Russell Brand

[OldManC]

Sorry Max, I didn't mean to imply anything about your post with mine. I actually didn't see it until after I'd posted and then I had to leave to catch a plane. Now that I'm home I was able to read through yours more carefully and I see that my own response might seem like I was directly contradicting yours. That was not my intent.

[Max Soren]

That's fine Old ManC, all kinds of cases can be made for how bad partisanship has been through the years anyway.  Much of this is pretty subjective.  But as we near the 2008 election, I'm reminded more than ever of the words of Otto von Bismarck when he said "people never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election."

[PhilT]

I never thought much of Russell Brand before, but I'm starting to wonder if he mightn't be cleverer than he appears. For example, the NME awards ceremony where he introduces St Bob Geldof as Bobby Gandalf (it's on Youtube). It's a very weak, childish joke, but Geldof's reaction is extraordinary. With the MTV gig, I doubt if Brand gives a stuff who wins the election, he just picked the side that was easier to wind up. It's massive publicity he wouldn't get by telling clever jokes.

US comedians on British TV tend to make fun of US politics, but then if they had a go at ours, we'd all just say, "yes we know, it's awful, have you seen Rory Bremner?"

[Max Soren]

It appears that Russell Brand can dish it out but can't take it.  His face showed true astonishment when Geldof called him a c***.  And taking jabs at Bono isn't really funny, either.  I'm no U2 fan, but at least they do have talent.  That's more than can said for Russell Brand.  For a while, I thought maybe I had been too harsh by calling Brand a bastard.  I guess not. 

[uwe]

So he doesn't like U 2 and Sir Bob Geldof? I'm getting to like him more and more. Immaculate taste.

[Essential Tension]

I can't say I'm really a fan of Brand but, as Uwe suggested, he is a poet. His use of English seems to me extremely clever and often very delicate.

I heard a little of his BBC radio show last saturday and he said he was surprised at how many people he'd upset at the MTV awards given that he'd held back and had not said what he really thought (which was something like democracy is a sham and don't bother voting at all but if you have to vote then vote for the most liberal candidate).

And he has my applause for having a go at Bono and Geldof too.

And if US comedians or anyone else want to come to Britain and have a laugh at us and our politics then I say you are welcome, that's freedom of speech. Come and join us in a very long history of outrageous political satire.