Why Russell Brand so upsets us

Ray

...Oh, and by the way, Brand's not particularly funny either.

The Laughing Cavalier

Ross is crude, priapic witha predatory attitude towards women. he is every bit as bad as brand and just as unfunny. Get rid of him too.

Wills

"Cultic figure, a lord of misrule, an inverted preacher"? Oh he'll love that. Russell Brand upsets and fascinates in equal measure and not only the priapic young. The BBC report revealed his listeners had an average age of 50. It was middle-aged Ross who crudely revealed Russell's relationship with his granddaughter to Mr Sachs; it was middle-aged David Baddiel who revealed it to the audience the week before in an unedifying discussion of Russell's sexual voraciousness. Perhaps an alternative description of Mr Brand's appeal to some sections of his fan-base is, to quote a phrase, "sheer theatrical Viagra"?

Rowland

"A sort of cultic figure, a lord of misrule, an inverted preacher".

Methinks you're in danger of taking him a leetle bit too seriously...

George Laird

Dear All

The appeal of Russell Brand to some is the shock of car crash comedy.

I personally don’t find him funny at all and I have a sick sense of humour.

The establishment seems to pick a cretin and hold him up as some kind of wit. The BBC has Jonathan Ross who is supposed to represent cool slick Britain everyman, Ross doesn’t represent me either.

I would be minded if approached by him (Ross) to tell him to F off.

Brand has climbed a greasy pole but what has he really done?

Sweet FA in my own opinion, he is cannon fodder.

Why are we so upset?

I would venture that “we” are upset because we were sold a pig in a poke.

Finally, during Big Brother, it is clear that Brand gets his kicks at the expense of others, lower down the food chain, hardly the Einstein of wit. His sack me and leave my friend (Ross) alone was pathetic too.

I would also have bulleted Ross so fast for his part in the Sachs Scandal but the BBC having ploughed £18 million into Ross over 3 years were up a creek without a paddle.

They saved Ross because they hadn’t got in place their next “everyman star” in the wings.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Richard Bailey

No, no. you are so wrong!

It is Brand's honesty that sets him apart and above the nudge, nudge, smut brigade.

He is as good as Billy Connolly in full flight, the only difference is the content of their narrative. They both use the same stand up concept - experienced based story telling. Both are adult, racy and honest and very very funny.

You just have a typically English pruddish, bury-your-head-in-the-sand attitude and don't want to hear this stuff. That is your choice and you are free to exercise it, just as you are free to depress the "off" switch next time he appears on your screen or radio.

Brand's brand of sex may be promiscuous but it is not violent, illegal, depraved or abusive. It is quite liberating actually, and if we weren't quite so up oursleves there might one day be a generation of Britain's who don't lead the European league tables for teenage pregnancies and abortions.

Wrong tree, stop barking!

RB

Colin

I think you're way off the mark. If you recall, 99.99% of people who registered a complaint, never actually heard the original broadcast. It was as if they were just waiting for an opportunity and a reason to protest. In my view, this outpouring of outrage was more about a general disenchantment with the bbc rather than a desire to take issue with ross, brand or smutty content. It had more in common with the furore over the MP's John Lewis list.

At the height of the snouts in the trough scandal, the overwhelming gripe of the people I know was they felt that they were being made fools of by an arrogant elite. The bbc certainly falls into the category of being an institution chalk full of people who hold their paymasters in utter contempt.

Let's not forget, nobody has been fired, and ross gets to keep 5 million pounds of our money this year, rather than 6 million. Not exactly a corporate act of contrition.

THX1138

Why Russell Brand so upsets us- Not me he doesn't or thousands, like me if not tens of thousands, who have a sense of humour like Brand and Ross. Theirs is the humour of the age – a fact implicitly acknowledged in both their pay-packets, and their cultural prominence.

In that free market that we all love so dearly Disney are paying Brand £5 million to be in the New Pirates movie they are obviously not upset are they!

What a bunch of bah humbug killjoys you all are on the Spectator chill out and get a grip and remember the BBC reflects the whole country not just you coffin dodgers and Mel groupies listening to your hero drone on, on the Moral Maze.

Have a laugh and watch this great Downfall mashup when Hitler finds out his name is on the leaked BNP database- This is really really funny unless your a UKIP supporter that is. Hi TGF I know you can take a joke.

http://tinyurl.com/5hy8dv

BTW as you lot are so easily offended it is a bit swearey.

Wilhelm

Time the Biased Broadcasting Crap was axed.
Its lefty liberal supporters squeeeel.

'' The BBC makes the finest programmes in the entire universe.''

Yeah, Noel Edmonds House Party with Mr Blobby and the gunge tank was a high light in world history.

John

utter tripe. you successfully build up enough straw men to knock down to fill out an article but you say nothing of any value i'm afraid. jonathan ross was the one who made the offending comment in the first place, russell brand's appeal isn't his willingness to talk about sex but the intelligence that he displays in the deconstruction of social norms and values and i'm hugely glad that russell brand was given a platform by the bbc as he is an interesting and clever comedian that stands out in quagmire of mundane fakery.

luke

Not sure what else the BBC have to realistically do to satisfy you.

If they apologise for hiring brand because he is cultic, how many other comedians have they got to sack?

Can you name any?

Basically you are saying the BBC shouldnt make the kind of edgy comedy they are saying they should. But what about other edgy programmes, such as panorama?

GV

I detect a growing revolt against claptrap. It began with an unspoken objection to paying a licence fee to the BBC for biased news, dumbed-down reporting and poor programming. Ross & Brand showed people that if they spoke out in sufficient numbers, action would be taken. This was quickly followed by the Strictly Sergeant row. Hot on its heels we had Baby P and we are still awaiting resignations there. Next stop the government?

I don't care that public dissent has its roots in 'cutting edge', reality tv/radio; Brand and Ross were equally culpable. I'm just glad it has found its voice again and hope it will go on to rail against more fundamental issues.

Ryan Anderton

Christ almighty Theo, get a grip.
Russell Brand made a very sincere apology (you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMxh-BnyKKs ) in which he simply said that what he did was “wrong”. He tried to explain why he did what he did without excusing it. He takes full responsibility for his actions. He resigns.
A model apology, don't you think?
In top of that Andrew Sachs said that Brand had sent a bouquet of red roses and a "very nice and deeply apologetic" note. What more do you want?
If you don't find him funny then don't listen to him- it really is that simple. Many of us do find him funny, however, and would happily see him back at the BBC.
Lastly, sex- with the proper precautions- is a bit of harmless fun. My reasons being
1) Two people agree to do something with each other and do not hurt anybody else.
2) It is fun

Now stop writing bollocks and concentrate on some things that really matter

Lance Grundy

I wish the BBC was ‘edgy’ and anti-establishment. It doesn’t seem to have dawned on this doddering organisation that, since the cultural revolution of the 1960s, it is the establishment.

The BBC takes delight in breaking what are, in fact, long dead taboos and opposing some mythical conservative establishment that hasn’t existed for nearly 40 years. How transgressive. How boring. The BBC is the establishment now. So how about taking itself on? How long before we see a storyline in Eastenders about a hapless member of the working poor who can’t afford to pay their TV Licence Fee and is hounded to suicide by TV detector vans, threatening letters and abusive phone calls from the national broadcaster? Then again…

hys\

But isn't the underlying issue here not one of humour (which let's face it is completely subjective) but one of funding?

Sure we can hit an off switch if we do not like Brand, or Strictly or anything else we take exception to. But why should we have to pay for it through taxation? (aka licence fee)

The Dandiprat

I agree: Brand has become a huge cult.

But I never could spell.

bill

I entirely disagree with Theo Hobson. And little would give me greater pleasure to know that Ross would never be on the Beeb again.

Polly and Alice's mum

Russell Brand has achieved hs goal - self publicity.
He is a happy boy.
End of story.
What this says about the state of our country is another matter. Read it and weep, and then emigrate perhaps, as I have done. I live in France where children have respect for their teachers (a reflection on the teachers, I would say) and family is important. Go to any village event (do you have these any more in England?) and you will see Grandparents, parents, children and babies - all behaving themselves, showing resect, and having a good time.
11 years of new labour, political correctness etc has a lot to answer for.

Clare

Speak for yourself - the rest of us are completely and hopelessly in love with this man. He is truly a one-off beautiful, funny, sexy, sensitive, intelligent, talented, charismatic and all-round wonderful human being. The BBC really shot themselves in the foot letting him go - but then they have always preferred playing it safe and a boat-rocker like Brand was never going to last long with a broadcaster that rarely ventures far from the establishment's a-hole.

Newt

"A sort of cultic figure," "a lord of misrule," "an inverted preacher." All sound like things Simone de Beauvoir would call Nelson Algren in extremis. More please!

wonderfulforhisage

Woody Allen, Eric Morecombe and Russel Brand all made some people laugh. (But not necessarily the same people at the same time).

Were you to be ship wrecked on a DI with either a band of Allen, Morecombe or Brand aficionados, which lot we you choose? Discuss. (but not if you're under the age of twenty five).

Gregg

"The BBC should never have given him a platform. It should have understood that he is not a normal smut-prone comic but a sort of cultic figure, a lord of misrule, an inverted preacher."

It sounds like Theo Hobson is putting himself forward as Pentheus to Russell Brand's Dionysus.

Nick

I have tried to give Russe Brand another chance on Ponderland Channel4 but fail to see what RB brings to the party , he remains purile, plastic, pathetic and dull, humourless and static. looser !! LOL glad to see him and his type fail as the world wakes up to reality !!