Good "clever" comedic writing isn’t easy, but I’d be willing to wager that writing good l"ow-brow" comedy is even more difficult. Granted, I’m pretty lousy at gambling — I owe my roommate $10 for a lost bet that Blue October was to blame for the 1995 hit “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (turns out it was Deep Blue Something, another Texas band with the color blue in the name). But consider the fine line walked between a simple fart joke and a memorable one like Dumb and Dumber or Bridesmaids.
Or, consider the least known of Sacha Baron Cohen’s films, 2003’s Ali G Indahouse, the first scripted Ali G movie and one that is not particularly funny or what some people might call “good.” (Indahouse is the only other SBC film besides The Dictator to not be done in mockumentary style. It’s also 90 minutes of proof that waiting a few years to get Ali G in the States courtesy of HBO was worth it considering the U.S. version of Da Ali G Show was sans scripted skits.)
There was a time when I could think of few people funnier than Mr. SBC; then he gave us Brüno.
Fortunately, The Dictator proves there are some signs of life for SBC in a post-Ali G world, which is a relief as Ali G and the two other quirky characters from his eponymous TV series, Borat and Brüno, have been retired. Dictator Admiral General Aladeen may be the weakest of SBC’s characters thus far but still provides a vessel for delivering outrageous material, the best of which comes thanks to some incredible wingman work from Jason Mantzoukas (Rafi from FX’s The League). When the two are going back and forth it makes for the film’s funniest moments.
The laughs take a bit to get going, but once The Dictator hits its raucous high point (with a woman giving birth in a grocery store) there’s enough delightfully shocking, brilliantly stupid and oh-so-right offensive moments to keep the laughs coming.
Those not amused by SBC's hijinks from his Ali G days will have similar complaints here. "Is he drawing awareness to sensitive subjects or making light of them?" It's the type of heavy question that caused Dave Chappelle to leave his show and causes uptight critics to toss around words and phrases like "misogyny" or "too soon" instead of answering the only question that matters in comedy: Is it funny?
If you consider yourself sensitive, there's plenty in The Dictator that may offend or outrage, and for you, the answer to that simple question may very well be no. At it's worse, The Dictator feels reminiscent of a bad SNL movie with a handful of rape jokes added in. But, at times, it brings back fond memories of Sunday nights spent watching HBO — a simpler day when The Wire was still on the air and Entourage was just a bad idea bouncing around in Marky Mark's head.
While The Dictator appears to be about 99 percent scripted, there is at least one brief scene where SBC talks to an unwitting extra or two on the streets of New York. And, some of the exchanges between characters — particularly SBC and Mantzoukas — feel at least partially ad libbed. Though The Dictator is missing the kind of back and forth between comedian and oblivious interviewee that made Ali G so magical, a majority of what made that so memorable was SBC knowing how to ask the right questions. It’s clear that SBC still has a few tricks up his sleeve to delight and disgust, even if he’s not making celebrities look like fools while the audience squirms in their seats.
--Eric Pulsifer
Or, consider the least known of Sacha Baron Cohen’s films, 2003’s Ali G Indahouse, the first scripted Ali G movie and one that is not particularly funny or what some people might call “good.” (Indahouse is the only other SBC film besides The Dictator to not be done in mockumentary style. It’s also 90 minutes of proof that waiting a few years to get Ali G in the States courtesy of HBO was worth it considering the U.S. version of Da Ali G Show was sans scripted skits.)
There was a time when I could think of few people funnier than Mr. SBC; then he gave us Brüno.
Fortunately, The Dictator proves there are some signs of life for SBC in a post-Ali G world, which is a relief as Ali G and the two other quirky characters from his eponymous TV series, Borat and Brüno, have been retired. Dictator Admiral General Aladeen may be the weakest of SBC’s characters thus far but still provides a vessel for delivering outrageous material, the best of which comes thanks to some incredible wingman work from Jason Mantzoukas (Rafi from FX’s The League). When the two are going back and forth it makes for the film’s funniest moments.
The laughs take a bit to get going, but once The Dictator hits its raucous high point (with a woman giving birth in a grocery store) there’s enough delightfully shocking, brilliantly stupid and oh-so-right offensive moments to keep the laughs coming.
Those not amused by SBC's hijinks from his Ali G days will have similar complaints here. "Is he drawing awareness to sensitive subjects or making light of them?" It's the type of heavy question that caused Dave Chappelle to leave his show and causes uptight critics to toss around words and phrases like "misogyny" or "too soon" instead of answering the only question that matters in comedy: Is it funny?
If you consider yourself sensitive, there's plenty in The Dictator that may offend or outrage, and for you, the answer to that simple question may very well be no. At it's worse, The Dictator feels reminiscent of a bad SNL movie with a handful of rape jokes added in. But, at times, it brings back fond memories of Sunday nights spent watching HBO — a simpler day when The Wire was still on the air and Entourage was just a bad idea bouncing around in Marky Mark's head.
While The Dictator appears to be about 99 percent scripted, there is at least one brief scene where SBC talks to an unwitting extra or two on the streets of New York. And, some of the exchanges between characters — particularly SBC and Mantzoukas — feel at least partially ad libbed. Though The Dictator is missing the kind of back and forth between comedian and oblivious interviewee that made Ali G so magical, a majority of what made that so memorable was SBC knowing how to ask the right questions. It’s clear that SBC still has a few tricks up his sleeve to delight and disgust, even if he’s not making celebrities look like fools while the audience squirms in their seats.
--Eric Pulsifer
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