Russell Brand. Who'd uh thunk?

This will be a blog about how much I respect Russell Brand. If you are someone who will never change their opinion about someone or respects Fox News mouthpieces like Sean Hannity (the reason why I'm writing this) or that the Canucks will win the Stanley Cup next year then you probably should stop reading this as of now. There will be nothing here that you agree with.

If you are someone who is interested slightly in why i think Russell Brand is one of the most important celebrities out there today then please feel free to read on and agree with me. Fair warning, this blog will have a fair number of clips of Brand in action so give yourself 30 minutes or so to really have your mind blown by this former heroin-junkie, Katy Perry marrying, C-List Hollywood actor who has evolved into one of the most important advocates in pointing out Media Manipulation and the Willful Following of the Masses through public forums, stand-up routines, media discussion panels and most importantly his youtube channel; The Trews. 

Brand came to attention in Britain on television, hosting a few shows and even having his own talk show for a brief time. He was charismatic and engaging, enduring trademarks that haven't been washed away by Hollywood, Katey Perry or heroin. Here in North America Brand first made an impression Aldous Snow, the greasy rock star husband of Sarah Marshall in the entertaining yet also forgettable date movie which also starred Jason Siegal's penis "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". 

He was the creepy English guy who stole Siegal's fiancee with his laid back manner, rock star 'why give a fuck attitude' and facial hair. He managed to parlay that into a semi-sequel of sorts, "Get Him to The Greek", much like Evan Almighty was a semi-sequel of Bruce Almighty once upon a time.

He then hit the media pulse when he married Katy Perry and shortly divorced her in 14 months. America went crazy - how could this scuzzy guy dump Katy Perry! Rumours abounded about the why but Brand and Perry took the high road, the most that came out was that Perry wasn't as 'intellectual' as he hoped she would be. But to give you an idea of what type of guy Brand was, he refused to be labelled a gold digger and left her pretty much the way he met her - incredibly rich.


A couple voice roles in Despicable Me and Hop seems to have drained his ambitions to keep working with Hollywood and as such he has moved on to becoming the spokesman for a generation taught to be mute in the face of authority. 

So, first let's look at a highlight of his early career;

Or let's watch him walk into the Lion's Den and pretty much make the interviewer cream her panties at his sexual magnetism. It's very uncomfortable as within 90 seconds you can tell she wants to jump his bones. And I'm pretty sure he knows and watch him play with her like a tiger with a little bitty mouse. But then listen to what he's saying; he's insulting the media institution, calling them a 'unemployed actors', 'manipulating media' and asking them is 'this what you all do for a living?' when the hosts point out everyone is facebooking and tweeting.  So many good lines. When the non-threatening male ineffectively tries to regain some masculinity by pointing out its because of the way Brand is dressed, he tells him to 'Look beyond the superficial' which is the problem, you allow the agenda to be dictated by superficial information. And then he ends the interview by pointing out the host is stroking a water bottle all phallic-like and so tells her 'to lose that ring because it means nothing to you and she's a shaft-grasper!'.  And all MSNBC can do is throw at title card underneath saying Russell Brand; Poking Fun at Our Newsroom.

No, he's poking fun at your whole idea of how you present the news, MSNBC.   

Here's another popular bit where the interviewer tries to change the subject from Brand's beliefs to labelling Brand a hypocrite for wanting to fix a system that he doesn't support. It's like saying I would prefer to drive a Tesla and you pointing out that I drive a 1974 Gremlin so therefore what I'm saying is irrelevant. Brand does a great job in trying to keep the interviewer on topic despite the constant bait he throws down. Ultimately Brand does address it for what it is.

And finally, the reason for this post; this little tete-a-tete with Hate monger John Hannity from Fox News, who exists to feed the ignorant their steady stream of racism, bias and lessons on how not to treat guests respectfully. You want to know why you will never have an intellectual debate on a Hannity show? Because word of this type of interviewing gets around. Let Russell dissect a Hannity interview for us. 

Ok, so we all understand the critique, right? Yes, Brand gets the personal insults out of the way fast but then he starts to deconstruct the 'interview'. Is Hannity bullying? Yes. Does he want to hear an answer? No. We all know a Hannity (mostly from when we were in high school). Why didn't that guy just walk off? I don't know.

Then how does Hannity respond? With his own personal attacks. I mean calling Russell a D-List Actor is still infinitely higher than what Hannity would be considered, in regards to if there was a ranking for hyperbolic talking head swamp scum.  I included his response so you can see what happens when Hannity goes up against The King of Media Swamp Scum, Geraldo Rivera who takes him to task and as you can witness, doesn't let others, no matter if it is Hannity to get his point across; killing children is wrong. He should have asked Hannity that; IS KILLING CHILDREN WRONG? and pointing his finger at him.  Serious Douche.

post script

There are people that try their best to remain open to both sides of an issue, to try and find common ground. We pretend that its the people we elect, that they will have the sane judgement to fix the problems our generation has inherited from the previous generation.

Then there are people like Hannity who feel that they are right and are morally superior than someone who opposes their viewpoint. They are the petty ones that keep the world stuck in a quagmire of civilizations still throwing rocks at each other when humankind has so much more potential.

Here was Brand's response to Hannity's rebuttal. We can see he had more to say from the editing but he chopped it down to what was important - the Latino Hollywood stars have no vested interest in the Israel/Hamas debate - they (being outsiders looking in) see it for what it is. Systematically and economically destroying a people who's only purpose is to try and exist is genocide. Caring Jews should realize that. It was once said that an anti-semite was someone who hated Jews. Now an anti-semite is someone who doesn't agree with them.

Hannity and the woman with no name recognition try to sow seeds of 'ignorancy and bigotry' themselves against another limited group with a limited voice. While Brand tries to lecture a deaf Hannity on learning to love one another, it falls on shallow Ken-like ears. The only thing we can do is embrace what is right in the world (Russell Brand, which I never would have said 10 years ago) and dismiss the haters for what they are.