Ali G - Innit [DVD] [1999]

An oasis of chortles in the laugh desert that is Channel 4's The 11 O'Clock Show, Ali G has since progressed to both his own programme and comedy icon status. Innit, meanwhile, rounds up the finest moments from the rapper's time on 11 O'Clock with some extra footage thrown in for good measure, which show Sacha Baron Cohen's vowel-dropping, dope-smoking gangsta wannabe at home in his Berkshire "hood". However, it is the previously seen interview material that produces the best moments as Ali, resplendent in a series of eye-searing day-glo tracksuits, grills the likes of ex-film censor James Ferman ("Why did they ban Chocolate Orange?"), the late Tory educational expert Sir Rhodes Boyson ("Do you think porn stars ought to teach sex education in schools?") and a pre-Clapham Common Ron Davies ("What is so good about Wales? Because, no disrespect, but me's hears it's crap.") Exactly who is being lampooned--publicity-hungry celebs? misogynistic rappers? white middle-class wiggers?--is never entirely made clear but the results are rarely less than hilarious. Only the ever-argumentative Tony Benn succeeds in taking on his shades-sporting persecutor. Anyone yet to fall under Ali G's spell, though, is unlikely to be convinced by his opening assertion that 85% of the video's cost price will be spent on top-quality marijuana. --Clark Collis