‘A vehicle to expose prejudice, bias, and stupidity’: Sacha Baron Cohen defends Ali G as satire

Key points

• Sacha Baron Cohen defended satire and his Ali G character in a Time magazine article.
• He said Ali G is a white imbecile whose joke is on himself and those who take him seriously.
• Cohen said he revived Ali G because the world is worse than it was 20 years ago.

Sacha Baron Cohen has defended satire, the right to offend and his Ali G character in a lengthy article for Time magazine, published ahead of the release of his new film, Ali G: Who Iz I?. He described satire as "more important than ever" and said that some people respond to it by taking offence rather than laughing.

Cohen compared modern satirists to the traditional figure of the bouffon and called satire the humour of the dispossessed, used to undermine systemic injustice. He has previously released films featuring characters including Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard and Admiral General Aladeen.

Defence of Ali G

Cohen addressed critics of Ali G, who has been described as a black caricature and criticised for laughing at black street culture. He said Ali G is a white imbecile and a delusional cultural appropriator who steals fashion and lyrics from gangsta rap and dancehall idols, and that the joke is on him and on the mainly white male establishment who take him seriously.

He said the fact that Ali G is outdated and problematic is the very reason he brought the character back, arguing that the prejudices his characters expose have metastasised in the 20 years since. He said his aim is not only to make people laugh but to bring them face-to-face with the danger of fanaticism and conspiracy theories.

The fact that Ali G is outdated and problematic is the very reason I resurrected him.

— Sacha Baron Cohen

Satire and its critics

Cohen said satire can offend people other than its intended targets, and that he does not recognise himself in warped portrayals on social media that lump him in with the bigots he lampoons. He cited his university dissertation on Jewish and black cooperation in the 1960s US civil rights struggle and said he has opposed bigotry and injustice throughout his life.

He pointed to Volodymyr Zelenskyy's path from TV comic to president of Ukraine as evidence that satire can help bring down politicians or regimes, and said the Trump administration's actions against Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel showed ridicule is far from irrelevant. Quoting George Orwell's line that "every joke is a tiny revolution", he warned that the world is entering an age of virtuous violence in which atrocities can be justified.