Da Ali G Show on HBO is my guilty pleasure. Guilty because it is infantile. Guilty because it takes advantage of its victims' goodwill. Guilty because its language and occasional visuals are X—rated. But a pleasure because it is outright hilarious.

Shawn Macomber has a piece on NRO today about the show, so I guess that gives me an excuse to admit my own fan status.

It's hard to put Sacha Baron Cohen, the creator and star of the show, in an ideological category. He is anti—pretension, so he often lampoons liberals and their pretensions. But conservatives are equal opportunity victims. Cohen is obviously an equal opportunity offender.

The basic premise of the show is that three characters played by Cohen lure victims into interviews for television, in which Cohen lures them into answer idiotic questions seriously, or dealing with hilariously ridiculous situations he creates. Each of the characters is a gem of his fertile imagination. Ali G is ostensibly a British rapper, with a public affairs television program avidly watched by Britain's urban youth (partly true, because Ali G was a smash hit in Britain before it came to America). Borat is Kazhakstan Television's roving reporter in America, interviewing rodeo cowboys, Mississippi wine connoisseurs, and the like, kissing them, and otherwise behaving bizarrely, but usually indulged by his hosts out of politeness. Oh yes, Barat has a sister who would love to marry a nice American.

The last character if Bruno, the host of an Austrian television pop culture show, Funkyzeit mit Bruno. Bruno mostly interviews pop culture folk in America. Recently, interviewing a couple of fashion types, he hilariously got them to switch their opinions 180 degrees on various pop culture folk with corrupt appeals, such as Paris Hilton's family owning a large block of stock in his broadcasting company.

Ali G is a must see for me. Maybe not for you, but there's only one way you'll find out.

Posted by Thomas   8 20 04