Ali G - Development

Development

Ali G is a stereotype of a White British suburban male from Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey who imitates rap culture as well as urban British and British Jamaican culture, particularly through hip hop, reggae, drum and bass and jungle music. Ali G was part of a group called "Berkshire Massif", and he ran and grew up in an area of Slough called Langley. He also lived part of his life in Staines. Baron Cohen has stated that BBC Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood was an influence on the development of his character – Westwood hosts Radio 1's Rap Show and speaks in a faux Multicultural London English and hip hop dialect. Ali G's middle class credentials mirror Westwood's: the latter was brought up in Lowestoft, Suffolk as a bishop's son.

Prior to his character's appearance on The 11 O'Clock Show, Baron Cohen had portrayed a similar character named MC Jocelyn Cheadle-Hume on a show he presented called F2F, which ran on a satellite channel called Talk TV (owned by Granada Television). While chatting to a group of skateboarders, in character, Baron Cohen realised that people could be led to believe his character was real, and filmed a number of segments which were ordered off air by London Weekend Television.

Read more about this topic:  Ali G

Famous quotes containing the word development:

    I can see ... only one safe rule for the historian: that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforeseen.
    —H.A.L. (Herbert Albert Laurens)

    Good schools are schools for the development of the whole child. They seek to help children develop to their maximum their social powers and their intellectual powers, their emotional capacities, their physical powers.
    James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)

    They [women] can use their abilities to support each other, even as they develop more effective and appropriate ways of dealing with power.... Women do not need to diminish other women ... [they] need the power to advance their own development, but they do not “need” the power to limit the development of others.
    Jean Baker Miller (20th century)