Sacha Baron Cohen Says He Did His Ali G Gag Without the Oscars' Permission

Sacha Baron Cohen and Olivia Wilde at the Oscars (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Sacha Baron Cohen has never been a stickler for Academy Awards protocol. Four years ago, he walked the red carpet as General Aladeen, his character in the movie The Dictator, and dumped the (alleged) ashes of deceased North Korean leader Kim Jong-il all over Ryan Seacrest during E!’s live red carpet show. Watch below:

When the Oscars tell Sacha Baron Cohen he’s not allowed to do something, do you think he’s really going to listen? Of course not. Which is why, even though he had been asked not to present the Best Picture nominee Room as his well-known character Ali G, he went ahead and did it anyway.

As Cohen explained during an appearance on the UK talk show Good Morning Britain, as summarized by Vulture, “The Oscars sat me down beforehand and said they didn’t want me to do anything out of order; they wanted me to actually just present it as myself.” (I love the way Cohen describes this, because it makes me picture him seated across from two giant, gold statuettes who are giving him a stern talking-to.)

In order to get on stage in his Ali G skull cap and goatee, Cohen says he faked food poisoning, then shut himself in a handicapped bathroom with his wife, Isla Fisher, who helped him get into costume.

He told a slightly different version of this story during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s post-Oscars special, however.

“I was very dismayed because I was getting ready,” he told Kimmel. “Nature called, I went into the bathroom. Next thing I knew, I had been usurped by Ali G and been made a fool of.”

Cohen also told Good Morning Britain that he got sign-off from Chris Rock beforehand to tell a racist joke involving Minions: “I was a bit worried how they’d react to the first gag, but I bumped into Chris Rock on the way on and pitched him the gag and he gave me the thumbs up, so I went for it.”

Which raises the question: if Cohen had time to bump into Chris Rock and pitch him a Minions joke, how is it possible that there wasn’t time for one of the Oscar organizers to stop him from going onstage as Ali G? Also: did Olivia Wilde, Cohen’s co-presenter, get any kind of head’s up as to what was going on? Kimmel tried to ask that question, but then Matt Damon wandered into the frame and he never got an answer.

There’s so much we still don’t know about this. It’s too bad there isn’t a hard-hitting reporter — say, an Ali G type — who could really get to the bottom of it all.

UPDATE: Olivia Wilde tweeted about the segment on Wednesday:

Watch our Oscars recap: