Ali G has grown older without growing wiser. In Ali G: Who Iz I?, Sacha Baron Cohen plays a tracksuit-clad wannabe rapper who heads to America to revive his career while his pregnant girlfriend prepares for their baby. His recent return on Prime Video revives a disturbing question: who are the viewers laughing at?
Ali G’s original gag was to get important people to answer stupid questions. The fictional Staines-based interviewer first showed up on British television in 1998, accosting politicians and experts who had no idea they were being pranked.
Much of the comedy came from their attempts to be serious, which sometimes revealed their assumptions about him.
Cohen recalled that the borrowed identity was part of that trap. In his essay for Time, he describes Ali G as a white man copying Black culture. The intended targets are the imitator himself and the powerful people who take him seriously, like the politician in this footage.
«The fact that Ali G is outdated and problematic is the very reason I resurrected him,» he writes. Cohen argued that the prejudices his comedy challenges have become more widespread.
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Again, who is supposed to look foolish?
Critics question what happens when the catchphrases leave the screen. According to the BBC, critics insist that the question «Is it because I is black?» has been reused to ridicule Black people and dismiss complaints about racism.
The voice alone can invite mockery before an interviewee even opens their mouth. British comedy characters like Ali G «made the voice the joke», social psychologist Amy Kean told the BBC. Her critique is of the laughter at the expense of someone’s speech, regardless of the broader satirical intent.
‘Liquid racism’
Writing in The Conversation, Aaron Teo drew on Simon Weaver’s idea of «liquid racism»: humour that allows for competing racial interpretations. One viewer sees a ridiculous white imitator; another sees insulting stereotypes about Black people.
Cohen’s Borat character illustrates how a joke can take on a life of its own beyond its original context. In January, Belgian football fans were arrested in Astana for wearing Borat-style mankinis to a Champions League match.
The controversial stunt is just one example of how a fictional character can be a surrogate for a real country, regardless of what his creator intended.
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The Ali G ‘Who Iz I’ sometimes allows ordinary people to emerge looking sensible. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman describes a property agent treated with dignity and participants who respond to offensive remarks by walking out. Their refusal to play along becomes part of the scene.
Ultimately, Cohen turns Ali G’s critique into comedy. He brings back his fictional progressive professor, Dr Nira Cain-N’Degeocello, whom Gleiberman describes as a parody of «wokeness.» The film makes room to ridicule both Ali G’s attitudes and the professor’s determination to shut him down.
What is more, a line designed to expose prejudice can instead be used to dismiss it.
