Sacha Baron Cohen is one of the comic geniuses of our time.
The British born comedian became known in America with HBO’s “Da Ali G Show.” Wearing a doo-rag, sunglasses, and pretending to be totally stupid, Ali G would he ask Donald Trump what he thought of an ice-cream glove, made Andy Rooney of “60 Minutes” end an interview in anger, and asked a rabbi and a priest why he saw nuns that were strippers. He’d mix in a legit question here and there. Cohen would get international fame, taking one of the characters from the show, a mustachioed man from Kazakhstan who hates Jews, claims his sister is a prostitute and says women and monkeys have similar driving skills. With a reported budget of $18 million, it had a worldwide gross of nearly $263 million, despite a controversial on-screen fight with his assistant Azamat, played by Ken Davitian. Disturbingly, he was able to get a crowd in an Arizona bar to sing along on a song with a chorus of “Throw the Jews down the well so my country can be free,”. He had anothersuccess with the film “Bruno,” a flamboyantly gay fashion critic who convinced Paula Abdul to sit on a man and use him as a chair.
How Crazy Can You Get?
Cohen showed himself to have serious acting chops, playing Mossad agent Eli Cohen in the Netflix series “The Spy,” but the first film Cohen made based on his characters, the scripted comedy “Ali G Indahouse,” was a critical and commercial failure. He triumphally returns to Ali G in his new Showtime movie “Ali G: Who Iz I?” But once you’ve done a naked fight,(“Borat”) and staged a gay kiss in a cage in a homophobic town (“Bruno”), what can you do you top it?
On the basis of this movie, his answer is to repeat what worked before. Ali G still wears a durag, big sunglassesand speaks in the same South London Rasta rapper patois. He arrives in America convinced that HBO has picked up season three of “Da Ali G Show,” only to find out – after splashing for a $1,200 lunch – that the offer is from 20 years ago, and no longer valid. His girlfriend, Julie, who is heavily pregnant (when they visit an OB/GYN he insists the doctor tell her it’s gas, or “a big poo”), is along for the ride.
The unborn child is the spark for the movie’s second half. Nira Cain-N’Degeocello, a liberal white professor from Berkeley (also played by Baron Cohen), accuses Ali G of cultural appropriation, notwithstanding his own clumsy attempts to look black. He manages to get Ali G cancelled, but Ali is offered a chance to host a libertarian-backed “Free Speech Show,” where audience members – including disgraced former U.S. House member George Santos – vie to see who can stuff the most dolls – representing immigrants, liberals and intellectuals – into showers and gas them with Zyklon-B and are led in Elon Musk styled Nazi salutes.
At the same time, Cain-N’Degeocello hires Erran Moran (also Baron Cohen), a fitness instructor who may (or may not) be a Mossad agent, to train three locals for a mission to kidnap Julie’s newborn baby and ferry it to Mexico. When Morad trains the men, he uses the Hebrew words for men’s sexual organs and equips them with a very bizarre weapon. It’s hilarious to those who know Hebrew and still funny to those who don’t. The film starts out a bit slow but quickly gains steam. It is a wonder that during some of the gags, Cohen was not arrested by police.
Did the new comedy landscape limit what Cohen could do in this movie?
In 2026, there is hypersensitivity and pressure to be politically correct in a tradeoff, there is a preference to make a film that has fewer laughs, if it will get less criticism. The result is predictable and boring comedies. 2023’s ‘No Hard Feelings” with Jennifer Lawrence, and Jeremy Garelick’s excellent “Rolling Loud” with Owen Wilson, are successful efforts to bring back what is now considering somewhat risqué comedy. There is no way to know if there are things that Cohen wanted to do in this movie but couldn’t pull off. But what he did was not only very funny, but very daring. Remember, the actual country of Kazakhstan was angry at Cohen and its politicians felt obligated to release statements that the film/character were not real, perhaps because they are stupid, though it’s a testament to Cohen’s skill.
A Victim of His Own Greatness?
There will be those who see this film and say it’s not as funny as “Borat” or “Bruno.” That would be true, but one cannot expect a generational talent to repeat the same level of brilliance. One the cat’s out of the bag; you can’t expect the same cat to show up. There were critics who lamented that Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” was not as good as “Thriller” and “Bad.”
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
Cohen has had an amazing career, and it’s a relief to see that he isn’t giving up and his love of comedy brought him to do another film. I’m sure there are some that want him to create new characters. But they should understand it’s one thing to be a character on “Saturday Night Live” for sketches. It’s quite another animal to have to be in the real world and convince people that you are real. As someone who fell in love with Cohen’s humor of Ali G when the show first aired on HBO in 2000, I won’t get tired of his humor. Anyone who loves comedy should go see the film. Anyone offended by microaggressions might not want to. Cohen is always clever and it’s hard to believe he convinced these morons to do insane things. It’s a credit to his determination and originality. I will be looking forward to his next film or TV show.
Cohen has had an amazing career, and it’s a relief to see that he isn’t giving up and his love of comedy brought him to do another film.
