admin
Here we go again: a revived comic character pokes at the sacred cows of our culture and the reaction is predictable. The trailer for Ali G: Who Iz I? has set off an online campaign asking cinemas to refuse the film, and at least one UK chain has said it has “no current plans” to screen it. If you like theater programming with a side order of moral panic, pull up a seat.
What happened: boycott push, studio release, and a cautious exhibitor
NewsCord launched an email campaign urging cinema chains worldwide not to screen Ali G: Who Iz I?, the new Sacha Baron Cohen film that Amazon MGM Studios plans to release in cinemas on October 23. The drive sent tens of thousands of letters to exhibitors and flagged Picturehouse Cinemas — a 25-location UK chain — which told reporters it “currently do not have any plans to screen this film.” Campaigners treated that phrasing as a win, even though trade outlets warned the wording could simply mean the chain hadn’t slotted the movie yet.
The delicious irony: cancel culture vs. satire
If you enjoy a little poetic justice, here it is. Sacha Baron Cohen has spent his career lampooning the very forces that now want him canceled. He even tweeted that he “thought I’d play it safe and bring this guy back,” a line dripping with the sort of mockery that made Ali G famous. The people asking cinemas to pull the plug on the film are doing so because the character offends — and Cohen’s whole shtick has always been to expose how ridiculous those offended become when they take themselves too seriously.
Why this matters for free speech and movie business
This isn’t just about a joke that some people don’t like. It’s about who decides what art the public gets to see. If chains start caving to pressure groups, distributors will change release plans and audiences will get less variety, not more. Cinemas are supposed to curate entertainment, not police taste. And if you believe satire should be sheltered from performance filters, then a mass email campaign that effectively asks private businesses to act like moral commissars is a worrying precedent.
Bottom line: don’t applaud soft censorship
Call Ali G crude, dated, or clever — your choice. But applauding a campaign that pressures theaters to refuse a film just because it offends is applauding soft censorship. Conservatives who care about free speech should enjoy the irony: a culture built on policing language is now policing a comic who skewers language-policing. If Picturehouse truly meant it when they said “no current plans,” fine. If it was a bow to pressure, that’s the problem. Let the public decide at the box office — or at least let cinemas act like businesses, not virtue-signaling referees.
