Da Ali G Show

Network: HBO; Genre: Sketch, Comedy, Improv; Content Rating: TV-MA (for graphic sexual dialog, profanity, scatological humor and graphic nudity); Available: DVD; Perspective: Cult Classic (star range: 1 - 5);

Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (2 seasons)

A comic performer going out into the real world, interacting with real people and annoying them to the breaking point for our amusement has been a staple of tacky infantile TV for as long as I can remember. Always-in-character British satirist Sacha Baron Cohen is several notches above the hacks you'd normally see in a sub-genre that has been co-opted by MTV and Comedy Central for so long. Under the guise of Ali G wanting to cure America of it's blues in the wake of "the attacks of 7/11", Cohen graces HBO with his presence and delivers a real treat for those like myself who have never seen his trio of characters on the original British incarnation of "Da Ali G Show", but only heard about them in television lore.

Cohen is a chameleon of a comic genius. He doesn't just do voices, he has taken the Phil Hendrie approach and created characters. Having embodied them for years he knows his characters through-and-through and while we don't get any expository background on them he has created such a world for each of them that those paying attention will be rewarded with running gags, quotable catch-phrases and details about their lives.

Our host for this anarchists' talk show is Ali G, a Brit drowning in Tommy Hilfiger and hip hop culture who genuinely believes that he is black. Hilariously, Ali G doesn't know anything about anything, can barely speak the English language through his constant mangled hip-hop slang, is always diverting the interviews to a personal problem of his own and has no appropriateness boundaries whatsoever. He uses a sex educator to try to prove a child isn't his, tries to make a drug deal with Pat Buchanan if he can ever pass the "coni" and drops an anecdote about "me Julie" to anybody. Interviews with James Lipton ("liking acting doesn't make you a queer"), Andy Rooney and Sam Donaldson are priceless. The mind boggles at how Cohen is able to get these. Watch as Ali G asks Buchanan if it is right to go to war "over BLTs" and Buchanan just rolls with it. Watch as he tries to explain political bias to Sam Donaldson. Even better, are the round-table discussions on his own graffiti-sprayed, fenced-off, chalk-outline-on-the-flood set, while "experts" sit around and just take it as Ali G asks the stupidest questions you can't possibly imagine and dodges the slightest reference to homosexuality.

Then, straight from another part of the globe is Kazakstan journalist Borat for the "Borat in U. S. and A" segment. Cohen makes Borat's segments a show within itself complete with subtitles and grainy hand-held 3rd world country video. Borat is a treasure, who crawls into the lives of his interviews because he comes off as such an innocent while at the same time espousing a hatred of Jews, gypsy's and a treatment of women as sex slaves that he supposedly learned in Kazakstan. Cohen has Borat speak with a Polish accent and plays with American's complete lack of knowledge of the country. He uses political correctness as a gun people turn on themselves, knowing that Americans are so afraid of being called racist or xenophobic that they will let Borat do just about anything to them. Borat walks around with a political candidate and, when a woman answers the door, asks if there is a voter in the house. Borat sings his own country song "Throw the Jew down the well" that catches fire in a crowded saloon. Borat goes on speed dating and tells the girl that if she cheats on him, he will "crush her". There is so much to Borat's, his 10 minute segments don't do him justice. The show is best viewed as a companion with Sacha Baron Cohen's blockbuster feature film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakstan" to get the full scope of Cohen's vision.

Bruno is the least developed of the 3. A fashion reporter for Australian gay TV, it appears that Cohen loves doing the accent and doing the worm on the catwalk but can't figure out what he is satirizing here. The fashion industry? Who cares? A phony celebrity-obsessed culture? That's more like it. In season 1, Cohen keeps Bruno caged inside fashion show segments. It isn't until season 2 when he lets Bruno out that the character finds itself. When Cohen casts Bruno as a fish-out-of-water interviewing wrestlers at Datona beach or interviewing a man who runs a rehabilitation center for homosexuals (Bruno's funniest interview), the show hits a Phil Hendrie/Doug Danger note that really works for it and Bruno holds up the mirror to repressed homophobia and the contrived nature of reality shows and fashion critique.

My biggest problem with "Da Ali G Show" is that it is just too short. Way to short. 12 episodes left me screaming for more. As heated as some of the interviews get, Cohen's larger joke is usually on his character. His ability to hold up the funhouse mirror and make fun of the potential stupidity of youth hip-hop culture and the potential xenophobia in areas of America not familiar with "Ali G" from the inside out is a beautiful thing. In America, the only comparison we have to it is Mike Judge who has been subversively making teenagers and office drones laugh at themselves for years. Sacha Baron Cohen is even better. He's more on the edge, more into Jonathan Swift satirical territory and "Ali G" is screamingly, obscenely funny cult classic for it.

* * * * / 5

Ali G comes from Staines, and his larger than life obsession with Staines, drugs and all things youth like will make him a huge hit.

Take a dose of Goodness Gracious Me, a dollop of Louis Therioux, a whole lot of a gangster rapper attitude, mixed with a quantity of recreational drugs and no fear of saying what he thinks to get Ali G.

If you can hang up your hang ups and chill out with the TV Ali G will have you rolling around even if like me your well past the obvious youth market audience.

Ali G has several characters, taking on the persona of a dumb rapper, he deliberately misinterprets his interviewees with such style and conviction that they seem to really believe him and have to climb down to the kindergarten level.

His apparent naivety as he says to the man from the home office with a display of narcotics "it's not as if it's illegal is it?" (The poor man had no idea what to say or where to turn.) and the skill with which he brings down the top dog from the FBI whom he takes literally whilst making a figurative comment about doing a hypothetical crime. Suggesting that is was not such a good idea to talk about the job whilst the cameras were on.

Behind it all is a great talent who enjoys performing his art as much as I do watching it.

I cannot choose my favorite character of the three. Is it Ali G? The irascible child/adolescent British "gangsta" black? or Middle Eastern?guy..oblivious to much and yet so childishly poignant in his worldly assessments that sometimes....sometimes...he makes sense...check out his interview with American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who Ali calls "Buzz Lightyear." Aldrin is the patient avuncular soul, never condescending or showing impatience with his petulant interviewer..unlike the rather ungallant Newt GIngrich or JAmes LIpton....never mind the horrific DOnald Trump who is in such a hurry he never has time to grasp ALi and comes off as a crass though not completely without humor "suit"....I enjoyed Lipton's rejection of Ali's pre-penned rap...and the one he scribbled and performed wasn't half bad....high five for that.....

Borat is the adorable foreigner miscreant we all want to love and humor despite his hilarious and shocking public announcements....the SOuth CArolina dinner foibles is classic Borat....the dating agency between the scantily clad interviewer to the matronly Texan who BOrat naively asks"When will we make sexy intercourse?" He wants to "crush" any woman who would "cheat" him...the pronouncement at dinner that his sister is a prostitute because "she like to make money...she is nice"...the extended singing of his national anthem at the "baseballs" game...My favorite of everything...is it the audience's pretend politeness, the pained graciousness? THe contrived intensity of Borat as he warbles his national anthem? I'm not sure...but it works.

ANd last of the trinity, Bruno.....the sashaying fashion gossipy boy, gay and shallow...yet so able to probe his naive fashion designers into self-ridicule...the consistently inconsistent answers he draws from the fashion designers is funny ...and also frightening....his worm down the runway when he manages to sham his way as a male model is priceless...."Begin to look" he shouts as he turns his thonged exposed bottom on the seedy streets of LA introducing a supposed Austrian audience lapping up his adventure in seedy capital.....

SOme one stop me...Sacha Baron Cohen is a hands down genius and I do not want to see him highly successful as that will necessarily mean his subversiveness is no longer subversive...he is a jewel in a cavern that I do not mind sharing with some...keep the ignorant masses away...I did like that the Queen Mother snapped her fingers and uttered "Respek" at Christmas dinner to her royal family...we may just be unable to prevent the tide when it is the right time...if so, let the waters of comedic satiric Cohen fall down all around....

If you like comedy, then you'll love Da Ali G show. The show features a British-Jamaican b-boy that goes by the name of Ali G, A reporter from Kazakhstan whom just happens to be an over erratic nymphomaniac and a hard-hitting gay fashonista named Bruno(All portrayed by Sascha Baron Cohen). This show will make you laugh until you cry, and will make you smile in joy until you weep openly. Cohen is comic brilliance, he is excellent in his endless cynical and often aggressive wit. If you saw the movie Ali G Indahouse and you weren't exactly thrilled with what it had to offer and found Ali G repulsive, don't let that keep you from watching this show. There are three completely unique and utterly hilarious characters on this show. This show is quite amazing, I know I am starting to go on an endless rave but this show deserves every ounce of praise it gets. I am merely sour over the fact that there won't be a third season, or at least that's what it looks like from where we now stand... although I wouldn't be too sure about that!

I would never dare tell a person what he or she should find funny but I will tell anyone who is bothering to read this comment that Da Ali G Show is an hysterical riot because of the genius of Sacha Baron Cohen. You cannot judge Da Ali G. Show by watching 1 or 2 sketches, it really is something that needs to be judged on the whole. I find 75% of his sketches range from funny to hilarious. The other 25% range from watchable to good. The joy of Da Ali G. Show is watching three separate characters, Ali G (a wannabe gangster type), Borat (a middle eastern reporter) and Bruno (a gay Austrian reporter) interact with people from the well-known to the average person. There are too many good times to be had that I won't bother to mention specifics but if you watch at least a couple of episodes, you will be rewarded with some of the funniest, laugh out loud times you can have in front of the television. For the jaded, been there, done that crowd, if you haven't seen Da Ali G. Show, you haven't been there or done that.