Hi All,

Anyone watching this show? I just discovered it, brilliant show!

Comments anyone?

I finally found this thread! Can't wait for the show to start up again...

Anyways, Sacha Baron Cohen was on The Daily Show last night, sans any sort of get up! It was real odd, since we've always seen him dressed as Ali G in interviews and even as Borat on Conan.

I'd heard of Ali G before in Time magazine; I believe he gave some sort of commencement speech at Harvard.

I saw him last night on The Daily Show. He's quite good-looking without all of that faux-gangsta get-up.

According to TVGuide, the second season starts on HBO on Sunday night at 10:30, and the episode's called "Respek". Heh.

Who will be one of his first guests this season? Noam Effin' Chomsky. Too, too good. Big article in today's Salon.

He was on Letterman this week...I agree, he is sweet!

Sacha said when they show up to do an interview, he is in his "Ali G" look and his producer is a clean cut professional looking guy...they all assume that Ali G is just the camera man, HA!

He also said "for legal reasons" he can't say how the interviews are set up?
BTW; his Borac (spelling?) moustache is real, it takes him a month to grow.

The faces on the people he interviews are priceless!!
I also noticed, Ali G himself trying not to laugh when he asks such idiotic questions.

My all time favorite scene was when he was describing his "ice cream glove" invention and trying to convince people how useful it would be!

Sitting next to some authentic Texans at a rodeo, Borat showed them pictures of his lovely wife in Kazhastan, including fulsome shots of her vagina. The Texans' reactions were lol funny.

Getting caught up on tonight's marathon.

Ali G. to Brent Scowcraft," Have you caught the guys who sent the Tampax throught the mail?"

I think he is a genius (and beautiful). Loved him since the Madonna's Music video.

Caught the marathon tonight. Loved the James Lipton interview ... and when Borat explores America's hobbies (with the Texas gun nut and the gym guy in Miami). The Bruno bit about the gayest place in America (Alabama!) was frightening, to say the least; I kept thinking that asshole at the Pro-America expo was going to lose it and punch him out.

Overall, I really like the show, but some segments seem to go on too long while others are over just when they're getting good (i.e. I would have liked to see Bruno tour more of Alabama).

As for Sacha -- I saw him on The Daily Show. Talk about unexpected eye candy!

IMO, Bruno is the weakest part of the show! When he comes on, I tend to space out. And speaking of some bits going on way too long, there was one Bruno segment when he was interviewing a designer and told him to do something for the camera, and the guy just sits there with his hands in the air for like a solid 3 minutes!

I did think that bit was a little strange. I think the Bruno segments that work best are the quick interviews -- like when he was at some of the NYC fashion shows (the woman who agreed that people with no personal style should be rounded up and sent away) or when he was talking to the Pro-America expo guy (who suddenly threw out a couple of bigoted remarks about Jews). When Bruno asks loaded questions and lets people out themselves as idiots ... those are the Bruno bits that work best, IMHO.

As for going on too long, the Ali G group discussions always seem to last several minutes beyond where they should have ended.

That said -- dude still makes me laugh!

I heart Bruno. Especially the Hushi interview. 'Do you think consistency is important?" My only complaint about him is that his interview with Jon A. is probably part of the reason Bravo execs thought 'Blow Out' was a good idea.

Yeah you wonder how he gets away with the stuff he does interviewing normal people, like the wine club guys in Mississippi and the (the Bruno interview with) minister who's trying to turn gays into straights.

Wouldn't these guys have to sign the relase? At the end of these sessions, they'd have to know it was all a put-on.

Then again, when the minister said it wasn't cool to watch Will and Grace, you figure he wasn't going to watch HBO.

He did a lot of these "interviews" with a lot of small-town, rural South folks. Could he pull off this stuff in the big city?

I had sort of the same question when he was talking to guy about gangs in greater Washington and noticed that they were in my town (Gaithersburg, MD). It's kinda fitting that a wannabe gangster from Staines visits a town full of them, but it would've been a more interesting interview if he ventured down to Anacostia or PG county.

One thing that's sticking with me from tonight's show: I keep hearing Sam Donaldson saying "Mad props..." over and over and over ...

I felt like the way they cut up the Donaldson interview was to hide the fact that it wasn't very good. All those quick cuts to Ali & girls dancing, kind of like Laugh-In or some other 60s show. The Borot segment was great. I think he may be my favorite character.

I almost died when Borat asked the slavery question of the Mississippians, and when the gentleman answered, "Well, they passed a law," rather than something more firm like, "It's just wrong and evil." I also liked Borat's sister, though I predicted there would be some inappropriate nudity in them, just like at the Texas rodeo (though I was unprepared for the brother-sister sex, I can say): "We are pretending to be husband and wiiiiiiiife!"

I really enjoy the Borat character, simply because he's the most believable. With Ali, it's easy for the mark to start to think that it's a put-on and that the interviewer can't possibly be that ignorant (most likely, it's rooted in the belief that the young hip-hop guy is having "pick on the middle-aged square guy day"). It's not quite as true for Bruno, but I think a lot of his subjects feel they're being led. With Borat, though, he really comes across as that stupid, naive and unaccustomed. (He's the only person I can imagine pulling that "I don't know how to walk on a treadmill" gag from last season and look like he truly doesn't get it. Anybody else would look like they were doing a bad Buster Keaton impression or something, but "Borat" really sells it.)

I absolutely love Ali G and I'm sorry I didn't see Sascha as himself on David Letterman.

Last night's episode was pretty good. I loved Borat at the wine tasting. Especially when they were trying to get him to hold the wine glass by the stem and Borat didn't know what to do.

Ali G with the bomb-sniffing dogs was good too. Loved the question - "When the dogs find the bomb, do they dismantle it too?"

I caught the rerun with Jonathan Antin. I knew he was a clueless fool but damn! Bruno drew him right in!

Sacha said on Letterman that it takes him 6 weeks to grow the moustache for Borat. I think that shows real dedication to his character. I'm not sure about the hair on his head, but maybe he grows that and blows it dry to get that look. Sacha said it's not so bad growing it, but walking around L.A. trying to be himself with the giant moustache is a bit of a challenge.

Bruno:
"So you're saying that it's OK to admire someone's penis in the shower, but if I put it in my mouth, some kind of line has been crossed?"

Ali G is choke on your gum funny!

Does anyone know if those foreign sounding words used on the show are real or if they're just gibberish? I know that Borat's weekly greeting that sounds like "Yahk she mahsh" is Polish for "How are you?" but the rest I'm clueless on. I mean, does "Booyakasha" or those things he says as Bruno ("Ahk ya, nish nisht") mean anything?

Great show! However, I think the UK version is much funnier. Ali G has a live audience there and it makes him more relaxed somehow. I think he tries too hard in the US version and sometimes seems to think "Is anyone laughing?"

One of my fave Ali interviews was with James Lipton. He really didn't get the joke and seemed offended at some questions, but wrote a rap of his own in the end and was actually pretty good. Ali's rap version cracked me up though. "Even though you dig Shakespeare, doesn't mean that you're a queer." James: "No, I'll write my own one." Hee!

Bruno was great when he encouraged people to say such stupid things.
"I've noticed that all the good guys..Jesus...have long hair, and the bad guys.. Hitler, Saddam Hussein..have a moustache."
And the guy he interviews gets so excited, "I've always thought that! You're the first person to agree with me on that!" Like it's a great revelation.

"How was it when Madonna came here?" "Oh, she never came here." "Well, can we say she did? They think in Austria that you are her favourite shop. We'll take this again." Take 2: "How was it when Madonna came here?" "Oh, it was fabulous."

Ali asked Lipton if he had ever cried during a movie and Lipton said something to the effect of "Oh yes, many many times.", and Ali started laughing in his face and said "Doesn't that make you queer?" That's when Lipton got offput.

Well, I'm glad he didn't give my commencement address. My dear grandmother would have fainted.

http://www.hbo.com/alig/harvard.html

Very good article, gives some insight on how these interviews are set up.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ssiblybeserious

Truly, I nearly shit myself when that racist wine tasting guy talked about slavery. As someone else said, how could he not say "because it is wrong and evil."

I also giggled with glee when Ali G asked the ATF guy why they don't use dolphins to find bombs. The guy said it would be difficult to haul a fishtank around and Ali G said, and I'm paraphrasing badly here - "Yeah, but don't you know that dolphins aren't fish, they're mammaries?"

I always make sure I empty my bladder before watching this show because this show is piss your pants funny.

When Bruno went to the Alabama football game last season...being an Alabama grad and big Crimson Tide fan I was worried I'd be offended. Shaud Williams (fmr Alabama Runningback) so wanted to kick Bruno's ass. Dancing with the cheerleaders...I'm cracking up just thinking about it.

"So does dere be a big deaf gang?"

Off the charts funny!

I'm glad I found this thread! I love the show but didn't think a second season was possible because surely everyone's heard of him. I'm glad that I was wrong. Last year Katie Couric interviewed Ali G on Today, and he didn't disappoint. He made her so uncomfortable she was squirming. And that? Was oodles of fun to watch.

I thought Sacha Baron Cohen never did interviews as himself, so it was cool to catch him on Daily Show. The New York Times also interviewed him last week. He is quite good looking. I love the beginning of the show when the clothes fly onto his body, because, well, he's got a nice bod.

Borat's interview with the wine guys in Mississippi was disturbing. Amazing that their commentary on why slavery is wrong is because "they passed a law."



That was hilarious! He kept going on and on about whether the dogs weren't involved in interviewing other bomb-sniffing dogs. The man he interviewed had a good sense of humor about it.

How in the world does he trap people into talking with him??

My favourite Borat moment ever is from his British show, I think it's from the annual Oxford vs Cambridge boat race. He goes to meet the team and walks up to each guy and kisses them on the cheek. These are big guys who don't look very comfortable with this, he then gets to the end of the line to the sole female and just shakes her hand. Words cannot describe how funny this clip is, it just has to be seen.

The problem with Ali G is that he becomes too recognisable, he stopped being able to do interviews in Britain because everyone knew him, so he started doing interviews from the USA on his British show in the second series. However, now he has a show airing in the US which seems to be relatively popular, there seems to be nowhere left for him to go.

This past Sunday's episode was even better than last Sunday's. I normally hate when he gets stuck on one joke but the veteran/veterinarian exchange had me cracking up throughout, mainly because of Dr. George Washington's (no comment on the name?) increasingly exasperated responses. The Borat segment was grand too.

The current issue of Vanity Fair (Reagans on the cover) has a lengthy story on Sacha Baron Cohen. I found it interesting, as I hadn't read many articles about the man behind the characters. Unfortunately, there's no online version to post here.

looking to download a clip of sacha on letterman. found the daily show interview and borat/conan bit.... anyone? thanks

Could you post a link to the Conan/Borat peice, firefoxer? I thought it was hilarious and I'd love to see it again.

Edit: Thanks a bunch.

Australia?

I'm surprised that Donaldson, Buchanan, etc. don't at least check out who their interviewer will be. If you were going to be on a television show and had a reputation to protect, wouldn't you at least Google the name of the interviewer, if not ask to see clips of him interviewing someone else? These people must have handlers/someone who sets up the interview. Why wouldn't this be part of their job?

Contrary to popular opinion we actually have TVs in Australia in which the Ali G show was shown about 3 years ago (the UK version) so we actually know who Ali G is.

Also, he dates an Australian so he is pretty well known here.

(And according to a story told by someone at my Uni he has relatives or family that married someone in Australia as he MC'ed the wedding in Sydney. This was before Ali G and they didn't think he was that funny then).

We'll take him here in Canada!

The US season one is just airing here and we have no idea when/if we will get season two.
I'm so, so jealous that you all are watching season two!!

Oh yeah, I forgot all the talented Australians leave to produce shows elsewhere, so you watch a lot of imports.

I fear Sacha will go the way of Dom Jolly (wasn't that his name?) and will become too recognizable to do his own show.

By the way, who's the Australian Sacha dates?

Absolutely loved the farm segment, especially when he pointed and laughed at that poor chicken: "Is that even a real animal?!" That had me cracking up so hard!

Also, this exchange:
Farmer: "Do you even know what a farm is?"
Ali G: "Yeah, it's pretty much a rubbish zoo..."

Hee!

Absolutely brilliant show. I laughed out loud when he compared that local politician to Stalin and the guy feebly said "I'm not like Stalin". I was also very impressed when Buchanan mentioned the use of BLTs for mustard gas and Ali G responded that BLTs are no good without mustard? Very quick, very clever.

Whatever Australia did to offend you iMissEthan I apologise on its behalf. I usually enjoy your posts so ouch. If you haven't ever been to Australia I don't know how you can comment on what we watch but anyway. Also the Ali G show was shown on the ABC here which is the equivalent of the BBC in the UK. We get a lot of their programming and vice versa..probably a hangover as we are a 'Commonwealth' country.

And in terms of talented Australians leaving how can Melissa George be explained? We were actually glad to see her go.

Sascha Baron Cohen dates/did date Isla Fisher..another Home & Away alumni (same as Melissa George). She was last seen in Scooby Doo.

I was just teasing, elmo - sorry if it came out the wrong way. I thought you were too with . I would love to visit Australia for an extended period of time. The whole south pacific area is definitely on my dream list for when I strike it rich & can go wherever I want for however long.

You can definitely have Melissa George back, as well as all Minogues.

Howard Stern played huge portions of last week's show this morning, segments of both Ali G on the farm & Borat on the campaign trail. Everyone was cracking up and saying how funny it was. I hope this brings more viewers to the show next week. Has anyone heard what kind of ratings it's getting?

Despite being on HBO on a pretty good day, I think it's fair to say that it only has a cult following! Hardly anybody I know knows about this show!

It's important to note, though, that the "pretty good day" (Sunday, when HBO displays its major series) just came this season. Last season, the show aired midnight Friday, with a repeat at the far end of the Sunday schedule (after the primetime series and a movie, too, I think). So the big potential lead-in audience is only two weeks old (not to mention, Entourage loses some of its Six Feet Under lead-in even before Ali G.

Also, this show doesn't really look in the advertisements like the show it is. I think it's a tough sell to a lot of people that might enjoy the subversive humor. This season, "Haitch-Bee-Yo" has done a pretty good job (the last month or so) promoting the rubbish interviews and multiple personae in its "The Buzz" segments, and Sacha Baron Cohen has been pretty visible on the media circuit, but still, not everybody's seen this stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised if some viewers who just see the "Tonight...on HBO" schedule before Six Feet Under think it really is a hip-hop-oriented talk show that's not up their alley.

I know I checked it out the first season just out of curiosity (maybe even on recommendation of a friend), and it totally wasn't what I had expected.

Apparently someone has no sense of humor.

James Broadwater ain't happy.

And yet another famewhore pays the piper. Maybe he should team up with Tammy from The Apprentice since they were both 'duped'. At least he didn't blame the editing.

Sorry iMissEthan it's my fault because I don't have a sense of humour this week due to bronchitis. Please accept my apology!

You definitely have to make it down to Australia sometime as Sydney has just been voted best city in the world again by some travel magazine for rich people (forget which one).

Further to my story from before we were discussing at Uni how Ali G was accused of being racist a few years ago, and encouraging stereotypes in the UK and my tutor was saying how she was surprised considering he is Jewish that he would encourage sterotypes (I'm paraphrasing but it was a weird angle to come at it).

Anyway, my brother had recently actually spat his drink all over the living room from watching Borat at the foxhunting on the Ali G show and he wanted to know about SBC so I looked up info on him. I happened to be saying that it was interesting how his family is so wealthy and he has this huge inheritance etc etc and this guy in my class pipes up and goes 'Yeah, he's a family friend of ours..he mc'ed this wedding I was at'. Colour me embarrassed as didn't realise there would be anyone that would actually know him in my Uni class!

Back to topic I really enjoy how he tricks his interviewees into being stupid (eg in the UK version Ali G visited Northern Ireland and said to a Unionist leader 'Are you Irish?' and the guy goes ' No I am British!' and Ali G goes ' Oh, so you is here on Holiday?'. So subversive and clever. But I still find him really embarrassingly rude sometimes.

I really hope they show the original series over here in the US sometime, or at least give us a DVD!

Chinkygirl I believe the DVD for season 1 (US Edition) is scheduled to come out this fall, August 17, unless it's been pushed back.

I've been searching high and low for this forum. I was watching MSNBC's Convention coverage and everytime Pat Buchanan came on the screen I started giggling. Did they tell him he had to imitate Ali during his PSA? He didn't even pronounce his name, right. Although he was a good sport talking about BLTs, I ALMOST have some respect for him. Kind of like how I ALMOST have a billion dollars

Oops, I meant the original British series! I want DVDs of that, dammit! :)

From James Broadwater's site:


Fuck, that's the scariest thing I've seen in a long time. I cannot believe he actually believes that the FCC has any right (or desire for that matter) to censor the content of shows, to make it more "Christian." Did you all know that God runs the FCC? At least I know where to send my "Why the hell did you make broccoli look like trees" and "Why do bad things happen to good people" letters to.

Sometimes I think Sascha Baron Cohen is too hard on these folks, but I think I've changed my mind.