Woke campaigners try to ban the new Ali G film from UK cinemas — and one chain has caved
Sacha Baron Cohen's mockumentary character Ali G, who first appeared in 1998, is at the centre of a UK cinema boycott campaign over claims the role enforces racist stereotypes.
Activists are trying to get Sacha Baron Cohen's upcoming mockumentary 'Ali G: Who Iz I?' pulled from screens before it even opens, flooding cinema chains worldwide with over 37,000 emails demanding they refuse to book the October release. UK media-monitoring group NewsCord is behind the campaign, targeting Odeon, Cineworld, Vue and Cinemark among others. Critics brand the dreadlocked, Rastafarian-hat-wearing character a racist caricature of Black British and Jamaican culture. Baron Cohen responded to the furore on X: 'In an age where a comedian's career can be ended by a single un-PC joke, I thought I'd play it safe and bring this guy back.'
The campaign claims Picturehouse Cinemas has already refused to screen the film — but the chain's reply was its standard response for any unbooked title.
NewsCord argues Sony's own marketing tagline — 'He iz back. We ain't liable' — proves the studio knows the film is indefensible.
Cohen's defenders argue that Ali G was never a mockery of Black people but rather a send-up of white men who ignorantly appropriate Black culture.
