Talk:Ali G

message: The text says "Ali G (Brett Zeleznick) is a fictional gang member of the " Umm who is Brett Zeleznick  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.157.192.7 (talk) 12:59, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Background 

message: On what evidence are you basing your assertion that Ali G is supposed to be of Pakistani extraction?  I've never seen such evidence.  The name "Ali" is not proof enough.  I'm not sure what color Ali G is supposed to be, but I doubt very much Cohen has ever said explicitly that he is meant to be Pakistani.  Moncrief 00:22, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)
:Most reports I've seen say Cohen is Jew pretending to be a white guy pretending to be black. I've always thought he was mocking middle class white boys, not Asians. The article should be changed, perhaps it could be mentioned that some feel he is mocking asian homeboys instead.--ZayZayEM 05:10, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: AFAIK it has been admitted that the choice of the name Ali was deliberate, and intended to make people wonder if he might be a Muslim. The point of this was to discourage interviewees suspicious about whether he was genuine to challenge him, as it might be taken as religious bigotry to say "this guy can't be real" if he was a Muslim. As for race, it's pretty clear he's not Asian from the colour of his skin—the humour lies in the way he says things like "Is it because I is black?" when he obviously isn't. This parodies the sort of people who might be referred to as wiggers. — Trilobite (Talk) 13:50, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

text: This is a naive statement.  Cohen wrote in Ali G's 'background' as a red herring.  He makes fun of black people pure and simple.  I ask you- how often does the character remind us that he is not black, but rather white?  Let me give you an example that is a bit more transparent: Suppose I were to do a skit, and I were to invent a character named 'Bob' play4ed by me.  Bob likes to 'act Jewish', or rather, do so as he interprets Jewishness.  Then 'Bob' were to spend the rest of the skit doing things that are classic slanders of Jewish people: avarice, blood libel etc.  Bob never breaks character, he just wears a Jewish looking costume and acts like a fool or a beast.  The only disclaimer of Bob's real identity is in liner notes in the play program.  No one could possibly take this as a criticism of 'Gentiles who act Jewish'.  People have long made succesful careers out of playing in blackface.  Cohen is very talented and very gifted.  Let's not fool ourselves though.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.42.180.103 (talk) 15:07, 15 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  And I have Armenian relatives - I'm still as white as they come.  Uncles' names are not his name, and so don't mean squat.  Ali is a more "street friendly" form of Alistair - nothing more, nothing less.  He does, however, mention the Asian adoption of such "street" culture in the character Hassan B, his arch-nemesis and leader of the East Staines Massive. Dave420 15:32, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Controversy

message: should the page link to official sites?  there's at least one official site (the HBO show in the US).  anyone know how to do that? Streamless 18:54, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Links to Official Sites

message: Me tinks the use of the word wigger is a bit racialist- me thinks it should bes in "quotes"
::And in the article some poor dumb-ass thinks 'racialist' is a real English word - to funny to correct :-) Stub Mandrel (talk) 16:44, 8 November 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Hahaha. Martinevans123 (talk) 16:54, 8 November 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Racialist term

message: Being white and a misogyny is contrverial.  In the "controvery" section, I think the writer mistaken the term misogyny for racist instead of "women-hating."
:It's easy to make smelling mintakes. Even when the whiter non mishapen. Martinevans123 (talk) 17:00, 8 November 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Controversy

message: The line "Sacha Baron Cohen is not black himself, but because he portrays a character who purports misogyny, he has been accused by some of racism and of ridiculing black street culture." would seem to be accusing black men of being generally mysogenistic. I'm thinking this might be a result of succesive edits, so could someone who knows more about the history of this article rectify it? Damburger 17:52, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Racism 

message: I removed a couple of paragraphs that appeared to be lifted almost verbatim from a linked Slate article.  These should be re-written with original text if they are to be included.  Article: http://www.slate.com/id/2106886/   
PxT 22:11, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removed potential copyright violation 

message: The use of the word English in this sentence has been incorrectly used, if you are referring to white boys in the United Kingdom you should use the term 'British', as it is NOT only English boys who immitate black people.  I find the fact that you have solely implicated in the article that it is only English boys who display this behaviour as in fact, RACIST!  Please change this word to British because Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish white boys also immitate black people and can also be chavs, or in Scotland, Neds.  Do not single out English peopel because they are the majority race in the United Kingdom because it si not fair and it IS a form of racism.
TammiMagee 10:00, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Exactly.  To talk about all the white British kids, use the term "white British kids", as nothing else is even approaching accurate.  As Scottish, Welsh, English, Irish and even the French are all genetically identical, it can't be racism.  As TopGear said, they're nationalities, not races. Dave420 15:36, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

text: Tammi, while this could definitely be the case (As an American, I'm not familiar with the Race Relations Act), I think it is more appropriate to say "bigoted", "discriminatory", "intolerant" or "biased" when referring to nationality... whereas "racism" should generally refer to race, although it can be attributed to ethnicity in certain circumstances. It's all a matter of terminology though. Apart from this, I generally agree with your statement. The generalization that only "English boys" are imitating hip-hop and street culture is pretty ridiculous, because I live in rural Plymouth, New Hampshire and such behavior exists here as well. But Ali G is clearly lampooning the suburban British wannabe-gangster, and his character is primarily English with a few hints at a possible Jamaican background. So when concerning his character, I think it's fine to use both British and English labels... but when referring to the kids he lampoons I would suggest "British" as the best term... since such behavior is not exclusive to England, Wales or Scotland. That's just my 2 cents. -Prezboy1 15:03, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reference to white English boys 

message: Regarding the claim that the Ali G name was supposed to have a "whiff of Islam" at the same time as the character has black american influences... would that be a reference to Malcolm X ? Bwithh 18:30, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I doubt it :)  If it was to have a whiff islam, Ali would be a surname, not a first name.  As it is, Ali G's real name is Alistair, and his surname begins with a G. Dave420 15:38, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Malcolm X (pure speculation)

message: This article is one of thousands on Wikipedia that have a link to YouTube in it.  Based on the External links policy, most of these should probably be removed.  I'm putting this message here, on this talk page, to request the regular editors take a look at the link and make sure it doesn't violate policy.  In short: 1. 99% of the time YouTube should not be used as a source. 2. We must not link to material that violates someones copyright.  If you are not sure if the link on this article should be removed, feel free to ask me on my talk page and I'll review it personally.  Thanks. ---J.S (t|c) 04:22, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  YouTube links 

message: This seems to be spam and otherwise irrelevant even if true as far as I can tell.67.161.77.15 09:59, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Spam Removed

message: Where the hell is the middlebury union middle school? Nowhere near Staines, where I have lived all my life. The only school Ali-G refers to or visits is the Matthew Arnold school, located on Kingston Road in Staines...  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.144.202.194 (talk) 10:35, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Names of his schools

message: See here. I do not want to simply reverse the change, as that might constitute an edit war and, for all I know, I could be the one in the wrong here, but what specifically was wrong with the reference I placed in the article? After all, Ali G Indahouse is indeed where you discover Ali G's real name, as far as I'm aware. Any feedback would be appreciated. It Is Me Here (talk) 14:49, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removal of a reference I added to the article 

message: Wigger is a term seldomly used in the UK Ali G is a sterotypical chav. Should wigger be repalced by chav in the article? --90.212.165.183 (talk) 19:33, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Wigger?

message: I have a question: Did anyonbe actually see Ali G interview John McCain (if yes what program it was).
:I was just thinking the same thing about McCain. Can anyone back this up?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.59.5.24 (talk) 03:14, 22 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: John McCain interviewed by Ali G?

message: Ali G is not Jamaican, the whole point is that he is an English boy trying to be Jamaican.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.152.165.50 (talk) 20:40, 19 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nationality 

message: "has been repeatedly fucked" in the Criticisms section Theeurocrat (talk) 14:00, 7 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Puerile Vandalism 

message: The article currently describes Staines, Egham, Englefield Green and Langham as "working class towns". This is very misleading to people unfamiliar with the area. While Staines does have a vaguely downmarket image (not wholly deserved), the other towns are typical Home Counties commuter towns near Heathrow Airport with a generally affluent middle class ambience. --Ef80 (talk) 14:43, 23 June 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Amazing - someone put that back in February. Mezigue (talk) 14:29, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Background 

message: The episode containing the Trump interview was aired on 7 March 2003, according to List of Da Ali G Show episodes#Season 2 (2003). I have found the following links that indicate it was Donald Trump himself: The Independent (May 2016), Donald Trump Tweet (Oct 2012), New York Times (May 2003). Is that enough to back the statement and remove the  tag? Razvan Socol (talk) 07:12, 11 February 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi Rsocol. I'm sure that's more than enough, although I'm rather suspicious that any tweet by Trump makes something "true". The Indy article gives very good coverage of the story. The whole section here is almost completely unsourced, of course, and the interview is certainly not mentioned at Donald Trump. But a lot of people will have seen the Ali G interview, so it's not a very contentious claim. My original motivation was to establish the date, so that we know he was definitely not POTUS at time, but now we have "currently" to qualify his position. More intrigued by the "ice cream glove." Tempted to add the NYT quote: "I thought he was seriously retarded. It was a total con job. But my daughter, Ivanka, saw it and thought it was very cool." Martinevans123 (talk) 08:34, 11 February 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Donald Trump interview 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Ali G. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121104072349/http://www.actressarchives.com/news/baron-cohen-borat-and-ali-g-are-dead-to-me to http://www.actressarchives.com/news/baron-cohen-borat-and-ali-g-are-dead-to-me
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 07:31, 3 December 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Why are birth and death dates for guests included in the article? power~enwiki (π, ν) 19:43, 31 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Birth and Death dates for guests 

message: … is ‘vaginal hair?’ 210.84.45.53 (talk) 09:05, 10 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  What on earth…