One of the most intriguing things about Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical sequel Ali G: Who am I? — released in limited theaters, to mixed reviews, and now streaming on Amazon Prime Video — happened off-screen.
The film’s first trailer on August 25 sparked widespread backlash online about the iconic character, which has long functioned as a Rorschach test. British commentator Afua Hirsch argued: “Black people don’t dress like that anymore. Even white people who imitate black people don’t talk like that anymore. Sexualizing black women and casually mocking working-class women is no longer accepted. Baron Cohen’s so-called ‘humor’ is a crude composite of all these things.”
Cohen anticipated the outcry by reposting the trailer with the following observation: “In an age where a comedian’s career can end with a single un-PC joke, I figured I’d play it safe and bring this guy back.” Then, after the fallout amplified, he posted a promotional clip of a progressive academic character from the “Campaign for Ethical Comedy,” also played by Cohen, who called for a boycott of the project: “I’m sure you’ve heard of our five Cs: think, contextualize, consult the community, and get consent before you laugh — that’s right, do the work before you smirk. » The comedian-provocateur has previously made clear that Ali G’s mannerisms and aesthetic were seen in part as a critique of white British youth who embrace exaggerated versions of Black American and Black British cultural styles.
A notable element of activists’ boycott campaign against the film has been a UK-based online media activism platform called NewsCord. He published an opinion piece calling Cohen’s work “blackface” and focuses most of his advocacy efforts on coverage of the Gaza conflict. NewsCord’s past campaigns have included demands for the “immediate release of participants in the Sumud Global Flotilla,” who it said had been “kidnapped in international waters by the Zionist entity.” The US Treasury has designated the leaders of the flotilla as being affiliated with Hamas.
NewsCord says its campaign sent about 55,000 emails to pressure exhibitors to refuse to show the film. Its system provides users with personalized templates for mass sending letters using a “specialized language template.” NewsCord’s Ali G Action Page offers an automated checklist to easily direct complaints to companies ranging from Cineworld and Odeon in the UK to Landmark and Cinemark in the US. The platform noted that Picturehouse, a small British cinema chain based in London, had informed NewsCord that it had no plans to screen Ali G: Who am I? “This is the result every letter asks of a channel,” NewsCord wrote, explaining that Picturehouse was now “off the mailing list.”
On October 23, when the film was released in theaters, the platform announced the victory of its campaign. He highlighted Amazon’s limited final exposure plan (the studio called it a “stunt”), while misleadingly claiming that a total of “55,000 people sent emails to theater chains” through its platform.
NewsCord was incubated by the nonprofit Tech for Palestine, which describes its mission as “cultivating a garden of projects and services that end genocidal narratives.” The organization’s program to influence Wikipedia pages relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and related topics has been criticized by Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies as well as the United States Anti-Defamation League.
In October 2024, Paul Biggar, founder and CEO of Tech for Palestine, wrote that Israel was “astroturfing IMDb’s ratings system to manufacture genocide consent” and offered detailed instructions to “counteract the exaggerated popularity” of four documentaries about the Hamas-led October 7 massacre in Israel – including We will dance againaired on Paramount+ – dismissing existing criticism and taking other action against IMDb. Activist company Boycat, an app incubated by Tech for Palestine, has called for a boycott of 2025 Disney films. snow Whitewith Gal Gadot, referring to her support for Israel, and Captain America: Brave New Worlddue to “the inclusion of Sabra, an Israeli superhero initially described as a Mossad agent, played by Shira Haas, an actress with ties to the Israeli military.”
Cohen, a Briton, is one of Hollywood’s most prominent Jews working on screen. He is said to have been discovered early in his career as a performer for his parody of a sweaty Hassid, to have sparked controversy when his bigoted character Borat sang “Throw the Jew Down the Well”, and most recently to playing legendary Israeli Mossad agent Eli Cohen in the Netflix limited series. The spy. Cohen gave a widely publicized speech to the ADL in 2019, in which he explained how “as a comedian, I’ve tried to use my characters to get people to let down their guard and reveal what they really believe, including their own biases,” before explaining how he believes the Internet has become “the greatest propaganda machine in history,” which now propagates “the oldest conspiracy theory in history — the lie that Jews are somehow dangerous.” (He was also reportedly forceful with TikTok over its tolerance of anti-Semitic rhetoric on its platform.)
“Although we expected some pushback about resurrecting a character from another era, we were really disheartened to see in person the attacks on Sacha because he is a Jewish public figure,” said Monica Levinson, executive producer of Ali G: Who am I??, in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. She has collaborated with Cohen on previous projects, including Borat AndBruno. “The coordination, messaging and scale of the attack were staggering. »
NewsCord and Tech for Palestine did not respond THRrequests for information. When THR asked Cohen about the boycott campaign Ali G. Following an interview before publication, he responded, “A lot of things on social media are orchestrated, and not necessarily orchestrated by people who actually believe what they say,” adding, “I’m not surprised that prominent Jews are being targeted. I knew this was going to happen. The level of organization is surprising, but this is a trend of Jews being portrayed in a certain way and trying to be silenced.”
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