Culture 4 min read By Lauren Baxter
Sacha Baron Cohen Defends Ali G Revival Ahead of 'Who Iz I?' Release
Sacha Baron Cohen has written a Time essay defending the return of his "problematic" Ali G character in the new film "Who Iz I?", arguing that the outdated nature of the character is precisely why he brought him back. The film opens Friday amid a campaign that has sent more than 55,000 emails to cinemas asking them not to screen it.
Sacha Baron Cohen has publicly defended his decision to bring back Ali G, the satirical character he first introduced in 1998, ahead of the release of the new film Who Iz I? In an essay written for Time Magazine, the comedian argued that the character's outdated and controversial nature is exactly what motivated his return to the role.
«The fact that Ali G is outdated and problematic is the very reason I resurrected him,» Baron Cohen wrote. «The world he's returned to is, in many ways, worse than the one he left 20 years ago.» He added that the prejudices his characters are designed to expose have not merely lingered but «metastasized,» fueled by social media and, increasingly, artificial intelligence.
Ali G was first introduced on Channel 4's The 11 O'Clock Show in 1998, and his popularity led to the spin-off Da Ali G Show in the early 2000s and the feature film Ali G Indahouse in 2002. Baron Cohen has returned to the character sporadically over the years, including the 2014 project Ali G: Rezurection and occasional appearances on US talk shows and awards ceremonies. Earlier this year, he was spotted at Wimbledon, and Who Iz I? was announced shortly afterward.
The character is typically presented as a pastiche of cultural appropriation, but critics have accused it of actually amplifying racial stereotypes in a harmful way. One campaign has seen more than 55,000 emails sent to cinemas requesting they not show the new film, with Ali G accused of being «an alibi of racism.» The British Board of Film Classification has rated the film 15 despite thousands of people urging it to refuse the classification, prompting questions about how the board concluded the film is not racist and whether the people who made that decision reflect the communities involved.
One of the film's writers has already defended the project. Colton Dunn told Deadline that «Ali G is not a racist character. Ali G is a tool to expose racists.» He added: «He puts himself in the most ridiculous situations, and he doesn't do that because he's racist. I wouldn't sign on to work with somebody that I thought was racist, that's against everything that I've done.»
In his essay, Baron Cohen elaborated on his broader approach to comedy, saying he has always designed his characters as vehicles to expose prejudice, bias, and stupidity, while acknowledging that not everyone sees them that way. He compared Ali G to a «bouffon,» a court jester figure who undermines the establishment rather than the culture he borrows from. He said the goal of satirical comedy has always been to «make the audience laugh as hard and as much as possible, while holding up a mirror to reflect back things that aren't always comfortable to see or warn of trends we'd rather look away from.»
Who Iz I? arrives in cinemas on Friday, October 23. In the new year, Baron Cohen is also set to take to the West End stage as the lead in Quentin Tarantino's first-ever play, The Popinjay Cavalier.
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