
Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems' - sethbannon
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/13/russell-brand-gq-awards-hugo-boss
======
lkrubner
This is the heart of it, and he says it well:

"We witness that there is a relationship between government, media and
industry that is evident even at this most spurious and superficial level.
These three institutions support one another. We know that however cool a
media outlet may purport to be, their primary loyalty is to their corporate
backers. We know also that you cannot criticise the corporate backers openly
without censorship and subsequent manipulation of this information."

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sethbannon
Brand's brilliant humor and keen cultural insights are so refreshing. In case
you missed his takedown of cable news, it's here:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2eDj39q0Fo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2eDj39q0Fo)

~~~
chasb
Anyone read Infinite Jest? There are some strong parallels here with the
opening scene in IJ.

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brandall10
"The Century of the Self is an award-winning British television documentary
series by Adam Curtis. It focuses on how the work of Sigmund Freud, Anna
Freud, and Edward Bernays influenced the way corporations and governments have
analyzed,‭ dealt with, and controlled ‬people.[1]"

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self)

~~~
cinquemb
Thanks for this. Here's the video[1] if anyone is wondering where one can find
it easily. It is about 4 hours long.

[0] [http://vimeo.com/61857758](http://vimeo.com/61857758)

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alan_cx
I have always said comedians should run the place. So many are incredibly
bright, keen observers of life and manage to cut through the PR and political
crap that needlessly muddies the waters. Russel is one of these.

~~~
lwhalen
Stewart/Colbert 2013

~~~
mason240
He said comedians, not humorous propagandists.

~~~
lwhalen
I don't agree with all of what they espouse, but at least they make me laugh
until it hurts. If we're all going to hell in a handbasket anyway, I'd rather
have a ringleader who's at least damn funny (IMHO) on the bus-ride down.

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001sky
As a (test) piece of rhetoric, this essay is seemingly well done. It opens
dis-armingly enough. There is even a head-fake or two of tabloid-style name-
dropping. But all the while, Brand is developing a serious piece of
commentary. It almost catches you offguard. Which makes him sound all the more
reasonable.

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philangist
I love Russell but I can't help but feel like he's either constantly drugged
up or has some kind of manic disorder. Not that that's necessarily a bad
thing. How else would you explain his uncompromising honesty in the face of
bullshit (see: the MSNBC fiasco over the summer)

~~~
redthrowaway
He's apparently been off booze and drugs since 2003. He just seems like a
unique sort of person.

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Oculus
So much new found respect for Russell Brand, that was hilarious.

~~~
alan_cx
I think he is best being interviewed and talking in general rather than in his
work. If you like what you hear, you should put some effort in to searching
out some interviews, he is fascinating on many subjects.

Not saying his not a good comedian, he is very good, but I think people are
sort of put off taking him seriously because of it. I'm sure this is true of
many comedians.

Oh also, here in the UK, his is an easy tabloid target. Which is the game he
alludes to. Tabloid----> media----> big business---> government--->
establishment. He attacks the lot, and they really don't like it one little
bit.

BTW, fantastic to see this resonates with the HN crowd. Never saw that one
coming. :)

Edit: Added

I've just realised something. Brand is a sort of "hacker", ish. Often here we
talk about "disruption" in a particular market, and seeing how that market
changes or responds. Well, read this bit:

"I could see the room dividing as I spoke. I could hear the laughter of some
and louder still silence of others. I realised that for some people this was
regarded as an event with import. The magazine, the sponsors and some of those
in attendance saw it as a kind of ceremony that warranted respect. In effect,
it is a corporate ritual, an alliance between a media organisation, GQ, and a
commercial entity, Hugo Boss. What dawned on me as the night went on is that
even in apparently frivolous conditions the establishment asserts control, and
won't tolerate having that assertion challenged, even flippantly, by that most
beautifully adept tool: comedy.

The jokes about Hugo Boss were not intended to herald a campaign to destroy
them. They're not Monsanto or Halliburton, the contemporary corporate allies
of modern-day fascism; they are, I thought, an irrelevant menswear supplier
with a double-dodgy history. The evening, though, provided an interesting
opportunity to see how power structures preserve their agenda, even in a
chintzy microcosm."

Am I right in seeing that as hacking the ceremony?

~~~
cinquemb
I do think it is hacking, and I think that is a skill comedians pick up from
observing their audience in the years of perfecting their craft.

In this context, it is even more interesting because his hack of sorts takes
place in the environment where the state, industry and media are assumed to be
united unquestioningly, and apparently at their most vulnerable since cracks
form in the groups sense of self (possibly on an unconscious level since
everyone in the group during that moment is probably not going to be actively
contemplating the union of the state, industry and media and what effects that
union has on internal group dynamics as a whole)… now I wonder if people like
him are pen-testing for possible exploits to their hacks or "just for the
lulz" or a little bit of both? ;)

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grantlmiller
by far the greatest line: "Subsequent to my jokes, the evening took a peculiar
turn... It had the vibe of a wedding dinner where the best man's speech had
revealed the groom's infidelity. With Hitler."

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chasb
I'm not the first one to notice Brand's similarity to the fools in
Shakespeare. "Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_fool](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_fool)

~~~
pfarrell
If only Frank Zappa had lived to commentate in the 2000's.

Russell brand is looking more and more like the Wilde or Shaw of our times.
This piece considerably raises my estimation of him.

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generalcalm
Russell Brand's submission of evidence to the committee on addiction in the UK
really can not be missed.

[http://youtu.be/O_LHuII-jYQ](http://youtu.be/O_LHuII-jYQ)

~~~
pwang
Wow, that's amazing. Thanks for posting.

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glomph
I thought this was a very well written piece, but I think it is really strange
that the guardian ran this on the front page.

I would have thought they would have kept it firmly in the comment section.

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hackaflocka
Dude can write.

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pushmid
"The worst thing to post or upvote is something that's intensely but shallowly
interesting. Gossip about famous people, funny or cute pictures or videos,
partisan political articles, etc. If you let that sort of thing onto a news
site, it will push aside the deeply interesting stuff, which tends to be
quieter."

~~~
Buzaga
did you fucking read it?

~~~
sp332
You mean the part where he says _Now I 'm aware that this was really no big
deal; I'm not saying I'm an estuary Che Guevara, it was a daft joke, by a daft
comic at a daft event._ Or _I suppose that 's obvious, we all know it, we
already know all the important stuff like: don't trust politicians, don't
trust big business and don't trust the media. Trust your own heart and each
another._ The article is mostly shallow gossip and partisan politics, with
some idle speculation that government can be bought.

~~~
beedogs
Yeah, this is totally unimportant; let's talk some more about what colours the
new iPhone comes in.

~~~
sp332
That's pretty passive-aggressive. What do you really think?

