Sacha Baron Cohen hits back at Ali G movie backlash — “the joke’s on him”
After backlash, Sacha Baron Cohen has come out swinging for his new Ali G film — and he’s got a pointed answer for who the joke’s really on.
Right, if you haven’t been following the latest on Ali G: Who Iz I?, let’s just say things have got a bit spicier than your standard sequel announcement. Sacha Baron Cohen is dragging his infamous tracksuit back onto the screen this autumn, and, as ever, a fair chunk of the internet is losing its mind—whether for or against.
Ali G: Who Iz I? hits US cinemas on 23 October 2026 for Baron Cohen’s debut as a feature director.
This is Baron Cohen’s first time properly behind the camera for a film, and he’s resurrecting the Ali G character—yes, the original from Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show and Da Ali G Show, back when the year started with a two and a zero. You might remember he also did Ali G Indahouse in 2002, which honestly does feel like several lifetimes ago.
Controversy never left the house
Since the new film was first announced, the reaction’s been about as subtle as Ali G himself. There’s always been this split: some reckon the character is savage social satire, outing other people’s worst prejudices; others say Baron Cohen’s just peddling old racist tropes, hiding behind a ‘gotcha’ brand of comedy. Things have only got more heated in the build-up to this release—social media’s put a megaphone to the backlash, especially with all the current hyper-awareness around representation in film.
Baron Cohen’s own words
In a lengthy defence published in The Times, Baron Cohen didn’t shy away from admitting the character is, put simply, ‘outdated’ and ‘problematic’. Yet, he claims, that’s precisely why he reckons Ali G deserves a comeback in 2026. The global mood isn’t exactly sunnier now than it was twenty years ago—and according to Baron Cohen, that’s the whole point. He’s always pitched his comedy as a way to root out and expose prejudice and stupidity, but, to paraphrase, he knows not everyone’s on board with that.
To break down his take a bit more: Ali G’s supposed to be the punchline—a daft white wannabe who’s cluelessly pinching music and fashion from Black culture, while the joke really lands on the institutions that take him seriously in the first place, not the cultures he’s nicking from. Baron Cohen’s argument is the character is a kind of satirical battering ram against the establishment—awkward, juvenile, sometimes crass, but always intended to be pointed. Here’s how Baron Cohen put it himself in the piece:
‘Ali G is a white imbecile—a delusional cultural appropriator—who steals the fashion and lyrics from his favorite gangsta rap and dancehall idols, from Compton to Kingston. The joke is on him, and on the predominantly white male establishment who take him seriously enough to believe that HBO would hire the stupidest man in the world as an interview host. Like a good bouffon, he undermines that establishment—not the culture he loves and borrows from.’
He also admits that most of his jokes are, in his words, ‘juvenile’, suggesting that if it all gets too preachy it stops being effective as satire anyway. Baron Cohen rounds off with a surprisingly earnest call to action, saying the real hope isn’t just to shock or wind people up—it’s to get audiences thinking about tolerance, no matter who they bump into in society. According to him, Ali G’s whole message has always been ‘respect’—though whether everyone buys that as the takeaway is very much up for debate.