Fanvid: Like a Monkey in a Zoo

[falafel_musings]

Description: A Tribute to comedian/activist Russell Brand
Music: 'Like a Monkey in a Zoo' by Daniel Johnston.
Length: 2.47 minutes.
Warnings: Features explicit language, sexual references and drug abuse. Also features Russell Brand who seemingly manages to offend many people around the globe whilst trying to spread love and laughter in his own

Comments

[falafel_musings]

Admittedly it's a challenge trying to fit RB's complicated personal story into a 3 minute video (I didn't even bother trying to include his shortlived marriage to Katy Perry). There are various interviews and documentaries on his life available on youtube if you want to know more (the Piers Morgan one is a good place to start though even that is several years old and doesn't cover his latest activities). He's very complicated and controversial. I adore the man, but even I think he's an egomaniac and a loon.

he must have been pretty good at it if you can get Saint Bob to call you a bleep-worthy word on a microphone

Russell has a reputation for making offensive jokes when hosting award shows. That's the main reason he is repeatedly hired to host award shows, because they want that stir of controversy. It's true that he likes to push people's buttons but there's this vicious circle where he is encouraged to be "edgy" then blamed for going too far when his humor results in a huge backlash. That said, Bob Geldof's slam was kinda mean and uncalled for. Russell was still a very new comedian at that time and he hadn't said anything to provoke Bob personally.

it's intriguing to see what an obviously notorious figure he is in England

Russell is a lot more famous in England and he has always been a very polarizing figure here. Ever since he became famous here he's been under attack from the UK press - for being a former junkie, for being promiscuous, for offensive humour, etc. In the last few months we've had Russell Brand joining several campaigns to help poor people and the environment and the press are smearing him more than ever before. Which has just made me want to stick up for him. Even if people don't agree with his political stance I don't think he's done anything to deserve such a hateful tirade.

I'm kind of dying of curiosity - what was the national scandal he sparked?

It was something called the Sachsgate scandal which back in 2008 caused the biggest UK media storm since the death of Princess Di. It was a long, overblown and ridiculous affair involving a prank phone call made on Russell Brand's radio show which sparked an epic media backlash against Brand, Jonathan Ross and the BBC. My boo Charlie Brooker offered a good summary of the scandal and its cultural impact in the first 4 minutes of this video = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2gtntIQTks . For Russell, the incident was largely the consequence of him being very silly and a slut. And the saddest thing for me as a fan was that following this scandal we basically lost Russell Brand to America for the past 5 years. He only resettled in the UK this year and so I guess one of the motivations behind the media attacks on his political stance is that the press didn't get to punish Brand enough for Sachsgate. This is where Brand feels very comparable to Baltar to me.

apparently Fox News or some such American media outlet was calling him "commie scum", so maybe he's more well-known here than I think.

'The Trews' is basically RB deconstructing mainstream news broadcasts and newspapers to uncover their political/social agendas. It's something he's done in his stand up for years though now he's tackling more serious causes as you say. Fox News found out RB was talking about them on his youtube channel and (hilariously) got a panel together purely to bitch about Russell Brand which ended up giving The Trews a huge amount of publicity. I first caught The Trews in October with the Renee Zellweger episode (see below) that went viral and since then I've watched it every day as an alternative to the BBC news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CugXPmLGfP8

If you want to know more about Brand's current political mission then you should check out the infamous Paxman interview which sparked it all. Brand's Guardian live interview is perhaps a better example, a year onwards, when Brand has had more time to structure his goals. In brief, Brand is advocating community activism and unionization rather than voting for and complying with any existing political party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YR4CseY9pk

LOL! I should get myself a Russell icon with a mediawhore tag too. It is very fitting.