Back in July, this author published an article on the cultural significance of Ali G. Well, Ali G is back now after more than twenty years in which, in his words, “the world has gone to crap. There’s been wars, COVID, and Ed Sheeran.”

His new movie, “Ali G: Who Iz I?”, was only in cinemas October 23rd and October 24th before heading over to Amazon Prime Video on October 28th.

This author was lucky enough to see a screening on the Saturday evening. Even though expectations for Ali G in central New Jersey were low, the cinema was packed, and there was even an Ali G cosplayer in the audience!

As a special extra, everyone who saw the movie in a cinema received a free pair of Ali G glasses before the screening.

The Man Behind Ali G Returns to the Spotlight

Meanwhile, the man behind the movie, Sacha Baron Cohen, has been doing a lot of press lately.

You may have seen his recent interview with “60 Minutes,” his interview as Ali G in The Guardian, or his cover story in Time Magazine about the importance of satire. You may have also heard or watched his recent interview with Howard Stern.

He even made a promotional video as another one of his characters, Borat, to combat charges that the film is racist.

According to Borat, the film has been reviewed by both the Kazakh Film Commission (KFC) and Kazakhstan Department of Language (KD Lang) and “sadly, it is not.”

Fatherhood, Fame, and Absolute Chaos

The film itself revolves around Ali G’s girlfriend Julie. This is the second time that the Julie character has appeared on film.

This time, she is heavily pregnant, and Ali is coming to terms with being a father at the same time as he’s trying to relaunch his career in America.

Other characters in the film, also played by Cohen, include a professor who is the embodiment of the “woke” movement, trying to stop Ali G at all costs, and a Mossad agent who recruits (real) right-wing extremists to ensure that Ali’s and Julie’s baby is not born in America and becomes a US citizen.

When Absurdity Meets a Darker Reality

This explosive combination of absurdist humor, extremist ideologies, and sheer chaos combines to produce hilarity, but also to show viewers a darker side of humanity, as things quickly spin out of control.

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”— Attributed to Voltaire; quoted at the beginning of the film

It is embodied perfectly in the quote from Voltaire that appears at the very beginning of the film. This film certainly proves that.

A Comedy That Delivers for Old Fans and Newcomers

As a piece of sheer comedy, it also works tremendously well.

It even pokes fun at “definitely not AI” in a scene featuring Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Nelson Mandela, Moses, and OJ Simpson. There is also a reference to the Borat movie from Ali G himself.

One thing that the movie does well is to give newcomers a quick backstory of who Ali G is, where he comes from, who’s playing which characters, and who is in on the joke and who is not.

This enables everyone to equally enjoy the movie, whether they have been following Ali G since 1998 or whether they just heard his name for the first time in this article.