good time because they\u2019re paying me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the plot became more \u201cridiculous\u201d, says Loudermilk, so his enjoyment increased. During a scene in which he, Morad and Aboud help deliver the (prosthetic) baby, the three men become covered with fake excrement. \u201cThis big blast of pooping pap,\u201d recalls Loudermilk \u2013 but he was reassured after inadvertently sampling some of the fluids. \u201cI thought: \u2018This doesn\u2019t taste bad.\u2019 So I just kind of hung in there. It was disgusting, but I was having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loudermilk and Aboud in Ali G: Who Iz I? Photograph: Ali G: Who Iz I?<\/p>\n

At the climax at the Mexican border, says Loudermilk, he handed the remote control to the drone to Aboud, \u201cbecause that was boring. It was ridiculous \u2013 they\u2019re not flying a real baby\u201d. Instead, he \u201cwanted to have fun with Sacha,\u201d so he grabbed the \u201cbutt-gun\u201d, yelling about the need to defend themselves, and eventually discharged fire, aided by Morad, who helps pump the penis trigger.<\/p>\n

Loudermilk declines to defend Aboud\u2019s decision to then endanger the life of the baby by dropping it from the drone, but expresses some sympathy for his unwitting co-star.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt sorry for the poor fella. Because I\u2019m all-in and he\u2019s just kind of following me around like in a daze, like: what\u2019s happening? He was scared to death, and obviously very uncomfortable, bless his heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never met the guy before, but [at times] it felt he was totally freaking out on me. So I had to make him believe that I believed all this. So I would tell him, \u2018You\u2019re being a wimp, man. Our freedom is on the line.\u2019 I kept trying to keep him from quitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m surprised he didn\u2019t figure it out. Like, come on, Michael \u2013 why would they recruit you to defend our border? Think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loudermilk concedes his decision to maintain the pretence of being far-right once he had worked out the true nature of the project was in part because he \u201cwas a little offended. Like: really? You\u2019re picking on these Americans that aren\u2019t the brightest. You\u2019re gonna make fun of them and they\u2019re not gonna know any better. So I decided I needed to be their ally, even though I\u2019m not that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baron Cohen at the film\u2019s Los Angeles premiere. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni\/Reuters<\/p>\n

At the end of filming, Loudermilk signed a non-disclosure agreement at the request of the production company, which he says he was not given a copy of, and which mostly related to the top-secret weapons. \u201cThey came up to me after I was done and said, \u2018Oh, you did so well!\u2019 I said, \u2018You get what you need? Can I talk about it?\u2019 They said, \u2018Oh no, not yet. Especially the butt-gun.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Loudermilk considers any such terms breached now the film is out and mentions him by name: \u201cIt\u2019s fair game.\u201d He adds that, after shooting, he had some qualms about not coming clean to them that he had twigged. \u201cI felt a little bad. And that\u2019s why I thought: I should make a little post.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December last year, Loudermilk posted three times on his public Facebook page about \u201ceight hours of intense filming one on one with Sasha [sic] Cohen\u201d, as well as twice on his Instagram, which is also public.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they never saw it. And the fact they missed that makes it even better to me. So I guess it\u2019s on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, representatives for the film confirmed again to the Guardian that Loudermilk was not in on the joke. They have not yet responded to a further followup question on this.<\/p>\n

The film was released nationwide in the UK on Friday, as well as in a limited run in the US. Loudermilk, who has not yet watched it, says he is unconcerned about the prospect of recriminations from anyone upset by his apparent actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat people would be disgusted is a compliment. Oh, I really did a good job, huh! I pulled it off and I was so proud of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joshua Loudermilk, one of two men apparently discredited by the new Ali G movie Ali G: Who Iz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":["post-656855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}