It’s a sunny afternoon in the park and there’s a demo going on. A vociferous gaggle of anti-choice campaigners are jeering loudly at a passing pro-choice parade. A man clutching a clipboard approaches the hecklers. He’s dressed in hip-hop gangsterwear, and speaks in a patois they don’t recognize but could be classified as West London Bad Boy.
He tells them he’s making a video for a youth-oriented channel in the U.K. and asks to interview them. They’re only too glad, especially as their views could reach the very audience they want to address – people who are young, dumb and full of foolish notions.
But the conversations don’t go as expected. For example:
Man: Has you (sic) ever had an abortion?
Woman: No, I’ve never had an abortion!
Man: Surely you should try something before you say it is bad?
Woman: No! No!
Man: It’s like, I was very, very anti-Burger King. But then, you know, me went there and me tried the Flame Grilled Whopper and it was like, you know, amazing.
He then sits down with Father Dwight Schultz, a leading anti-choice advocate. Their chat begins with a cordial fist bump, but goes quickly downhill.
Man: Is you very anti-abortion cos you yourself was aborted?
Fr. Schultz: I wasn’t aborted.
Man: So you ain’t never got a ho preggers [a woman pregnant]?
Fr. Schultz: No.
Man: Is that because you use connies [condoms] or does you fire blanks?
Fr. Schultz: This interview is over.
What the priest and his cronies didn’t know was that their interviewer was Ali G, a renowned hoaxer with a massive following in the U.K. His fame crossed the Atlantic in 2003, with his own series on HBO.
Ali G’s standard schtick is to present himself as a naive, uneducated, and rather clumsy innocent, then stun his victims with questions and statements that are irrelevant, embarrassing, shockingly personal and often downright offensive.
The audience loves it. So do many of the celebrities and public figures he has ensnared, who include Madonna, David and Victoria Beckham, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, John McCain and Newt Gingrich.
Some of his coups have been spectacular.
He once persuaded a highly amused Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the United Nations Secretary General at the time, to rap:
“I’m Boutros Boutros-Ghali, put down your guns and listen to Bob Marley.”
Some of his stunts have been less successful. Donald Trump, for example, clearly didn’t buy the routine. And Marlin Fitzwater, former White House Press Secretary, ended their encounter abruptly, calling him “an idiot.”
Transatlantic fame inevitably led to Ali G’s demise, as more and more people recognized him and stopped falling for the joke. Now using his real name, Sacha Baron Cohen, he concentrates on writing and appearing in his own feature films.
But Ali G was not his only prankster incarnation and he may well come up with more. One day, there may even be a comeback for Ali G. Mark II.
Watch how he pranked the Pro-Lifers here:
Featured Image: Screengrab Via YouTube Video.
