'ALI G' IN THE POLITICAL HOUSE.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

AS ENDLESSLY hysterical as ``Da Ali G Show'' is, an equally amusing story must go on behind the scenes - how the series' producers manage to secure face time with the likes of former Attorney General Dick Thornberg, former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Gen. Brent Scowcroft.

All of whose names the imbecilic Ali G manages to mangle during their interviews, which feature such willfully blinkered questions as ``Did they ever catch the guy what (sic) sent Tampax through the mail?'' Scowcroft patiently corrects him, ``It was anthrax,'' but Ali G will not be bowed: ``I think there's different brands.''

And you wonder, what are these people thinking while Ali G peppers them with ill-informed and ill-considered questions? And who allowed this clown in the same room with these distinguished folks in the first place?

Ali G is a British wanna-be rapper who displays for his bewildered guests a grasp on social issues so tenuous as to be nonexistent. He's hilariously portrayed by British comic Sacha Baron Cohen, who also plays Euro-dope Bruno, who hosts a fatuous German show on the arts, and Borat, a reporter from Kazakhstan explaining America to his countrymen. When Borat goes to a dating service, he lists for his questioner his likes - ``plowing experience'' - and his hobbies: ``I like to shoot dog.'' ``Snoop Dogg?'' she responds, hoping against hope she has misheard.

Cohen's characters likewise have a fairly thorough appreciation of pornography, which they're more than happy to share with those around them: Ali G recommends ``Barely Legal'' to Thornberg as a thoughtful example of jurisprudence and, during a forum on religion, irritates a priest with a discourse on strippers dressed as nuns; Borat, disastrously failing an etiquette course, shares his enthusiasm for porn (and flatulence) with fairly humorless Southern socialites.

One of Ali G's best moments comes when, tackling the difficult subject of war, he visits the United Nations. He asks Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former United Nations secretary general, ``Which is the funniest of the languages?'' During a tour of the U.N., he asks if Jordan is named after Michael Jordan and why dinky countries are allowed to vote on resolutions. (He, naturally, doesn't use the word ``resolutions.'')

Ali G is a terrific parody of the bravado of uninformed, apolitical youth, and the fact that his guests at least try to take him seriously underscores just how debased significant political discussion has become in our society - they're not utterly appalled that someone as thoroughly ignorant as Ali G would have his own issues show.

The show isn't packaged as if it's as smart as it really is, with silly interstitial bits of Ali G posturing, and, like ``Joe Millionaire,'' it's a joke with a limited shelf life - once the show begins to pick up some heat, it'll be increasingly difficult to get interviews with unsuspecting sources. For the time being though, this is rich material: Think of it as a particularly outrageous ``Candid Camera,'' with politicians and Sunday-morning talking heads as the marks.

DA ALI G SHOW - Three and one half stars

What: British comic Sacha Baron Cohen plays moronic characters who somehow score interviews with somber subjects.

Where: HBO.

When: 12:30 a.m. tonight. Repeated on HBO2 at midnight Saturday.

In a nutshell: Watching sober-minded interviewees take these buffoons seriously makes for great laughs and only mildly cynical political satire.

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Sacha Baron Cohen plays a knowledge-challenged hip-hop aficionado who interviews real-life politicians who aren't clued in on the act in HBO's ``Da Ali G Show.''