It was a lot easier for Ali G to fool people than it seems.

This Slate piece points out how they set up interviews.
http://slate.com/id/2106886


You got a letter with BBC letterhead, or maybe some wholly unexceptional production company. It said a BBC news program would like to interview you. You showed up and dealt with the production crew who were wholly unsurprising. Same guys and gals who did lights and makeup. The whole time you never see the person doing the interviewing (which isn't surprising, since the "star" is never around for the crap.) As the producer comes out to go over the questions, he starts apologizing. The show has taken a different tack. BBC fired the old star. They're trying to reach a new audience. So they hired a "rap star" to ask questions to reach kids. Right as the person says something like, "Rap star?" Ali G comes running out of nowhere, the cameras rolling, and asks the first question.

For the first couple of years, you'd have to be pretty on top of things to immediately put all this together right away. You're thinking isn't the BBC a real organization? Where's David Frost?

Even after the first season, Ali G was popular and famous among a certain, small crowd, but not overwhelmingly so. How many people watched the Ali G show? A million? That's nothing. Could you name the news reader on the news breaks for the CBS morning show? That person is watched by many, many more people. Factor in Ali G skews young, and interviews old people.

Factor in also that many of these people don't actually have real handlers. I'd guess Andy Rooney has a secretary at CBS, maybe one he shares with others. Possibly an assistant who keeps his calendar and picks up his dry cleaning. But he doesn't have Roger Ailes consulting on his wardrobe. Even people with handlers aren't helped because 1) they see BBC and assume it's for real, and 2) they have no advance warning it's Ali G.

If somebody recognizes Ali G, then that's a wrap, forget that interview, and on to the next one.

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