Posted on 01/13/2005 12:12:00 PM PST by Maigret
"Ali G" Risks Riot At US Rodeo
14/01/2005 08:14 AM
Reuters
Comedian Sasha Baron Cohen has escaped a near-riot at an American rodeo while filming his satirical Da Ali G Show.
According to a report in the Roanoke (Virginia) Times, a man who was introduced as Boraq Sagdiyev from Kazakhstan - in reality a Cohen character named Borat - appeared at the rodeo over the weekend after organisers agreed to have him sing the national anthem.
After telling the crowd he supported America's war on terrorism, he said, "I hope you kill every man, woman and child in Iraq, down to the lizards ... And may George W Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq." He then sang a garbled version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
The Roanoke Times reported that the crowd turned "downright nasty." One observer said "If he had been out there a minute longer, I think somebody would have shot him."
Cohen and his film crew were escorted out of the Salem Civic Center and told to leave the premises.
"Had we not gotten them out of there, there would have been a riot," rodeo producer Bobby Rowe told the paper. "They loaded up the van and they screeched out of there."
It is not the first time Cohen has wooed controversy with his show, which airs on Channel 4 in the UK and on HBO in the United States. In one episode last year, Borat sang an anti-Semitic song called "Throw the Jew Down the Well" at a US country music bar, prompting protests from the US-based Anti-Defamation League.
Producers of the Ali G show, Talkback Thames, were unavailable for comment.
Feminists doesn't like him either:
Feminist writer consults lawyers over Ali G
Feminist writer Naomi Wolf has reportedly called in lawyers after being the victim of a spoof interview with Ali G.
She claims she was used for racist humour, after the comic accosted her at a hotel in New York for his new US chat show.
It is thought Wolf was furious when Ali - alias Sacha Baron Cohen - boasted to her that he called his girlfriend, Julie, bitch in bed.
And he got her to rap: "Yo, yo, don't be sexist, I'll let you ride in my Lexus."
He then asked the author - who writes women's rights books - if females would ever fly airliners.
She said they already did, and he said: "No, not the people who hand out the peanuts, but sitting in the pilot's seat."
Ali also joked that if women were given equal rights at work, "they'll want them at home".
US network HBO has decided not to screen the interview, according to The Sun.
Maybe he should have tried it at the Stock Show in Denver last week.
Don't mess with Cowboys, Jesus, or the United States.
Being a devout Christian, I find it sickening to see what TV has turned into. It would be nice to see shows I grew up with, like Donna Reed or My 3 Sons, find their way back on primetime. I've written the FCC countless times complaing about the sinful pracitces I see on a daily basis, but nothing seems to get done. If it wasn't for Fox News and the Christian channels, I would've gone crazy years ago!
You didn't make a mistake, the guys has no class or common sense.
The guy is pretty funny, a lot better than Maher or Stewart with their liberal I got the world on my shoulder rants.
Ive been without it for 12+ yrs and havent missed it - in fact I read more and meet the greatest people on FR....you included
blessings
Rev
Ali G is "da man!" I am Jewish and as I was coming home from N.Y.C. one night drunk, I was singing "Throw the Jew Down the Well" song on the Long Island Railroad. Sasha Cohen is Jewish, how can the ADL complain about the song. He did it as a joke, besides it was a great song. Allthough the people on the train were looking at me weird.
His "interview" with astronaut Buzz Aldrin was another classic:
ALI G: When is man going to walk on de sun?
BUZZ ALDRIN: It's much too hot on the sun; we can never go there.
ALI G: We could go in de winter, when it's colder.
He also interviewed former LAPD chief Daryl Gates, and this was another classic. First he keeps referring to Gates as the former chief of the NYPD instead of LAPD, then he says the Simpson murder case was a waste of police resources.
"I mean, why does the LAPD care about animated cartoons like that? Who really cares if Homer kills Marge?"
This guy was inches from having a puddle stomped in his chest.
And it would have been really "funny" if the crowd had lynched the "comedian". /sarcasm>
Why did they let him continue after he said such vile things? Whos in charge anyway???????????????????
Amazing he survived the experience.
In the interview with Buzz Aldrin, he asked the former astronaut if he was ever disappointed that "Louis Armstrong" was the first man to walk on the moon instead of Aldrin. LOL.
He's also interviewed Caspar Weinbereger of all people. It's totally outrageous, ne says the stupidest things and the famous people correct him in deadpan without laughing. Of course they're in on the gag.
My favorite Ali G moment was when he interviewed Sam Donaldson and kept asking him about the Waterworld scandal that brought down Nixon.
I'm constantly amazed at the cluelessness of celebrities who go on his show without realizing it's a goof.
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