Ali G: Who Iz I?

What’s it about?

After twenty years spent “chillin’, tokin’ and bonin’”, Ali G is shocked to discover that his long-term girlfriend, Julie, is 8 months pregnant. Faced with an extra mouth to feed, he gets off he heads to America to reclaim his former glory… but soon encounters adversaries who will ultimately threaten his and his child’s very existence.

The facts

• Directed by Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan)
• English language
• Runtime: 89 minutes

Why did it get this rating?

This film was classified by Te Mana Whakaatu, Classification Office. You can find out more about classification process and ratings here.

Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G has a notorious history of satire that can offend almost everyone. The content warning descriptions here do include minor spoilers in the interest of harm minimisation.

Sexual material

There is a lot of crude sexual humour throughout the film. The strongest instances include:

• There is a massage wand with King Charles’ head on it.
• Ali G describes how erect he is when he thinks about his girlfriend. He says his penis is throbbing and that he was close to ‘jizzing.’
• A group of men are given fake buttocks that have a gun out of the anus, to protect against anal rape. The gun is fired by pumping a large fake penis in the front, which appears like masturbating. There are several scenes where the participants are shown pumping their own, or other’s fake penises.
• A woman talks about having an Onlyfans account for her feet. Later she streams a video of her unpeeling a banana with her feet to her Onlyfans account.
• When talking to a woman he believes is his stepmother, Ali G says he has watched a lot of documentaries about that relationship, referring to pornography.
• A character goes to a shop to buy ‘dong stiffener’ pills which he takes in the shop and gets an erection in his trousers.
• Describes his genetic makeup as ‘a random mix, like bukkake.’

Cruelty

A group of men kidnap a woman in labour to take her to Mexico, so the child can’t become a US citizen. After they fail, they stab her in the neck with a needle to knock her unconscious. The men kidnap the newborn baby, put it in a bag, attach it to a drone to fly it to Mexico so the baby cannot get US birthright citizenship. When the drone runs out of power, they release the baby from a height. The viewers know the baby is fake, but two of the men participating believe it is a real scenario.

Sexual violence

A man has sex with a severely drugged man, by pretending to be his girlfriend. He does this to harvest the man’s semen out of his anus. It is later reported he is ‘cancelled’ for not getting consent.

Content that may disturb

Discrimination is satirised. This includes over the top anti-discrimination that becomes discriminatory. We see real life people saying and doing discriminatory things, which is done to make fun of people who hold those attitudes.

A white man presents an anti-cultural appropriation presentation to a group of black people. He claims to represent the entire black community. He does an African-style chant which includes words that sound like the n-word.

Two contestants perform on a game show where they play a game called “the final solution.” In this game they throw dolls representing immigrants, and other ‘undesirables’ into gas chambers. The performers and the audience all perform nazi style salutes. Ali G hosts this game show dressed up as a stereotype of a Mexican gangster.

Ali G uses the term gaylord, which is unclear on its meaning but hints at homophobia.

Drug use

Ali G scatters cannabis buds to animals at a farm after being told they eat dried grass.

Ali G smokes cannabis out of bagpipes.

Ali G takes several over-the-counter pills that are supposed to help him get an erection. These make his very disoriented.

Offensive language

Offensive language used includes the n-word, ‘Punani’, ‘motherf*cker’, ‘f*ck’ ‘sh*thole’, ‘dickhead’, ‘sh*t’, ‘bitches’, ‘crap’ and ‘dicks.’ The offensive language is used for humour, and for characterisation.

Helplines:

The discrimination, cruelty and sexual violence could be upsetting for some viewers, especially for those who have gone through similar experiences. If you are struggling with what you have seen on-screen please reach out for help. If you or someone you know needs to talk:

• 1737
• Safe to talk
• Lifeline
• Youthline

Further information

• Why are ratings and content warnings important for me and my whānau?