A friend emails to say that he is glad that I finally like Ali G. But I have liked Ali G., ever since his Noam Chomsky interview:
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
I've always thought he was the funniest of the three characters. Do a YouTube search for for Ali G's interview of Andy Rooney. Utterly side-splitting.
I have never understood his appeal:
Tricking some old men in their seventies - writers, politicians, scientists, diplomats - into conversing with this vulgar, primitive, stupid and shameless character who pretends to represent "the youth" is just sickening.
I find it extremely revolting and have never been able to watch more than a minute of his "interviews" - no matter if I liked the interviewee or not. It just shows such an utter lack of respect for a persons integrity and a desire to draw them down to the level of this utterly moronic, deplorable and pitiful cliché of pop culture that S.B.Cohen impersonates as ALi G.
Outside of being extraordinarily aggravating, I was wondering why this counts as funny. Is a pretense of stupidity really the mark of the hilarious? Or does the prospect of seeing Professor Chomsky made irritable just tickle the fancy of all those Atlas Shrugged enthusiasts? I know explaining a joke negates the humor of it, but I would be willing to sacrifice those minimal prospects for the chunk of enlightenment that would surely be mine were an adequate explanation of the appeal of this clip provided. Oh great, wise people of the internet, what's so funny about this?
Incidentally, Chomsky is wrong about one thing: if you invent a completely new language, some people might care. I thought I read about Toki Pona in the Times earlier this year, but now I can't find the story. The Wikipedia naturally lists many other such "constructed languages". Of course, he might me right about the money-making prospects.
I like this Ali G interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ_0yajZ0WY&feature=related
I didn't like Borat movie, because it did treat the unknowing civilians in the film in an exploitative manner.
But Rooney comes across as a jerk. He's not even trying to be congenial.
What a bunch of grumpy guses.
Gerontion got me thinking though, damn, I would cut off a minor toe to see Ali G interview Ayn Rand. Perhaps in some other, funnier word this has already happened.
Megan pay attention to the comments section here. Your clientèle is not down with teh funny that makes them uncomfortable. Probably not "Pardon the Enthusiasm" fans either. In the tradition of Instapundit and his creation Althouse, I suggest you change you business model to appeal to them.
What a bunch of grumpy guses.
No shit.
I think you can make a case for the Borat character's being a bit -- or perhaps more than a bit -- of a major league A-hole. He does, after all, target Just Plain Folks, yes, in a highly exploitive manner. But Ali G, at least, typically goes after pompous twits who have both money and a degree of authority.
gerontion, the humor in Ali G's interviews comes from watching these people having to think on their feet, in an entirely unexpected situation. Any miscalculation is immediately obvious.
'Normal' interviews are really almost always just a chance for "experts" to trot out prepared statements they've said a thousand times before. They always look incredibly smart and prepared. They can practically sleepwalk through interviews.
Watching these people get interviewed by Ali G reminds me of a video I watched where someone set up a camera next to a patch of ice on a sidewalk.
I laughed over and over, as pedestrian after unsuspecting pedestrian switched from confident forward motion to desperate arm-flapping, feet-scrabbling and just generally trying to avoid falling flat on their faces.
And each victim was as funny as the last, as each reacted somewhat differently to the experience of suddenly, and unexpectedly, losing their sure-footed stride.
That's basically the humor in Ali G's interviews. If you knew what the questions were, you could formulate an intelligent response, if given time. He's not smarter than his interviewees (at least he's not pretending to be).
But because his questions are so completely different from what the interviewees are used to, and expecting, they generally go from confidently striding forward to arm-flapping penguins in an instant.
I don't get it. It's not that I dislike it because it's funny but it makes me uncomfortable. I just don't see why it's funny at all.
If Ali G. wants to skewer Noam Chomsky because of Chomsky's political work, why is he interviewing Chomsky about linguistics? Linguists, even those who disagree with Chomsky's politics, regard him as a seminal figure in linguistics, who has made enormous contributions to the field. For me, Bar-Cohen pretending to confuse "bilingual" and "bisexual" is just stupid.
Amlohdi wrote: Megan pay attention to the comments section here. Your clientèle is not down with teh funny that makes them uncomfortable. Probably not "Pardon the Enthusiasm" fans either. In the tradition of Instapundit and his creation Althouse, I suggest you change you business model to appeal to them.
In point of fact, she DOES pay attention to the comments section here, as evidenced by her periodic participation and, as any long-time reader knows, her direct post responses to sustained criticisms or particularly eloquent points made in the comments section.
What she is considerably more willing to ignore is a small cachet of one-post wonders who only make an appearance to protest loudly about things that are of remarkably little consequence.
Personally, I think SBC is a crude, juvenile twit who is only popular by means of appealing to a large mass of crude, juvenile twits (a condemnation that strikes down numerous other so-called commedians, natch). But if MM wants to enjoy his work, that's no skin off my back.
Cardinal Fang, why do you assume that SBC wants to skewer Chomsky for his political work/views? I don't know what Cohen's politics are, but he seems just as likely to go after the right (Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, anit-abortion protesters) or those not known for their politics (Buzz Aldrin, Donald Trump).
And I happen to like the ones who either see through him or refuse to patronize Ali G's stupidity (Trump, C. Everett Koop, Andy Rooney).
Marc (comment #2) certainly does have a point though.
Phil,
I suspect that gerontion's inquiry,
"Outside of being extraordinarily aggravating, I was wondering why this counts as funny. Is a pretense of stupidity really the mark of the hilarious? Or does the prospect of seeing Professor Chomsky made irritable just tickle the fancy of all those Atlas Shrugged enthusiasts? I know explaining a joke negates the humor of it, but I would be willing to sacrifice those minimal prospects for the chunk of enlightenment that would surely be mine were an adequate explanation of the appeal of this clip provided. Oh great, wise people of the internet, what's so funny about this?"
... was rhetorical. It would seem from the said text that he likes Chomsky a great deal, and apparently does not like Ayn Rand, I guess. Perhaps the clip of him interviewing Pat Buchanan would have been less offensive.
I think Phil's comment is a bit more to the heart of the problem of the interview. Of the many examples of Noam Chomsky's academic immaturity, his studies of language are by far the least egregious and a poor subject for satire.
I'd also like to add that it doesn't take an Ayn Rand fan to think that Chomsky's affectation of the Bodhi Satva's inner peace in peddling his tired socialist, anti-American dogma deserves some raucous breaking down. If for no other reason than mainstream comedic discourse seems to spare such sacred cows from ridicule. For God's sake, somebody just throw a pie at him!
Because why would Ali G skewer Chomsky for his views about linguistics? It's not novel or funny for people who don't understand what linguistics is to ask ignorant questions. It's just stupid.
This is an eminent guy. He single-handedly founded a new subdiscipline of linguistics. He made a significant contribution to computer science, too-- beginning computer science majors learn about the Chomsky hierarchy when they're studying computer languages. He is, no doubt, used to people asking him ignorant questions about his academic specialty. So what's the point of Ali G's pretense of ignorance?
I like the arm-flapping penguin explanation, but I think part of the humor is also that the interviewees are so dang courteous to an ignorant bufoon.
They are famous people who show something about themselves by their reactions to the stupidity of the interviewer. That's why he asks about linguistics instead of politics -- it's less controversial and it offers Ali G maximum opportunity for displaying misunderstanding and ignorance. AliG's stupidity stands in stark contrast to Chomsky's gentleness in dealing with such an idiot.
Instead of just being meant to be funny, I think it's more like performance art meant to illuminate character.
Now to ask him an intelligent and challenging question about his positions regarding the free market and more importantly free will, posing as an ignoramus ... now that would be fun to watch.
It would demonstrate that logic sometimes must be wrung of intellectual flotsam to cut through a faulty argument with prodigious amounts itself.
Wait, Cardinal Fang has a problem with absurdist humor?
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> Gerontion got me thinking though, damn, I would
> cut off a minor toe to see Ali G interview Ayn
> Rand. Perhaps in some other, funnier world this has
> already happened.
Damn Ali G fan. Let's see that severed minor toe already.
Perhaps in some other, funnier world, that minor toe would have already been cut off and on display...
> Gerontion got me thinking though, damn, I would
> cut off a minor toe to see Ali G interview Ayn
> Rand. Perhaps in some other, funnier world this has
> already happened.
Damn Ali G fan. Let's see that severed minor toe already.
Perhaps in some other, funnier world, that minor toe would have already been cut off and be on display...
> Gerontion got me thinking though, damn, I would
> cut off a minor toe to see Ali G interview Ayn
> Rand. Perhaps in some other, funnier world this has
> already happened.
Damn Ali G fan. Let's see that severed minor toe already.
Perhaps in some other, funnier world, that minor toe would have already been cut off and be on display... along with Ali G's oversized nose...
Hmmm come to think of it, Ali G without a nose... now THAT would be funny.