Da Ali G Show

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 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.

I never know whether to simply laugh out loud (which I do) or clap my hands at the sheer audacity, the self control Cohen must need to spoof so many people so well. But usually it's a moot point, since I'm laughing too hard to do anything at all! "Ali G" has an uncanny ability to push his victim's buttons, all the while acting as an incredibly ignorant and occasionally boorish interviewer. Watch him take on Pat Buchanan ("'Ow many times was you President?"), Sam Donaldson ("Does you remember the scandal when da two journalists brought down the guv'mint in the scandal of Waterworld?") or Buzz Aldrin ("Was you jealous because Louis Armstrong was the first person to walk on da sun?") He also goes on location to farms ("Obviously some so't of trash zoo,") hangs with the tree huggers in Oregon, and visits an anti-gay rights rally with predictable results. Like his idol George Bush, he proves to be the biggest, clumsiest bull in the most delicate of china shops, with hilarious results.

Cohen can rightly claim the throne vacated by the late Peter Sellers, with none of the frightening edge that Sellers developed in later life. As Ali G himself would say, "Total Respec!"

At this point in his career, Cohen has made a movie for all three of the characters who are frequent in this show, and I have to say that I prefer all of their appearances in Da Ali G Show to their full-length movies, although that may be because they work better in this setting. The show has no real determination to establish and maintain a followable plot-line, and it ends up as a collection of short segments from each character every episode. This allows Sascha Baron Cohen to remain calm, clear-headed, and to really fire on all cylinders with the sometimes improvised, always hilarious sketches.

The show is comprised mostly of interviews arranged for in the field, but Ali G does have studio interviews where he asks others to come to him and discuss controversial topics. The premise of the show is basically the humor behind a clash of culture, and we frequently see the characters in situations where they simply do not belong. Ali G and Borat both have a kind of ignorant edge, making them totally absorbed into the culture they're used to and at times lethal around people with different backgrounds. Bruno plays a lesser role in the show, and really isn't one of my favorite characters all together, but his goal is basically to surround himself with people unaccustomed to gay culture and to make them writhe in discomfort.

Borat's interview with a dating service and Ali G's forum on porno and abstinence are absolutely hysterical, and Ali G even has an interview terminated for "stupidity".

I think that this show, more than any of the movies displays the characters in their best light, and also shows more than anything how talented Sascha really is. There were times when viewing this show that I stopped laughing prematurely to acknowledge how truly impressed I was that he was able to keep a straight face while unleashing absolute nonsense based on real (albeit exaggerated) stereotypes.

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....