Ali G. Is Not Funny

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At all.

― That Girl (thatgirl), Friday, 28 February 2003 06:33 (twenty-three years ago)

no. i went to law school with a dude who did this thing much better.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 28 February 2003 06:36 (twenty-three years ago)

EVERYBODY* knows somebody who did this thing much better.

* everybody except Madonnna

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 28 February 2003 06:37 (twenty-three years ago)

unless I'm mistaken I don't think the British actually found this guy funny either

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 28 February 2003 06:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Then why the hell send him over here? He only confirms the fact that the British have no understanding of hip hop whatsover. Take him back, please.

― That Girl (thatgirl), Friday, 28 February 2003 06:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I am worried about the future of HBO

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 28 February 2003 06:46 (twenty-three years ago)

borat is amusing

― webber (webber), Friday, 28 February 2003 06:58 (twenty-three years ago)

"no understanding of hip hop"?

I don't like Ali G much (although Borat is a classic), but he's not even related to hiphop. At least, not American hiphop. He's supposed to be a charicature of your average midwestern english rudeboy, or something, isn't he? Into jungle, dub, etc with a bit of mc'ing on the side, yeah?

Well, that's what I thought anyway.

― Andrew (enneff), Friday, 28 February 2003 09:21 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, but to American eyes/ears (which is who he's trying to sell himself to at the moment) it comes off as lame b-boy parody, except not even in the same league as 2 Live Jews, while also being hampered by the common britaffliction of just not 'getting' hip-hop, the way Simon Reynolds says Americans don't get the Streets (the precise way maybe).

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 28 February 2003 09:27 (twenty-three years ago)

England has a midwest?

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 28 February 2003 09:27 (twenty-three years ago)

And therefore v. difficult for many Americans to relate to, I would suspect. Does he mention Staines at all?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 28 February 2003 09:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Ali G is a British guy who likes 'urban' music. He comes from pretty much the same bits of suburbia I do (no, not a 'midwest').

He was originally very funny as a parody of youth TV programming - pretty much every late-night British show in the late 80s and 90s had some similarly idiotic 'voice of the street' guy and the idea was Ali would interview people whose handlers had put them on these 'cool' shows to get 'cred' with the 'youth' and they would look like idiots as would the whole patronising youth-TV format. And it worked.* When he got his own show and the focus shifted onto him as a comic character it got less funny, though.

*Also the Ali G bits came in the middle of the least funny programme ever, which made them much more enticing.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 28 February 2003 10:28 (twenty-three years ago)

The posts on this thread suggest that Americans don't 'get' the ways in which Brits don't 'get' hip-hop - but maybe I'm not 'getting' something - WHERE WILL THE METAMADNESS END?

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 28 February 2003 10:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah but it's more than that - Brits don't get hip-hop (maybe) but Ali G doesn't even get that Brit-gotten version of hip-hop. And Americans certainly don't get that many layers of incomprehension - how could they?

― Sam (chirombo), Friday, 28 February 2003 10:42 (twenty-three years ago)

at first i thought it was a south asian british misreading of black british culture (this may be my growing up in bradford that makes me think this). now i am not actually sure what race he is supposed to be

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 28 February 2003 10:46 (twenty-three years ago)

That's part of the point, surely?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 28 February 2003 10:52 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know either - I think the race question only came into play when he had to be a lead character in his own show.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 28 February 2003 11:12 (twenty-three years ago)

A friend of mine summed it up as "a jewish guy pretending to be an indian guy who'se pretending to be a black guy". This was to explain it to his Malaysian girlfriend who found it funny but utterly inexplicable.

He's definitly a one joke charcter - and it was very funny when he was interviewing people who really didn't get the joke. Once he got famous the people being interviewed would generally just not say anything and just giggle at all his questions.

― tigerclawskank, Friday, 28 February 2003 11:16 (twenty-three years ago)

What does the US show involve? Bearing mind he is (I assume) relatively unknown over there, a whole show full of unsuspecting interviewees would be super-grebt.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 28 February 2003 11:33 (twenty-three years ago)

i larfed at the film (almost) non-stop. (i am an idiot)

― Alan (Alan), Friday, 28 February 2003 11:53 (twenty-three years ago)

midwest = bath

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 28 February 2003 11:53 (twenty-three years ago)

What does the US show involve?

borat doing same things he did in uk except in america and ali interviewing u.s. politicos like newt gingrich and dr c evert coop (which i thought was very funny) "why does the heart beat so boring cant it be more like jungle?"

― chaki (chaki), Friday, 28 February 2003 11:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought his line about "much sadness over 7-11" was funny, but I have only ever really liked about one line every other show. The race thing is a hard one: I think the character is supposed to be a British Asian trying to copy black American culture, hip hop included. He is certainly supposed to not get it.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 28 February 2003 13:43 (twenty-three years ago)

midwest = bath. absolutely.

i might have missed something, but are some of you saying that you think ali g. demonstrates the extent to which british people don't understand hip hop?

if this is a trap designed to provoke an easy brit response about american (non-)irony, well done, i've fallen for it.

― pete b. (pete b.), Friday, 28 February 2003 14:21 (twenty-three years ago)

James is saying that Ali is a parody of a hip-hop fan which misunderstands hip-hop - I think.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 28 February 2003 14:23 (twenty-three years ago)

The redeeming factor of the orig stuff was that he was making himself seem at least as stupid as the people he was interviewing so the one-sided cheap-shot nature of it was equalized somewhat. The original Daily Show with Craig Kilborne had these kinds of interviews too but it seemed purely mean-spirited. The Jon Stewart ones are better but that might just be my bias.

I haven't seen the new Ali G show, but I'd be surprised of the interviews work as well as they did in the UK (which I've only heard audio tapes of, BTW). There's something about the British desire to be unflappable that makes this kind of fake interview a sure-shot over there. Here I'd imagine people would do a lot more "dude WTF?"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 28 February 2003 15:22 (twenty-three years ago)

he was funny on the 11 o clock show. his own show was unspeakably bad. i have little/no interest at this stage.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 28 February 2003 15:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd say Ali G (which was originally commissioned by a friend of mine) was comment on yoof tv but ALSO definite affectionate subset of Bhangramuffin/Raggasthani phenomenon where Asian/Muslim kids be down wiv a posse and use black British slang to be all street tuff, seen? There was a recurring sketch on Goodness Gracious Me. Also the Jewish kid embraces it to feel tough and there's a big posse of them keepin' it real, fe'real. Everyone in Britain does this to some extent if they're part of youth culture, or would like to be.

Where the Bhangramuffin and the Jewfro meet makes up great big chunks of White Teeth. SB-C grew up in that corner of Northwest London too, albeit going to a private school where the nerdy, spoddy kids in his classes were from professional families and wanted something of the streets because they weren't totally accepted by Middle England despite doing all their work on time.

― suzy (suzy), Friday, 28 February 2003 15:40 (twenty-three years ago)

He's got nothing on Super Greg.
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~andrewdn/gene-pool/sg_12.jpg

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 28 February 2003 15:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom E is spot-on about the TV history which Ali G was originally parodying. The failures of the character are all about its deviation from that paradigm.

Possible argument: all hip-hop fans "misunderstand hip-hop".

― the pinefox, Friday, 28 February 2003 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I think he's funny when the dumm shtick allows him to cut through to people's core assumptions which they then have to explain (I'm thinking of his int with an Ulster Protestant leader) but that occurs in 1 exchange out of 50.

― g.cannon (gcannon), Friday, 28 February 2003 16:14 (twenty-three years ago)

i think he's actually supposed to be a white person adopting a black-english persona. which is very much apparent in areas in and around london. and he was very funny.
do any americans get dizzee rascal?

― schnell schnell, Friday, 28 February 2003 16:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Pinefox - does this mean that you "understand" hip hop and that why you hate it?

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 28 February 2003 17:09 (twenty-three years ago)

What's dizee rascal?

This Yank liked the Ali G show on HBO, but it was my first experience with the concept beyond the Madonna video. It was excruciating--I'm glad it was only half an hour long--but me and the b/f liked it quite a bit.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 28 February 2003 17:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Roughly. You can work out the details as you like. It's only a Possible Argument.

― the pinefox, Friday, 28 February 2003 17:20 (twenty-three years ago)

do any americans get dizzee rascal?

what's to get?

ally g = best watched under the influence

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 28 February 2003 20:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I was stoned when I watched it and I laughed a lot. It's enjoyable to watch rich people make themselves look foolish to appease a non-American (thinking of the fashion show bit from the last episode in particular here).

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 28 February 2003 20:47 (twenty-three years ago)

the fashion show bit was much better than the rest, but I haven't seen Zoolander yet so I don't know if it seized all the comic opportunities there or not. The Dick Thornburgh segment was amusing but nothing new - Clinton was on Arsenio ten years, Nixon on Laugh-In some thrity-odd years ago, so the idea of politicians (and they don't come any starchier than Nixon) slumming in pop culture isn't novel, in America at least. I laughed hardest at the Meese segment shown briefly during the credits, and then I remembered what a scumbag Meese was and resented him being pushed as just a stodgy ol' white guy, when he was something far more dangerous (a powerful stodgy ol' white guy). I'd rather see Wanda Sykes interview Ed Meese, nevermind Pootie Tang.

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 28 February 2003 21:03 (twenty-three years ago)

we didnt really hear much of Super Greg in the UK it seems, what is up with that?

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 1 March 2003 20:38 (twenty-three years ago)

His own show became non-ironic, he became, like so many of these things before him, the character he was trying to parody. He was laughing at his own really ignorant comments more than anyone else and there was no satire there.

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 1 March 2003 21:03 (twenty-three years ago)

it's like how americans 'get' the streets

― zemko (bob), Saturday, 1 March 2003 21:20 (twenty-three years ago)

precisely!

― James Blount (James Blount), Sunday, 2 March 2003 01:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Mike Skinner's alot better at this sort of thing than Ali G.

― James Blount (James Blount), Sunday, 2 March 2003 01:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Ali G - complete dud.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Sunday, 2 March 2003 09:17 (twenty-three years ago)

What started out as an excellent satirical device, managing to simultaneously rip the piss out of a youth subculture which richly deserved it as well as allowing uncomprehending interviewees to hang themselves quickly descended into pisspoor catchphrase comedy. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Fuck catchphrase comedy.

― Matt (Matt), Sunday, 2 March 2003 09:23 (twenty-three years ago)

well isn't that special?

― James Blount (James Blount), Sunday, 2 March 2003 09:51 (twenty-three years ago)

best retort EVAH. so when is Super Greg getting his own HBO show?

― Dave M. (rotten03), Sunday, 2 March 2003 10:07 (twenty-three years ago)

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