What’s to get? Spoofing people is nothing new, but at least most of the people who do it have more than one gag in their repetoire.
Obviously. Doesn’t change the fact that using the word “juvenile” in the same sentence as Tom Green and not using it to describe him is ridiculous. Like him or not, find him funny or not, his brand of humor is juvenile in the extreme. Unless of course there’s some new definition of juvenile under which chasing people with poo on a stick and humping dead animals doesn’t apply.
Says who ? Spoofing people isn’t about “gags”. It’s about picking up nuances of their behavior/attitude and using it against them. Ali G does this pretty well.
I think Da Ali G show is funny, but I love all things Brit. And he has been around for a while now but its good to see him on this side of the pond and look forward to watching more episodes after the Bill Maher show.
yep a member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Another bit of that interview from memory.
Ali:- So you is Irish, right ?
SW:_ No, I’m British!
Ali:- You on holiday then?
Ali G has had his day in the UK IMO. Like Denis Penis (much better IMO) before him these types of characters have a couple of years and then end. I’ll be interested in the HBO shows when they are shown on Channel 4(I think) later on in the year. I wonder how much he has changed for the US market.
Actually he’s not portraying a white guy thinking he’s black, he’s portraying a Muslim guy (hence the name Ali) who thinks he’s some hip-hop gangster. Which is kinda ironic, a Jewish actor pretending to be a Muslim guy pretending to be ‘black’.
Ali G has the famous line"is it cos I is black?" This from a guy who is white but nobody points that out to him… strange. (yes i know that is the point) Any way, I think he is a genius.
Update: very thoughtful article about why the show doesn’t work in America.
I saw one episode of his show a while back where he was discussing drugs with some member of Britain’s equivalent of the DEA, and I nearly wet myself laughing. For me, the funniest part was how the officer appeared to know full well it was comedy but was trying his hardest to keep a straight face and play it serious.
Ali: “My mate gave an E to his dog and it went mental, started barking at everything, and then it tried to bonk the cat.”
Agent (face starting to crack): “Um, well… yes, that could happen…”
Not true. In the movie it is revealed that his real name is Alisdair. So it seems that he is a jewish guy pretending that he’s a white guy pretending that he’s a muslim guy that thinks he is a black guy.
My mind is spinning.
Actually, that’s just the name of the character, Alistair Graham. The actor’s real name is Sacha Baron Cohen. As an interesting side note, he is Welsh-Israeli, and has a History degree from Christ’s College, Cambridge University. I was unaware until I visited the site I linked to above.
I think the most important point to consider to fully “get” his humor is that rather than being a member of [substitute race here] pretending he’s a member of [substitute another race here], he’s a smart fella pretending to be an idiot. That’s what makes him what he is, IMHO. And because it just so happens that there are few things more inane than a suburban kid pretending to be a gangster, that type of character provides the perfect disguise for him.