Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems' | Hacker News Reader

Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems'

theguardian.com

167 pointssethbannon32 comments

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."

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

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

"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

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

Adam Curtis is absolutely brilliant.

Apparently, he also has a blog on the BBC website. One recent post really resonated with me:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/BUGGER

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.

Stewart/Colbert 2013

He said comedians, not humorous propagandists.

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.

Iceland is trying it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3n_Gnarr

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.

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)

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

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

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?

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? ;)

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."

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

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.

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

Wow, that's amazing. Thanks for posting.

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.

Dude can write.

"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."

did you fucking read it?

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.

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

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

Hello reddit. HN was nice before y'all found out about it. This was inevitable but I suppose now is as good as any time to stop coming here. Goodbye reddit.

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