more on ali G
after this post, i was thinking of how ali G serves as a fairly reliable perspicacity test. as ali G (a character), he’s interviewed many prominent types, and it’s fun to see who gets it and who doesn’t.
for example, the moronic and inexplicably employed andy rooney got so perturbed at ali G that he stormed off camera and left ali sitting at rooney’s desk. critical in the incident was how rooney came to be perturbed — by picking at nits, and assuming because of irrelevancies (mainly grammar) that he was smarter than ali G (which he sure as hell isn’t). he tried from the outset to set himself up as ali G’s superior, and ended up looking like what he is — a fossilized ass.
refreshing then to see people like pat buchanan and sam donaldson in the chair. buchanan was very smooth, and i think both he and donaldson ended up doing b-boy lingo promos for ali G. they understood and had a little fun, though they were hoodwinked to even be there at the interview.
it’s not always an exciting, pass/fail situation, and i have to admit it gets a little tiring to see the same formula repeated, but the discomfort and pain are always there. the dude’s a genius, and a formidable talent.
one of the best manipulations i’ve seen on any TV show was when bruno (queer fashion femmy boy — another baron cohen character) got a college wrestling team on spring break at the beach to do a promo take about 10 times. after each one bruno would say in his lazy fagg voice, “yah, but it needs more energy,” or something like that. it was just nuts how they actually delivered, almost every take being crazier and more balls out than the previous (jumping off the top of the camper). finally, he got them to say “austrian gay TV” or something as part of the promo. the dude who’d been so friendly and cooperative double-taked, then got pretty pissed. he hadn’t noticed before that, just maybe, bruno was ultra queer? too funny.
i just saw a comment that what ali G does is cruel, in that the inherent tolerance people show toward him plays their good qualities against them. i disagree. ali G is a wonderful exposure of how reticent most people are to call bullshit, or in many cases to even recognize it. if presented with ali G at an interview, and you continue to put on that “happy talk TV” facade, you’re getting what you deserve — which is why it’s such a wonderful test. as the article linked to above points out, it can’t last though.
January 14th, 2005 at 06:19
I agree 100%. What Cohen demonstrates isn’t the high level of tolerance amongst Americans (or Brits before that), but their high level of phoniness. As long as he pretends to simply be an idiot or a foreigner (i.e. on a level below them), people are happy to condescend to him. But as soon as he challenges them in any way (particularly in terms of men and their sexuality), they lose their patience with him quickly.
January 14th, 2005 at 06:36
you da man.