Sacha Baron Cohen Slammed Over Sydney Sweeney 'Babylons' Joke
He was asked about the Paramount-Warner merger on the red carpet ... his answer was a sexual joke about Sydney Sweeney's body. She was not there. The internet had notes.
Take Me There, Scotty ↓
Sacha Baron Cohen revived Ali G for a new film, and the premiere's biggest press moment was a remark about a woman who was not in the room. At the October 14 world premiere of Ali G: Who Iz I? at the Hollywood Legion Theater in Los Angeles, a reporter asked Cohen, in character, for his take on the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. Cohen swerved.
"The only merger that's happening tonight is me and Sydney Sweeney's babylons," Ali G told the camera. "Mi dong and the babylons are gonna merge together. Respect." Yahoo Entertainment published the clip the next day. Sweeney was not at the premiere. She has not responded.
The Internet's Notes
The clip moved fast, and the response was not warm. "Misogyny isn't a punchline. Gross," one commenter wrote, per UNILAD. Others called the remark lazy, and a few asked whether the character has any business existing in 2026. The counterargument, from Cohen's defenders, is familiar: Ali G is meant to be ignorant, and the joke is meant to be on him, not on Sweeney. Critics of that framing called it a lazy defense and said the satire stopped landing some time ago.
Comic Basics noted the debate has intensified cancel calls around the film, and that Cohen appears to be leaning into the controversy rather than away from it.
A Film Already Under Fire
The premiere remark landed on top of a campaign that was already facing pressure. Before the premiere, critics in the UK called Ali G a racist caricature of Black British culture, and a campaign urged cinemas to pull the film. Cohen's response, posted on October 7, was to mock the campaign in an Instagram sketch about a fictional "Campaign for Ethical Comedy." That sketch did not address the racial stereotyping objections directly. The Ali G: Who Iz I? premiere gave the controversy a second wave.
What the Joke Actually Says
Sydney Sweeney has spent the last three years doing the opposite of waiting to be a punchline. She took an equity stake in Novig, signed on as a creative partner at American Eagle, launched her own production company, and negotiated brand deals that put her in the driver's seat rather than just the ad. Brands pay her because she has built an audience that trusts her. A comedian using her name as a synonym for her body is not a new idea. It is also not an accurate description of the product.
The Ali G character's premise is that he says the quiet part loud while missing the actual story. In this case, what he missed is that Sweeney's commercial value is built on something other than what his joke referenced. The satire lands when the character's ignorance illuminates something real. Here it mostly illuminated that the joke has not been updated since the early 2000s.
Ad Watch News is an independent commentary site. We have no affiliation with Sacha Baron Cohen, Sydney Sweeney, Amazon MGM Studios, or any other party named in this article. All facts are drawn from the published sources listed below.
Sources & further reading
- Yahoo Entertainment: Sacha Baron Cohen Turns Merger Talk Into a Crude Sydney Sweeney Joke (Oct 2026)
- UNILAD: Sacha Baron Cohen slammed for gross Sydney Sweeney joke at new Ali G movie premiere (Oct 16, 2026)
- Reality Tea: Sacha Baron Cohen Ali G Sydney Sweeney Joke (Oct 15, 2026)
- Comic Basics: Ali G Sparks Fresh Outrage at Premiere as Sydney Sweeney Joke Draws Cancel Calls (Oct 2026)
- Wikimedia Commons: Sacha Baron Cohen at BFI LFF 2024, Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0
- Wikimedia Commons: Sydney Sweeney at TIFF 2024, CC BY-SA 4.0
