Sacha Baron Cohen is bringing Ali G back to the big screen after more than two decades, but the character’s return is already running into a very different cultural climate. The first trailer has reignited criticism over the character’s use of Black British and Jamaican cultural markers, with campaigners arguing that the joke no longer lands as satire.

Cohen first introduced the character on Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show in 1998 before expanding him into Da Ali G Show and the 2002 feature Ali G Indahouse. For a character built on deliberately crossing the line, the line has now moved.

Now, Ali G: Who Iz I? is bringing that machinery back. Amazon MGM is releasing the film theatrically on October 23, with Cohen writing, directing, producing and starring as Ali G. The story finds Ali discovering that his girlfriend Julie, played by Morgana Robinson, is eight months pregnant, prompting him to head to America in an attempt to reclaim his former celebrity status through a new documentary. The trailer returns to the character’s familiar arsenal of fake bravado, mangled slang, celebrity targets and encounters with unsuspecting real people. 

The reception, however, as Variety reports, has been considerably colder than the nostalgia surrounding Ali G’s return might suggest. Online criticism has focused particularly on the character’s exaggerated dreadlocks, Rastafarian styling and his appropriation of Black British and Jamaican cultural imagery. Critics have described the portrayal as outdated and racist, arguing that what once functioned as a joke about a clueless white character imitating cultures he barely understands can now look uncomfortably close to the stereotype itself. 

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Those arguments have resurfaced because the new film appears to preserve much of the visual and verbal vocabulary that made Ali G such a provocative figure in the first place. 

NewsCord has now escalated that criticism into a campaign urging cinemas internationally not to screen the movie. The organization says it has prompted more than 36,000 emails to cinema chains as of Friday, accusing Cohen of using satire as a shield for harmful stereotypes. Writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch has also argued that Ali G feels increasingly disconnected from contemporary culture, particularly because the character's imitation of Black style and speech now belongs to a very different cultural conversation.

The controversy has also produced some confusion around Picturehouse. The cinema chain responded to a campaign email by saying it currently had no plans to screen the film, but Variety reported that the response was a standard reply to release inquiries for movies that had not yet been booked, rather than a confirmed boycott. The UK Cinema Association has meanwhile stressed that cinemas make programming decisions based on audience response rather than acting as censors. 

Sacha Baron Cohen, unsurprisingly, has responded in characteristically provocative fashion, joking that in an era when one politically incorrect joke can end a comedian’s career, bringing Ali G back was his attempt to “play it safe.”

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Whether the film turns that friction into another sharp piece of satire or simply revives a joke whose cultural context has changed remains to be seen. Share your thoughts in the comments.