Borat, Ali G: how to do hypocrisy and incitement

I don't mind Borat, but I think Sacha Baron Cohen unwittingly strays into the very things he criticizes. Whether he likes it or not, his use of Kazakhstan was racist and Kazakhs got upset (as did Roma, the Gypsies). Maybe that doesn't bother you but Cohen professed to be surprised at this - not a good sign if you are setting yourself up as exposing anti-Semitism. It's - well - hypocrisy. It's happened again with this 2026 mockumentary Ali G: Who Iz I?, which has faced a significant boycott campaign because he is again perpetuating racist stereotypes. He truly doesn't understand that he is "punching down" and he keeps doing it.

It happens to most satirists. Comedy always hurts somebody – see Team America: World Police for a film that works better because its targets can take the hits. It directly attacks hypocrisy itself, whereas Cohen's satire is a form of incitement directed at people who aren't habitual hypocrites. That is a problem.

Before and after the release of Borat, the first film, the most interesting critiques were from Jewish writers, worried that American Christians were being insulted, but none leapt to defend Muslim-majority Kazakhstan.

One took Cohen to task for "an unintentionally revealing demonstration of the unfortunate attitude many liberal Jews have toward working-class American Christians, especially evangelicals" (Washington Post). A second wrote "we are concerned that the irony may have been lost on some of your audience — or worse, that some of your viewers may have simply accepted Borat’s statement about Jews at face value" (in response to the 2004 Da Ali G Show episode with "Throw the Jew Down the Well" in a country and western bar in Arizona).

That's the trouble with irony... In an interview with Rolling Stone, Cohen's position was that he was revealing either anti-Semitism or indifference to anti-Semitism. He's wrong in the sense that this is only a small part of what he's revealing really. Perhaps one day he will satirize stereotypes within the Jewish community (some of the people I know are appallingly racist about Muslims), but that's a risky career move too. No one else would be interested.