Russell Brand - what happened?

[Thosworth]

If you click the three dots next to "Save" you can view an auto generated transcript of the whole video without having to watch.

However, you won't be able to tell which parts are Russell Brand and which are clips of ranting right-wing commentators (although to be honest etc etc...)

[Autopsy Turvey]

I'm not going to watch it (obviously) but what is his take on the FBI raid?

He gently mocks the US news coverage of the raid legally enforced search, and expresses ironic cynicism that the FBI might be corruptly weaponised against the government's political opponents. He doesn't seem to be convinced that the Democrats or their media backers are any more trustworthy than Trump and Fox. His channel just seems to be an excitable version of What The Papers Say with New Age homilies and the milquetoastiest criticism of US government and media, but for calling Owen Jones "our generation's Orwell", I agree that he's thick as shit and clinically insane and should probably be imprisoned.

[Snrub]

So pathetic, wonder what Matt Morgan thinks of all this...

Matt's latest podcast dropped the other day. Said he doesn't really watch or follow Russ's YouTube channel but thinks he's politics are very student like and probably too controversial.

Later on someone sent in a message asking if he'd ever do a podcast again with Russ, he basically said no chance. Hasn't spoken to Russ in ages and basically implied there was a falling out and there is a lot of stuff they didn't agree on (did wonder if this meant the YouTube grift stuff he didn't want to comment on before) but said he didn't want to say why.

Went a lot further than his last update a few months ago which implied they'd just drifted apart and still text. Said he probably will speak to him again in the future but seems their relationship is a bit frought. Sad to hear but Matt is better than Russ, Nuff Said.

[BritishHobo]

It's sad that, as they had obviously already had a big falling-out originally, making the reconciliation for the new radio shows all the sweeter. I kinda thought once Brand had his new wife and his kid and was back broadcasting with Matty Morgan that he might be alright, might be free of the temptations of fame. Shame to see all this.

[Joe Oakes]

He gently mocks the US news coverage of the raid legally enforced search, and expresses ironic cynicism that the FBI might be corruptly weaponised against the government's political opponents. He doesn't seem to be convinced that the Democrats or their media backers are any more trustworthy than Trump and Fox. His channel just seems to be an excitable version of What The Papers Say with New Age homilies and the milquetoastiest criticism of US government and media, but for calling Owen Jones "our generation's Orwell", I agree that he's thick as shit and clinically insane and should probably be imprisoned.

Christ, you know a comedian has hit rock bottom when even this guy is struggling to defend them.

[BritishHobo]

I guess that's his problem - in his 'just asking questions' mode, he inevitably fencesits. It feels like he's scared to go the full Joe Rogan or Jordan Peterson (even though success could lie that way), so he tries to play it safe.

EDIT: Actually I've just watched his video on the Trump raid, and at the end he asks, if this is a legitimate investigation, why aren't similar investigations going on with regards to Hunter Biden, and Hilary Clinton's e-mails. Jesus christ, Russell.

[gotmilk]

This video undermines any argument about plausible deniability. He knows exactly what he's doing. At least the new editing style and tacky adverts make the grifting more obvious to the uninitiated.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Looks like a dessicated jack black there

[gotmilk]

More obviously disprovable lies like the National Institute of Health endorsing Ivermectin. Shameless.

[dothestrand]

It's pretty much nailed on that anyone who's into spirituality, wellbeing, natural healing, that kind of shit, is a complete conspiracy nut.

[Uncle TechTip]

It's pretty much nailed on that anyone who's into spirituality, wellbeing, natural healing, that kind of shit, is a complete conspiracy nut.

Don't diss Fearne Cotton like that!

[Gurke and Hare]

Don't diss Fearne Cotton like that!

Fearne 'Jet fuel can't melt steel beams' Cotton?

[yaktaur]

It's like watching a talking skull with a beard

[checkoutgirl]

he asks, if this is a legitimate investigation, why aren't similar investigations going on with regards to Hunter Biden, and Hilary Clinton's e-mails. Jesus christ, Russell.

Yeah that's a million percent out of the Qanon looney Republican playbook. If I could stand to watch him for more than 2 seconds I'd like to see him say that guff with a straight face.

He's gone off the deep end has Russell and no bones about it.

[phantom_power]

Cunt thinks having a vocabulary and being a reasonably good orator is the same as intelligence

[TheMonk]

Astonishing what Youtube will allow on its platform these days.

Yet try and stick up an old episode of The Tube and baneroo for you.

[Autopsy Turvey]

Yeah that's a million percent out of the Qanon looney Republican playbook. If I could stand to watch him for more than 2 seconds I'd like to see him say that guff with a straight face.

Is it possible that he/they really just don't know why the Biden laptop didn't warrant official investigation?

[ajsmith2]

I noted on watching a recent video he'd stopped saying 'I know some of you like Trump, I don't' and subtlety but significantly adjusted it to 'I know you all like Trump, I don't' which pretty much confirms he's fully aware of the target audience he must perform to.

[Petey Pate]

He's only gone and quit YouTube.

Russell Brand claims he's been "censored" by YouTube for making a "relatively small error" on the platform.

After having a video removed from the video streaming service, Brand has now swapped to alternative platform Rumble, which he claims will enable him to talk more "freely".

"We have officially been censored by YouTube," the 47-year-old claimed in a clip posted this week.

"They took down one of our videos for misinformation, but why are big media organisations not censored for misinformation in the same way? Is it because YouTube are part of the mainstream media now?"

He said YouTube originally removed his video because it "cited information on official government websites, which we misinterpreted".

[dead-ced-dead]

It's so predicable and boring at this point, if he were a written blogger it would have been Substack.

[Pink Gregory]

Good, grift elsewhere so I can watch video essays about Mario Paint over the washing up in peace.

[dead-ced-dead]

Good, grift elsewhere so I can watch video essays about Mario Paint over the washing up in peace.

Heh, neeeeeeerd!

[Ignatius_S]

Nine years on and this still sums up Brand best for me:

I tried to analyse my own reaction to him during the interview and concluded that I can't see the substance for the style.  Which is my fault I suppose.

What isn't my fault is that he comes across like someone you might find had broken in to sleep in a barn. "I beseech you to believe my tale, the door to nature's larder stood ajar, a salutation to a weary man seeking honest slumber."  Then he'd run away, with his knees quite high and hands flappy, followed by his dog wearing a paisley neckerchief and barking.

The other way he'd travel of course would be on a narrowboat, with David Essex.

[ajsmith2]

This cunt, man, this fucking cunt. Sorry I admit I hate watch (or hate have on the background while working anyway) his videos regularly. Every second video is called something like 'so Trump was right!' or 'Trump was about to reveal this!' is an abjectly transparent attempt to massage what he perceives to be his new fanbase (I mean it's not like Trumps been in the news much of late, you have to be working an angle to be wheeling him out with such regularity in mid-late 2022)

I think this one takes the biscuit in terms of having the blatant partisanship on display if you watch it through. At the beginning it's the usual kind of 'senile Biden's gonna lead us to WW3, all Trump is saying is give peace a chance' spiel, and y'know as simplistic a take as it is, the first part of that is not a POV that should be necessarily dismissed out of hand if we don't like who's saying it, but it's the bit from 6.30 that gets me, where he's quoting Trump saying that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was provoked by the West and then mentioning how Trump had no sources for this and it's treated with an indulgent laugh and a 'well,.. it's Trump innit?'. Y'know, if we're meant to be cutting to the truth of this situation and bringing up the receipts, why does this guy get indulged and excused, any complications hand waved away because he's a 'character' (or more to the point, he's the character beloved by the majority of where my fanbase has pivoted to, and don't I know it, so on I trudge with the abject prostration before his altar with only the thinnest veneer of 'well for the record I don't actually always agree with him' disclaimers that I don't always remember to say applied).

[TrappedInMyFlat]

This cunt, man, this fucking cunt. Sorry I admit I hate watch (or hate have on the background while working anyway) his videos regularly. Every second video is called something like 'so Trump was right!' or 'Trump was about to reveal this!' is an abjectly transparent attempt to massage what he perceives to be his new fanbase (I mean it's not like Trumps been in the news much of late, you have to be working an angle to be wheeling him out with such regularity in mid-late 2022)

I think this one takes the biscuit in terms of having the blatant partisanship on display if you watch it through. At the beginning it's the usual kind of 'senile Biden's gonna lead us to WW3, all Trump is saying is give peace a chance' spiel, and y'know as simplistic a take as it is, the first part of that is not a POV that should be necessarily dismissed out of hand if we don't like who's saying it, but it's the bit from 6.30 that gets me, where he's quoting Trump saying that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was provoked by the West and then mentioning how Trump had no sources for this and it's treated with an indulgent laugh and a 'well,.. it's Trump innit?'. Y'know, if we're meant to be cutting to the truth of this situation and bringing up the receipts, why does this guy get indulged and excused, any complications hand waved away because he's a 'character' (or more to the point, he's the character beloved by the majority of where my fanbase has pivoted to, and don't I know it, so on I trudge with the abject prostration before his altar with only the thinnest veneer of 'well for the record I don't actually always agree with him' disclaimers that I don't always remember to say applied).

Yep!

That sort of hypocrisy is, and always has been, rife with Brand's little rants.
Things that matter if they illustrate the side he's on, suddenly don't matter if they go against his point. And vice versa. They're just handwaved conveniently aside if they go against the point he wants to make. But if they back-up his point they are ESSENTIAL EVIDENCE!

And he wraps it all up in so much verbosity in a grubby attempt to disguise the fact.

[ajsmith2]

Now here's some lovely old DeSantis soft-soaping, my liege. Got to hedge your bets for if my viewership jumps horse from Trump in the coming years ain't I? While ol' Russ is careful to walk the tightrope of (very) gentle mockery with disclaimers of 'I don't dislike DeSantis!' the comments tell their own story in being 100% full of unqualified sincere praise for Ron DeS.

[BritishHobo]

The previous video you posted, on Trump's call for peace, is so enragingly disingenuous. Ridiculing Trump's critics by going 'oh they think he's a fascist because he's calling for peace!!!!!' as if people's opinions on Trump are based on this event alone, and not, like, his entire political history. As if he's saying something deeply original and personally-developed and profound by saying 'a nuclear war would be bad'.

Also he immediately falls into the groanworthy cliché of saying he gets on guests 'the mainstream media' won't let you see. Who are the mainstream media? Is it CNN, or Fox News? Is it the Daily Mail, or the Guardian?

[amputeeporn]

Nine years on and this still sums up Brand best for me:

The barn thing - yes - if you ever meet a pathological liar/con-artist in life, you'll find a similar character to Brand. Wordy, florid, 'charming', etc, but never with anything at all underneath it. Stand-up was part of the grift and so is this. 

[Catalogue Trousers]

Christ. So Russell Brand was a piece of hypocritical, money-grubbing shit all along?

Well imagine my...

[Capt.Midnight]

The barn thing - yes - if you ever meet a pathological liar/con-artist in life, you'll find a similar character to Brand. Wordy, florid, 'charming', etc, but never with anything at all underneath it. Stand-up was part of the grift and so is this. 

It's very similar to Trump's narcissism really. It doesn't matter who the audience is, but the attention and power they get is the end goal. It's very much a sickness in itself.