Booyakasha! Ali G is back – but even he can't match the absurdity of modern Britain | Jason Okundaye

Sacha Baron Cohen’s character once exposed the contradictions of an emerging multicultural nation. But nearly 30 years on Britain has changed – and so has the joke

And so the nostalgia machine grinds on, dragging another pop culture corpse back into the light: yes, it’s the return of Ali G. Respeck.

Sacha Baron Cohen’s skull-cap-wearing, “rudebwoy” wankster is staging a comeback with Ali G: Who Iz I?. The new film, premiering next month, is a mockumentary that sees the character starting a family with long-term companion Julie (thinking his approach to fatherhood will be “absent”) and embracing TikTok, all while donning new fake dreads and a rastacap.

Jason Okundaye is an assistant Opinion editor at the Guardian