Blog 2

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ec_RlTnr-iE
For this blog, I watched part of an “Ali G” episode where he interviews Ralph Nadar and other people who support the Green Party. The subject is the Green Party’s position on many issues, which is of course a controversial one as politics usually are. This piece I believe is addressed to an adult audience and more specifically to those who are politically aware at least to some extent. The tone of the text is comical, and seems to be more focused on Ali G’s mockery of the Green Party. The purpose is mostly to amuse the audience and though the topic is controversial, I do not think in any way it tries to persuade or inform the audience. The humor mostly lies in what Ali G says and asks the people he interviews and sometimes when the interviewees try to respond to his absurd questions. The text shows two discourses interacting. On the one hand, there is Ali G who is a wannabe gangster character and then there is Ralph Nadar who ran for President in 2000. The author is applying a professional discourse to a foreign situation in which it does not fit in. This creates amusement for the audience as they watch the two different types of people attempt to have a conversation, where one is serious and professional (Ralph Nadar) and the other is just an entertainer playing an outrageous yet humorous character (Ali G). There is also another discourse that appears when Ali G interviews supporters of the Green Party. These people, as Ali G refers to them are “loose, hippy bitches”. Ali G in this situation becomes more of the “foreigner” as he goes to the dessert to support an anti-nuclear protest. In the beginning of his first interview with one of the “hippies” this discourse is noticeably clear when Ali G asks if they should sit or stand and she says sit, so that they can be closer to the earth. This merging of these discourses creates an awkward yet again funny situation, which seems to be a trend with Ali G’s shows.