Ali G DVD 'keeps it real'

Boyakasha! 'Da Ali G Show: The Complete First Season' is finally on DVD, so "check it."\nHBO's hit comedy talk show features Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen) Britain's finest "hip hop journalist," as he travels around evaluating everything from religion to the U.S. legal system. \nCohen is in many ways the Andy Kaufman of the U.K, with his chameleon-like portrayal of the show's characters including Ali G, Borat, a TV reporter from Kazakhstan, and Bruno, a flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter. \nAli G interviews people as diverse as Newt Gingrich and Boutros-Boutros Gali, and is probably the only host to ever convince both Ralph Nader and James Lipton to rap. Where the show succeeds is not in how ridiculous the characters are, but in how the guests are completely unaware that it is all an act. \nBorat sings a lengthy faux Kazakhstan National anthem at a baseball game and Bruno discusses the Austrian gay community to a right wing patriotic American, while never drifting out of character and always maintaining that they are journalists.\nThe two disc DVD features all six episodes; one commentary, two unseen Borat segments and an A to Z glossary of Ali G's British hip hop slang. While some episodes are funnier than others, the show maintains a unique level of comedy not seen in the U.S.