Sacha Baron Cohen\u2019s new film risks being outdated in a more rancorous era. But could it restore the personality-driven genre to big screens or end it altogether?<\/p>\n
For a man whose campaign slogan was once \u201cKeep it real\u201d, Ali G has his work cut out in the reality of 2026. The big dog of Da West Staines Massiv was the character with whom Sacha Baron Cohen carved out his own niche of gonzo-gotcha comedy in the late 1990s \u2013 and now he\u2019s back with new film, Ali G: Who Iz I? But it\u2019s unclear if his great creation has gone sufficiently fallow in the collective consciousness to still operate well in real-life situations, the kind of lethal idiot who once pitched Donald Trump anti-drip ice-cream gloves. And more critically, is the Ali G satirical project \u2013 which poked at 90s multicultural mores \u2013 still relevant and funny in far more rancorous times?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just Baron Cohen\u2019s career as an undercover operative that\u2019s on the line. It\u2019s the future of character-led comedy as a going concern, now that he seems to be the last man standing in this once-noble tradition \u2013 in cinemas, at least. To be clear, character comedy isn\u2019t merely comedy with characters; it\u2019s comedy filtered through a central persona that overlaps with the comedian playing it and whose subversive sensibility colours the entire work.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/7b856c4ea60a0f266900cbadcdae948a7e98dc62\/2374_0_1022_818\/master\/1022.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=866ce0855470a25aa6f936f6ab45376c\" "\\"Can")
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"