I'm not wearing anyone, I'm not Buffalo Bill

September 13, 2013 2:26 PM

Russell Brand goes to the GQ Awards
posted by figurant (75 comments total)

... jigging through Robert Palmer's oestrogen passage like aspirational Morris dancers.

Nice.
posted by feckless at 2:39 PM on September 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

Russell Brand reminds me of Will Self. In a good way.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:40 PM on September 13, 2013

That's... really good.
posted by alasdair at 2:43 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Previously, if you enjoyed Brand's opinion and would like more.
posted by DynamiteToast at 2:44 PM on September 13, 2013

Norm MacDonald did a fascinating (and funny) interview with him on his (now defunct?) video podcast Norm MacDonald Live.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:47 PM on September 13, 2013 [5 favorites]

Nthing the " uh I was not expecting this level of depth or insight from Russel Brand talking about a corperate PR event." thing.
posted by The Whelk at 2:48 PM on September 13, 2013 [11 favorites]

I think this piece by Marina Hyde on pointless celeb awards is an interesting complement to Brands
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:51 PM on September 13, 2013

we descend the world's longest escalator, which are called that even as they de-escalate

I can't believe this thought had never occurred to me before.
posted by Hoopo at 2:51 PM on September 13, 2013 [11 favorites]

I think I've said this before but Russell Brand is actually very smart, he's just so good at playing the silly monkey man with the accent everyone thinks he's an idiot because our brains go all "haw haw haw look at the silly monkey man with the accent". Some of his standup is incredibly insightful and absolutely cutting while also being hilarious.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 2:52 PM on September 13, 2013 [25 favorites]

The Richard Herring interview with Brand is a good one... and about as NSFW as something audio only can be
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:53 PM on September 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

He's in love! I've become such a fan after seeing his interview of the Westboro Baptist Church folks and other things, and I'm just so pleased to see that he's found a nerdish whirling dervish with which to replace his former projectile vomiting nightly alcoholic dervish.
posted by janey47 at 3:05 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Every time Brand opens his mouth I like him more. When his tour took him through Vancouver, he visited Insite, the safe injection site and tweeted about what a great job they were doing. That made the Ms. a fan.
posted by dry white toast at 3:15 PM on September 13, 2013 [10 favorites]

Guys lets not forget the real victims here, all the other hardworking oracles that got the shaft.
posted by The Whelk at 3:20 PM on September 13, 2013 [4 favorites]

It must be difficult being married to him, though.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:23 PM on September 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm so glad to see love for Brand here. He's smart and funny and doesn't give a shit. Most so-called entertainers are only one of those things.
posted by anothermug at 3:24 PM on September 13, 2013

BTW this is also very good writing. It's the best kind that gives the impression of being loose and tossed-off, but is actually very tight and rhetorically well organized.
posted by anothermug at 3:26 PM on September 13, 2013 [9 favorites]

Yeah he manages to imply and reference the famous line about the combination of state power and Corperate control being the soul of fascism without actually saying it.
posted by The Whelk at 3:28 PM on September 13, 2013 [8 favorites]

Thanks for sharing this. I'm now pondering how I can also achieve an entrance along the lines of "some Ian Fleming super-uterus of well fit mannequins to midwife you into the shindig." Wait, does that mean I missed the point of his piece, or that the phrase super-uterus is just super-mesmerizing. Also good job on the alliteration Brand. I SAY, GOOD JOB SIR.
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:37 PM on September 13, 2013

Yet again, Brand in text is so much better than Brand mugging it for the camera on some chatshow.

Also, aside from anything else, it's worth it for the almost perfect line about Boris Johnson being "a man perpetually in pajamas regardless of what he's wearing".
posted by Len at 3:50 PM on September 13, 2013 [14 favorites]

A fan of Russell Brand (good on the WTF Podcast), I hadn't heard of the Sachs answerphone affair, but I'm pleased to learn that Brand is a rubber medusa.
posted by morganw at 3:52 PM on September 13, 2013

"Even for a man whose former job was editing the Telegraph this is an extraordinary way to manipulate information."

I love Russell Brand.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 3:57 PM on September 13, 2013 [3 favorites]

I wish I could see his appeal. Him and Sacha Baron Cohen. The two of them just befuddle me and completely turn me off. I may just be too old.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 4:02 PM on September 13, 2013

what if they were making out, would that help
posted by elizardbits at 4:03 PM on September 13, 2013 [40 favorites]

high five
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:06 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Is it too late to change my username to Ian Flemming Super Uterus?
posted by vibrotronica at 4:15 PM on September 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

> You're not too old, the two of them are too childish.

Dissing your host after drinking his port is trash behavior. If Brand didn't want the award, he could have declined and stayed at home. But noooooo.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:39 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Guys, if corporations are people too then they have feelings and you are hurting them.
posted by The Whelk at 4:47 PM on September 13, 2013 [17 favorites]

So, I went looking for GQ's criteria for giving the awards and had a difficult time finding them - I then switched to just looking for "Russell Brand" on the GQ website - no mention of the awards.

However, GQ did serve me up with a side list of "Most Popular" with #1 featuring "The Most Unforgettable Breasts in Movie History." As you will note in comments, one of the slides (this is a photo set) is of a completely naked Brooke Shields in "Pretty Baby" - where she was 12 years old.

Stay classy, GQ.
posted by Muddler at 4:54 PM on September 13, 2013 [3 favorites]

Dissing your host after drinking his port is trash behavior.

I know right? Guests on scene who delined to be identified said Mr. Boss was so incensed that his derby shot straight into the air off his head and he muttered something about how Brand should be "taken to the Danube at dawn"
posted by Senor Cardgage at 4:55 PM on September 13, 2013 [6 favorites]

Also if no one ever dissed the hosts where they lived that would make for a rather pleasant world for bad hosts, no?
posted by Senor Cardgage at 5:03 PM on September 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

Dissing your host after drinking his port is trash behavior. If Brand didn't want the award, he could have declined and stayed at home. But noooooo.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:39 PM on September 13 [+] [!]

GQ is not a person with feelings. GQ is a corporate entity handing out meaningless "awards" so they can merely mention that all of these manly men came to our event so buy our magazine!

And Hugo Boss invented the Nazi aesthetic (sorry, Speer).

So yea, drink their port, stuff a rag in the bottle and burn the fucker down.
posted by basicchannel at 5:06 PM on September 13, 2013 [24 favorites]

Man, I keep not wanting to like this guy and I keep liking him. What should I do?
posted by brundlefly at 5:14 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

brundlefly, just watch his movies and don't listen to him speaking his own words. That should do the trick.
posted by janey47 at 5:16 PM on September 13, 2013 [4 favorites]

The company has a double dodgy past. He should mock it. His points about politicians being there were good too.
posted by angrycat at 5:36 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

elizardbits: "what if they were making out, would that help"

Not in the least little bit.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 5:44 PM on September 13, 2013

GQ is not a person with feelings. GQ is a corporate entity handing out meaningless "awards" so they can merely mention that all of these manly men came to our event so buy our magazine!

Well, I have to doubt that the staffer who suggested Brand be invited gets a bonus this year.

The company has a double dodgy past. He should mock it.

As I said, you don't like the host, stay home and mock from there if mock you must. In any event, his own past in nothing to write home about.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:20 PM on September 13, 2013

It helped me *lights cigarette*
posted by h00py at 6:20 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh dear lord I am tired of the mirage of the Unimpeachable Character and how the amazing mystical bearer of same is the only one that's ever allowed to be right about anything.

I honestly cant believe I have to pull a quote from the movie JFK over this, but you drove me to it... "Does that bother you, Bill? I always wondered in court why it is because a woman is a prostitute, she has to have bad eyesight."
posted by Senor Cardgage at 6:47 PM on September 13, 2013 [8 favorites]

Thankfully, I have a sense of humour that prevents me from taking accolades of that nature on face value or I'd've been in the tricky position of receiving the GQ award for being "best portal to a mystical dimension", which is a lot of pressure.

Just like GQ to snub Tilda Swinton.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:04 PM on September 13, 2013 [11 favorites]

I'd like to tell Russel Brand how to behave but I am afraid he might convince me to wear women's jeans and pointy boots with heels. So we will have a truce that I declare and he is unaware of and my lower half will be relatively unconstrained and so will his behaviour. It's a good day.
posted by srboisvert at 7:14 PM on September 13, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'm still in mourning for the end of Brand X With Russell Brand, which during its second season morphed from an awkward and poorly formatted half-hour into a deeply amazing hour of what could have been the first show to redefine late night television since David Letterman went on the air in the mid-80s.

Oh well. Brand is brilliant. It's a shame FX was too afraid of him to let him find his audience and fully develop his voice.
posted by hippybear at 7:19 PM on September 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

I've enjoyed Brand's other columns for the Guardian but this one fell flat. I think the picked comment put it best:

Brand you are saying the right things maybe it's time to do something. Some of us live our lives away from the system choosing not to be a part of it (As far as possible). You have clearly chosen to be part of it. You are by your own admission a narcissist that's the main reason you do these things. If you really despised being at these things and hated the system you are part of so much you would give it up and leave. Til then don't preach to us. We know. We are the ones that puff your pillows in those 5* hotels.

posted by anewnadir at 7:49 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

The first few paras seemed like he was trying too hard -- which is odd for someone in his position -- but by the time I got to this:

Even for a man whose former job was editing the Telegraph this is an extraordinary way to manipulate information.

I was thinking "Someone give him a column, please."
posted by George_Spiggott at 7:49 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

(Er, by that I mean a regular one -- he seems more of a guesty on the Guardian.)
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:19 PM on September 13, 2013

IndigoJones: "As I said, you don't like the host, stay home and mock from there if mock you must. In any event, his own past in nothing to write home about."

Wait - that... that wasn't a classic metafilter snark? You sincerely are offended that he would take an opportunity like that instead of just suck up and decline and then bash in privacy where nobody would be affected?

You must love all the great comedians. (and yes, THAT was sarcasm)
posted by symbioid at 8:29 PM on September 13, 2013 [6 favorites]

MetaFilter: stay home and mock from there if mock you must.
posted by hippybear at 8:30 PM on September 13, 2013 [5 favorites]

I knew little about him a year ago, but somehow this moment made perfect sense.

very interested to read more now.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:11 PM on September 13, 2013

if you want someone to show up and behave you don't invite russell brand. they probably thought they'd get something bawdy, maybe some more jokes about how bored he was with his famous ex wife - you invite brand because you hope you make a headline or two out of it - and in that they got exactly what they wanted. i can't really see feeling sorry for gq or hugo boss in this situation.
posted by nadawi at 9:24 PM on September 13, 2013 [10 favorites]

"I'm not wearing anyone, I went with clobber, I'm not Buffalo Bill."

Ugh. I really wish all the prescriptivists would just buy an island and leave the rest of us in peace. Idioms aren't going anywhere and you're making the rest if us miserable.
posted by Gin and Comics at 9:27 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's hard to like Russell Brand if you are - especially here in the UK - vaguely familiar with certain parts of his early work at least as far as the ten seconds you could stand any of it went. Really hard. Really really hard.

But my god is he making amends.

More power to his elbow.

This whole new 'turning out not only to not be a complete knob after all but actually also to be really funny and talented and bright *and* totally on the money when it comes to skewering corporate bullshit of all sorts' shtick of his is something I look forward to a great deal more of.
posted by motty at 9:33 PM on September 13, 2013 [5 favorites]

Brand's tweet summarizing GQ's reaction was well done:

GQ editor: "What you did was very offensive to Hugo Boss."
Me: "What Hugo Boss did was very offensive to the Jews."

posted by Justinian at 9:40 PM on September 13, 2013 [20 favorites]

"even though the paddock-side banter is accompanied by looming foam tipped eavesdroppers, hanging like insidious mistletoe."

This is surprisingly good.

And about mocking your host? come on, this was not a party and GQ was not a host. This was not a social occasion and social contracts don't apply though GQ would love to pretend that this was "social".

Its a business transaction with everyone getting something from being there. GQ was looking for glamour, Brand was looking to promote his tour. I do think everyone got what they wanted. It was a successful transaction.
posted by TheLittlePrince at 10:04 PM on September 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

Watching him deal with the witless, sleepwalking drones that apparently host Morning Joe is painful at first, and then it just gets great. I'd wish that he'd go on Fox to do the same except they lack even the rudimentary self-awareness required to shame them.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:16 PM on September 13, 2013

Brand is obviously no dummy and he lands some great hits in this piece but it is ridiculously overwritten - I mean, oestrogen passage, really - and the way he acts like he has only just worked all this stuff out is very tiresome. Doubly tiresome if actually true.
posted by pascal at 10:59 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

pascal, I read it the same way at first, but I'm edging toward the notion that the over-the-top and strangely damaged similes may be a comedian's schtick; a parody of writerliness rather than a serious attempt at it. I hope to fucking god they are, anyway.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:08 PM on September 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Russell Brand is indeed often over-the-top, but at the core he always delivers. And I find it inspiring that he uses his celebrity to shake things up in this way.
posted by Paris Elk at 2:13 AM on September 14, 2013

"I'm not wearing anyone, I went with clobber, I'm not Buffalo Bill."

Ugh. I really wish all the prescriptivists would just buy an island and leave the rest of us in peace. Idioms aren't going anywhere and you're making the rest if us miserable.

"Who are you wearing?" is an idiom that can piss right off. I'm with Brand on this one.
posted by iotic at 3:28 AM on September 14, 2013 [7 favorites]

It's hard to like Russell Brand if you are - especially here in the UK - vaguely familiar with certain parts of his early work at least as far as the ten seconds you could stand any of it went.

I feel the exact opposite about him. I loved him when he did Big Brother's Big Mouth, doing long discursive rants about exposing his ballbag and his little winky and now I think he's a self-righteous, sanctimonious twat.

You think this kind of event is bullshit? Here's a tip that works really well for me: don't fucking go. But Brand wants his cake and wants to eat it as well. He wants to hang out with and shag the various z list celebs that you get at these things, while at the same time, wanting to pretend he's more spiritual and more enlightened than thou.

The greasy haired motherfucker makes me sick.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 3:55 AM on September 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

You think this kind of event is bullshit? Here's a tip that works really well for me: don't fucking go.

Sounds like a recipe for a sad, cramped life. Even bullshit can be made interesting with the right perspective.
posted by empath at 4:28 AM on September 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

You think this kind of event is bullshit? Here's a tip that works really well for me: don't fucking go.

He explains why he went. And he accepts most of the tosh that being a celeb entails. The article is a humourous account of being at an awards show, with a more thoughtful bit at the end about the corporate-entertainment-political nexus. Did you read it?
posted by memebake at 6:24 AM on September 14, 2013

Just remebered who Buffalo Bill is. I think I was thinking of desperate dan instead, which made less sense but somehow still made sense.
posted by memebake at 6:25 AM on September 14, 2013

I love Russell Brand.

Just don't tell him. He'll dump you buy text or slut-shame you to your grandparents.

But, damn me, while I want to hate him (and I do his movies), I have to get behind him when he starts upsetting tables in temples.
posted by Mezentian at 7:29 AM on September 14, 2013

If Hugo Boss cannot take a joke about their less-than-moral past, then they don't deserve to be considered as having moved past it.

Saying Russel Brand should not have shown up if he was going to mock his corporate host is like saying Stephen Colbert* should not have gone to the White House Correspondents' Dinner. (And I will stab you with a rusty fork if you say that Stephen Colbert should not have gone to the White House Correspondents' Dinner.)

*Not to imply that Russel Brand is in any way in the same league as Stephen Colbert, but give the man a chance to practice, will you?
posted by BlueJae at 7:33 AM on September 14, 2013 [3 favorites]

brundlefly: "Man, I keep not wanting to like this guy and I keep liking him. What should I do"
Same here, but the other way round. I'd like to, but I can't.
posted by nicolin at 8:07 AM on September 14, 2013

I was always taught that the polite thing, when one has meaningful criticism, is to show up and express it directly to the subject of your criticism. It shows courage and character.

Apparently, you must turn down the port or it is suspect.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 8:20 AM on September 14, 2013

So for those that use Amazon Instant, you can see every episode of Brand X With Russell Brand there.

The first run of episodes, up through Nov 8 2012, are all half-hours. The next two November 2012 episodes show them playing with the full hour format. When the show started up again in Feb 2013, it was a full hour, it was LIVE (as in, broadcast live coast to coast, but with the appropriate 5 second delay because, well, Russell Brand), and it was brilliant.

If you like him and use Amazon Instant, I suggest you check it out. Especially the episodes starting in Feb 2013.
posted by hippybear at 8:53 AM on September 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

The Oracle of Selfie.
posted by panaceanot at 9:53 AM on September 14, 2013 [3 favorites]

Perhaps the resolution to the dichotomy "asshole vs. blisteringly on-target social critic" just depends on what he's doing. If Brand is engaged with a worthy target, like the halfwitted oafishness of the Morning Joe panel linked above, or the diamond-studded fluffage of the overpraised in the top link, he can be great. Left to his own devices to pull teh funney out of thin air he can really soil his drawers. This is just a proposition for discussion, not an assertion.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:09 PM on September 14, 2013

Brand's thing isn't just pulling the funny out, however. He's always been a social critic, and he's shown regularly that he's willing to sacrifice comedy for the sake of making a point which forces critical thought about society and perhaps some attitude adjustment as a result.

He treads a very thin line -- his standup is pretty on-point, his impromptu stuff is a real mish-mash, but he has the courage to just fucking SAY IT, no matter what kind of trouble it may cause for him. I respect that. Even if I don't always think what he does hits the mark he's intending, I always find him fascinating and worthwhile.
posted by hippybear at 12:47 PM on September 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

I think I've said this before but Russell Brand is actually very smart, he's just so good at playing the silly monkey man with the accent everyone thinks he's an idiot because our brains go all "haw haw haw look at the silly monkey man with the accent".

Russell Brand is pulling a Columbo. I like it.
posted by bongo_x at 9:02 PM on September 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

So essentially if he starts to walk away, stops, turns and says "Oh, just one more thing, sir..." you've had it?
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:41 PM on September 14, 2013

Sounds like a recipe for a sad, cramped life.

Yeah, if you believe not attending corporate promotional events in order to sell your latest piece of product is a recipe for a sad, cramped life, I'm not sure what else I can tell you.

Did you read it?

A few days ago, when it was first published. And watched the embarrassing, not funny videoclip as well. I get that he went to promote his latest show/movie/whatever. Is that supposed to impress me somehow?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:43 PM on September 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

embarrassing? were you embarrassed? because he certainly wasn't, nor should he be. if you hate him so much and think he's just a greasy haired motherfucker why waste your time in a thread about him?
posted by nadawi at 6:43 AM on September 15, 2013

Good column. Every time I read something of his, I'm more and more impressed.

"Even for a man whose former job was editing the Telegraph this is an extraordinary way to manipulate information."

Nice.
posted by homunculus at 4:30 PM on September 15, 2013

If people didn't know about Hugo Boss' shady past, they do now. I eagerly await Brand's dissertation on Von Braun, NASA and the Apollo missions. "A human being is the best computer available to place in a spacecraft." Or to use as slave labour in the process of building missiles.
posted by Bubbles Devere at 5:21 PM on September 15, 2013