Ali G: Who Iz I? is set to hit cinema screens next month. The return of this bling-bedecked denizen of the West Staines Massive, first seen on TV in 1998, is a disquieting symptom of our century’s static culture.
Back in 1998, it would have been inconceivable for the big new comedy film to have been a revival of TV characters from 1971 – On The Buses or The Liver Birds. Today, along with Ali G, we are also blessed by Alan Partridge and Have I Got News For You, even older comedy institutions. And there are endless reiterations of old shows and formats: Star Trek, Spiderman and similar, Blankety Blank, Bergerac. Mass culture has essentially stopped.
People outside the entertainment world do not understand how captured it has been by woke
Things were proceeding fairly smoothly until 2012 and the rise of what we still, I’m afraid, have to call woke, because there isn’t a better term for it. Ever since, we have had to rely on the huge and untouchably established stars of the time before – see also Ricky Gervais and JK Rowling – for crumbs of comfort. Gervais’s new animation Alley Cats has been slated, but I rather like it, and it is doing very well. It seems to me that the critics have missed the point; that it is about the way that groups of blokes often talk endless and banal rubbish.
