We had the trailer for Ali G: Who Iz I? this week, and personally, I saw the funny side. It seems, however, that other people have not seen the funny side.
When Ali G first came out, he was a sensation in the UK, had his own spin-off series, and even a movie. Yeah, a few people got upset, but they were mostly the people who were on the receiving end of his humour.
Well, it’s now 2026, and everything offends everyone. Remember, having a sense of humour means you’re basically a Nazi! I’m literally shaking right now.
Since the trailer went up, a backlash in the UK has become manifest. Many have taken to social media to accuse Ali G, who wears dreadlocks and a Rastafarian hat in the trailer, of discussing being an “absent” father. People have been saying it’s outdated and racist. Bingo! I had racist on my ‘DEI call out’ card.
Newscord, a news comparison and media monitoring platform, started a campaign to not have the movie shown in cinemas. So far, they have sent out over 36,000 emails instructing cinemas to not show it.
The campaign accuses Sasha Baron Cohen of:
…using satire as a “cover for enforcing racist stereotypes,” citing a newspaper report from 2000, just two years after Ali G first landed on British TV screens, in which Black British comedians claimed the character was an “alibi for racism.”
Ali G was originally created for Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show. Cohen created the dim-witted character to poke fun at the ignorance of the middle-class, and how they knew nothing about cultural appropriation. Nothing has changed, just the voices have got louder.
They Aren’t Winning
Newscord claimed a major victory on its website over the movie. The site quoted an email reply from Picturehouse Cinemas that said:
“We currently do not have any plans to screen this film on its release.”
Newscord claimed that they would “not” be showing the movie. It turns out, the email reply was a standard email to any movie they haven’t booked just yet. They told me the same over Chocolate Star Wars.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Ali G: Who Iz I? will do in the cinemas. Sure, things have changed, but this kind of thing causes a backlash against the backlash. Anyone remember the ‘boycott’ of the new Harry Potter game? It ended up being one of the biggest games ever.
Some people already hate the movie and see it as racist. On the other side of the coin, there are a lot of people who want to see it succeed.
