OK, it’s not a movie or TV, but comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is bringing back his beloved ’90s Ali G character for an upcoming stand-up tour (And one has to wonder if this is strike motivated, i.e., you can’t really act in anything or write a movie these days, but you can revive an old character and take him on the road, right?).
READ MORE: Sacha Baron Cohen In Talks To Bring An ‘Ali G Show’-Esque Series To Showtime
Before Cohen broke out big with 2006’s smash comedy “Borat,” the comedian was already huge in the U.K. and other parts of the world thanks to his hilarious U.K. series “Da Ali G Show” (2000–2004), which featured characters like faux-streetwise poseur Ali G, Kazakh reporter Borat Sagdiyev, and gay Austrian fashion enthusiast Brüno Gehard (all of whom he revived again for movies).
Now, according to Variety, Cohen is going back to the Ali G character and taking him on tour again. No other details were revealed (though many of the trades did write about a “stand-up TV special” at first and then quickly backtracked).
Apparently, Cohen’s reps “strenuously denied a new movie was in development” (the original reporting suggested a “mystery project”); however, they also make a point to note that the writer and actor is strictly abiding by strike rules. “As a SAG and WGA member, he is supporting the ongoing strike alongside his fellow writers and actors,” the source told the trade.
While comedy heads love Ali G, the character is arguably after-the-fact famous for an interview he did with Donald Trump years before the grifting huckster somehow hoodwinked a nation into becoming President. Part of Ali G’s schtick was pretending the character was tremendously ignorant about his subjects—his subjects duped into thinking he was a real person and a true dimwit and the comedy sparks would fly. Cohen’s Ali G interview with Trump is relatively short but still pretty damn amusing (watch below).
While Ali G was the first character Cohen broke out into a movie— 2002’s “Ali G Indahouse”— it was arguably just too early for the zeitgeist and missed it entirely (at least compared to “Borat”).
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Ali G, so the timing is perfect. Cohen revived the character in 2021 at The Comedy Store in Sydney, Australia. I just wanted to get on stage and muck around and see what Ali G would be like with a crowd,” he said at the time. “It was really good fun.”
Ali G may have had a time and place and may have missed the boat, but honestly, I would have loved a movie featuring Ali G that was as good as “Borat” because the character was hilarious.