Sacha Baron Cohen made a surprise appearance at Wimbledon during the lengthy, sweltering men’s final match on Sunday.
He did so dressed as his indelible comedy character Ali G, including a full marijuana-themed shellsuit and a hat that said ‘Ali Gear’, if you weren’t sure who it was.
The 54-year-old had attended the west London Grand Slam the day prior, as his regular suit-wearing self, but returned as his infamous culturally appropriating persona.
Cohen posted a video to Instagram as Ali G, speaking from the seats at Centre Court, in which he described Jannik Sinner’s victory over Alexander Zverev as ‘boring’ in the caption.
Speaking to camera with at least one smirking Wimbledon attendee behind him, Cohen as Ali G said: ‘I is here (sic) at the men’s singles in Wimbledon.
‘It’s like the World Cup of something called tennis, which is like a crap version of ping pong.
‘They say tennis is better played on grass, which is why I intend to sell as much of it while I is here (sic),’ he added, before jokingly plugging a variety of recreational drugs he said he would be selling at the tournament.
Wimbledon viewers tuning in at home had spotted the maybe-Ali G in the stands at the match, but most had assumed it wasn’t Cohen himself.
The post was made to an Instagram account for Cohen’s alter ego, which so far has only uploaded another snap plugging DVDs of the Da Ali G Show.
It comes after it was reported that Cohen has completed filming on a new Ali G film, to follow up his 2002 cult hit Ali G Indahouse.
The film was reported to have wrapped production in the UK – where he had been spotted as Ali G – and the US, but no film title or release date has been confirmed, according to a report in The InSneider.
Cohen made his name playing the foul-mouthed Staines massive wannabe, first appearing on Channel 4’s Eleven O’Clock programme.
The British comedian has popped up here and there as Ali G in recent years, shocking a comedy club audience in Sydney in 2021 when he appeared on stage in character and performed a stand-up set.
Cohen’s more recent credits include the gender-swap satire Ladies First, which performed well on Netflix’s ranking of top films but was universally panned by critics when it dropped this May.