Da Ali G Show: Da Compleet Second Seazon (DVD)
Created by: Sacha Baron Cohen
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen

Originally a character on the UK’s “11 O’Clock Show”, Ali G eventually made his way to HBO for 2 seasons before calling it a day. The show is based on three character reporters (Ali G, Borat and Bruno, all played by creator Sacha Baron Cohen) who mess with his interviewees as much as possible. Cohen takes aim at a wide variety of people to play off of, from big name politicians such as Patrick Buchanan to small town farmers and line dancers.

Show host Ali G is a wannabe gangsta, a suburban British white guy who thinks himself as not only street, but black. He is probably the stupidest of the characters, and is the most likely to be spoken down to and/or insulted. The character is a very insulting portrait of youth culture: childishly ignorant, mindlessly rebellious, yet at the same time pretty much harmless. Borat is from Kazakhstan. Borat’s segments are sometimes a showcase of Cohen’s physical comedy skills, however more often it’s a chance to see how much slack people will cut ‘the dumb foreign guy’. Borat is probably my favorite character, and his segments usually provide the shows funniest moments, such as getting wasted at a wine tasting and then showing off pictures of him performing incest on his sister. The best segment though is Borat performing a country song from his homeland called “Throw the Jew Down the Well” , where the crowd horrifically sing and clap along. Bruno is an underrated character, a very gay fashion show host who himself isn’t so much funny as much as he is a tool to make other people look stupid. He easily pushes homophobic buttons in a lot of people. Having a personal loathing for ‘fashion police’, I always prefer the segments where he sticks to making a mockery of the fashion industry, such as when he instructs his guests on his talk show of what to say about Paris Hilton to the camera, even though it’s not what the guests really think. They say it anyways of course.

The DVD is only 6 half hour episodes. It does contain some bonus interviews for each character that could add up to about another episode and a half, as well as Ali G’s commencement address at Harvard University. The Harvard speech is the only time I know of where Cohen has ever toned down (at some points even nearly breaking) his character.

What bothers me about this collection is it seems to be yet another case of something containing multiple discs that probably could have fit on one. Considering there are two discs I expect a bit more to be on there, such as a commentary for each track, but that’s not the case. I guess it’s not a huge deal though, as Cohen’s commentary tracks for Season One were terrible anyways. It is this reason only I bring down the score on an otherwise extremely funny, very rewatchable, must-see show. — Goon

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