I just realised I completely misunderstood Ali G.
All this time, I thought Ali G was a thinly veiled fictional guise whose ‘comedy’ was cariacaturing black people - hardly an original, or new idea. And that Sasha Baron Cohen, the ‘comedian’ who created him, was “a Jewish, Cambridge graduate playing the “voice of youth” who speaks the language of black street culture.”
That’s how The Guardian described Baron Cohen in 2000. He was massive at the time – clad in beanie hat and a landing strip goatie that always reminded me of the pubic hair left behind after a bikini wax. When Da Ali G Show started airing on Channel 4, there were often couple of black women objectified, hyper sexualised, casually accessorising the frame. A year later he would start making the first of his many feature length movies.
But apparently it’s way more layered than that. What I’ve just learned is that
