Da Ali G Show

Newt Gingrich took this guy seriously.

"Booyakasha!" —Ali G

"Yakshemash!" —Borat

"Welcome to the gayest place in America--Alabama!" —Brüno, on Da Ali G Show

Da Ali G Show is a 30-minute comedy show that ran on Channel 4 in 2000 before Channel Hopping to HBO from 2003 to 2006. It stars Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays three different fake jounalists, Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, and Brüno. The show features the three journalists interviewing various figures and in various awkward situations. The Channel 4 and HBO runs together total 18 episodes, with the first 6 on BBC, for 3 6-episode seasons.

Ali G (whose "real" name is Alistair Leslie Graham) is the main character. He appears as a hip-hop artist, speaks in American hip-hop vernacular with a British accent, and is almost unbearably ignorant. He is the leader of the West Staines Massiv, a posse from "West" Staines, a wealthy suburb of London.

Ali G interviews people in the guise of a British talk show host interested in the media and politics. Some of his more impressive interviews include ones with Boutros Boutros-Gali (the U.N. Secretary General at the time; he called him Boutros Boutros Boutros Gali), Newt Gingrich, and James Baker (former U.S. Secretary of State, to whom he refers as "this geeza"). In an interview with C. Everett Koop, the former U.S. surgeon general, Ali G refers to the "dong bone" as an example of a bone that grows.

Ali G did a movie, called Ali G Indahouse, which is completely scripted.

Borat is now the most well-known of the three alter-egos in Da Ali G Show. Borat is an anti-Semitic, misogynistic, but friendly Kazakhstani who is in America to learn about its culture. Borat's schtick is to make people uncomfortable by seeming backward and/or prejudiced or to get them to agree with his statements. Since he is played as a foreigner, people are usually hesitant to call him on any of his difficultes. Borat's comments are often anti-Semitic (although Baron Cohen is Jewish) and completely insensitive, as when he comments that Barbara Bush's last name is used in his language to mean pubic hair, while he's talking to a friend and admirer of Mrs. Bush.

The very successful movie Borat is based on this character.

Brüno is a gay Austrian fashionista and journalist. Brüno's typical gags run in two forms: making people uncomfortable with his aggresive homosexuality and getting people in the fashion industry to go along with his hateful, ignorant and absurd statements. Some examples are interviewees saying that Osama bin Laden is cool, that people with bad fashion should be sent to concentration camps, and that fashion has saved more lives than doctors. There's a Brüno movie, too, in which Brüno's, er, member makes an appearance, along with Harrison Ford.

Tropes:

• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Borat's Khazak is actually mostly Hebrew. He also writes his notes in Hebrew, which has almost given up the joke on at least one occasion.
• Blatant Lies: In one segment of Da Ali G Show, Bruno asks a panel of fashion critics their opinions and then asks them to say the exact opposite thing for the cameras. They are all more than happy to do whatever the host asks them.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Borat says, "In Kazakhstan we have many hobbies: disco dancing, archery, rape, and table tennis."
• Cannot Tell a Joke: Both Ali G and Borat suffer from this.
• Channel Hop: The show moved from Channel 4 to HBO in 2003.
• The Eponymous Show
• Global Ignorance: Ali G
• Ruritania: How Khazakstan is portrayed by Borat.