‘He’s not going to punk me. I’ll trick him’: Ali G: Who Iz I? stooge says he was in on joke but didn’t tell Sacha Baron Cohen
Exclusive: Joshua Loudermilk says suspicions first raised during filming by gun shaped like wearable plastic bottom: ‘You’re gonna put a butt on top of a butt? You can’t run in that’ • This article contains spoilers for Ali G: Who Iz I? Joshua Loudermilk, one of two men apparently discredited by the new Ali G movie Ali G: Who Iz I?, has said that he was in on the joke, but that the film-makers didn’t realise this.…
Key points
- Joshua Loudermilk says he recognized Sacha Baron Cohen early in filming but kept pretending to be a hard-right supporter.
- He claims the production company missed his public social media posts naming Cohen after the shoot.
- Loudermilk says he welcomes the publicity and wants to pursue a comedy acting career.
Joshua Loudermilk, one of two men apparently discredited by the new Ali G movie Ali G: Who Iz I?, has said he was in on the joke but that the film-makers did not realise this. Loudermilk, a 54-year-old aspiring actor from North Carolina, told the Guardian he recognised star Sacha Baron Cohen early in the shoot but continued pretending to be a hard-right Maga sympathiser prepared to defend the US border.
The film repeatedly stresses that both Loudermilk and fellow recruit Michael Aboud, chair of the El Paso county Republican party, were not in on it. Aboud has called Cohen a liar and a pervert and said he intends to sue.
How he caught on
Loudermilk said he began to suspect Cohen when he met the other recruits, who he described as old, out-of-shape white men in Trump shirts. His suspicions were confirmed when Cohen's character, Col Erran Morad, produced a top-secret gun shaped like buttocks and kept calling part of it shmeckl. Loudermilk said he decided to stay in character and trick Cohen rather than be punked.
He also said he was a little offended that the film was picking on Americans who were not the brightest. He described keeping Aboud from quitting by telling him he was being a wimp and that their freedom was on the line.
He’s not going to punk me; I’m going to trick him.
— Joshua Loudermilk
Publicity and next steps
Loudermilk said he posted about the shoot on his public Facebook and Instagram pages in December, but the production company never saw the posts. He signed a non-disclosure agreement at the end of filming but says he was not given a copy. He considers it fair game now that the film names him.
The film was released nationwide in the UK on Friday and in a limited run in the US. Loudermilk, who has not yet watched it, said he hopes Cohen reads his account and laughs, and that he wants to use the attention to pursue comedy acting.
