In keeping with these universal truths, the latest film from the 54-year-old comedian, who has chosen to dust off his aging chav character for Ali G: Who Iz I?, is facing an energetic backlash in the UK. A campaign by the AI-powered media watchdog NewsCord is calling on prospective cinema chains worldwide to block the film rather than screen it to a presumably indifferent populace who likely weren’t salivating over the prospects of a new Ali G film to begin with.
This comes from Variety, which reports that NewsCord claims to have fired off “more than 36,000 emails” to cinema chains worldwide to block Ali G. The film’s trailer, released on Tuesday by Amazon, has pissed off some social media users, who have taken exception to, among other things, Cohen’s use of a dreadlock wig under a Rastafarian hat. NewsCord’s campaign cites the long-standing condemnation by Black British comedians of Cohen’s lampooning of white culture appropriating Black culture as “an alibi for racism,” and also cites English author Jeanette Winterson, who told the BBC in 2003: “I feel I’m looking into the void when I listen to Ali G. I hate this stuff. I don’t even understand it. I don’t know what the difference is between him and the [Black] and white minstrels. I don’t get it.”
More recent criticisms, such as this one from Afua Hirsch, a British broadcaster and author of the 2018 book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, argue that Cohen’s brand of racial humor is misaligned with current Black trends. “Black people don’t dress like that anymore. Even white people imitating Black people don’t talk like that anymore,” she writes. “Sexualizing Black women and casually mocking working class women is not accepted anymore[…] Baron Cohen’s so-called ‘humor’ is a crude compound of all these things.”
Variety is waiting for a comment from Cohen, who definitely saw this development coming. In a post about the trailer for his latest film, he wrote, “In an age when a single comedian’s career can be ended by a single un-PC joke, I thought I’d play it safe and bring this guy back.” For NewsCord’s part, they’ve managed to score a response from UK-based Picturehouse Cinemas, though Variety has noted that the chain, known for its focus on independent and foreign cinema, probably wasn’t going to bother with Ali G: Who Iz I? in the first place.
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