Flamboyant comedian, TV presenter and Time Out award winner Russell Brand recalls ten recent events that have made him laugh out loud
Earlier this year Russell Brand won the Time Out Best Stand-up Award. A couple of weeks ago, on ‘Friday Night with Jonathan Ross’, he reduced the celebrity host to a minor role as straight man with his extravagantly phrased descriptions of his past misdeeds. We invited Brand to contribute to our laughter issue by casting his mind back over the past few months and telling us about some of the things he’s had a good laugh at.
1. The British National Party spokesman who defended Richard Barnbrook, BNP councillor for Barking & Dagenham, when it came out that he’d once made a gay porn film. What did he say? ‘Barnbrook’s no queer. It’s what you call one of those arty-farty films.’
2. The bloke interviewed on BBC Radio about downloading music from the internet because he was mistaken for an IT expert. They were in a bit of a rush and hauled him out of reception, where he was sitting waiting for a job interview. By the time he realised what was happening, the guy decided to front it out!
3. Lib Dem MP Mark Oaten’s reason for seeing rent boys: he was going bald. An odd way for him to distract himself. For God’s sake, get a wig! Or a hobby.
4. Noel Gallagher, on my radio show, describing fellow comedian Trevor Lock as ‘a psychotic animated Aled Jones’. That’s unfair. I think he looks like a boy-band Alan Bennett.
5. Karl Theobald’s performances as Dr Martin Dear in ‘Green Wing’. Like Buster Keaton crossed with Peter Sellers.
6. Comedian Rob Newman’s tremendous show ‘Apocalypso Now’. In particular the way he described the reasons for the Gulf war so clearly. And his folk song about having an anxiety attack.
7. The staged bonhomie between Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx on the MTV UK show ‘1 Leicester Square’ as they promoted each other’s films and albums as a token of their friendship, like a couple of glamorous chimpanzees.
8. The Raëlians. They’re a cult who believe life on earth was created by extra-terrestrials. The leader of the UK Raëlian movement once played the lead in the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’. He’s been into space. He met the Buddha, Christ and Mohammed there, and he had it off with sex robots. He believes there’s literally a heaven: you can be cloned and lead a better life on another planet. For example, he said Gandhi could have been cloned and given another planet where he’d have more time for leisure pursuits like abseiling.
9. Simon Amstell being damned to hell by Daniel Bedingfield on ‘Popworld’ for his treatment of Bedingfield’s music.
10. If I may be so bold, my own riposte to Bob Geldof calling me a cunt when I was hosting the NME Awards: ‘Bob Geldof, no wonder he’s such an expert on famine – he’s been dining out on “I Don’t Like Mondays” for 30 years.
|
|
The best of London in your inbox
|
|
14 comments
He'll be dead before he's 30...mark my words.
I find Russell very funny and also very sexy. He is a big loss to BBBM.
I don't care about his past - he just needs the love of a good woman !!
Personally I think that Russell Brand is like Marmite, you either love him or you hate him and personally I love him! Him and Noel Fielding were a classic pairing on TBFQOTY. I think his comment to Bob Geldoff was hilarious, he deserved it anyway, c**t is a horrible word!
russel brand is a work of art.
anybody who saw him on the quiz of the year with noel feilding would know that .
whoever put that pair together was a genius.
so leave brand alone!!!!
charlie, wreck channel4 single handed? the channel's rubbish already, brand's too good for it. funniest man of our lifetimes, no question. you who dont like him read scummy newspapers like the sun too much. he's been accused of nearly everything by the media, and he's countered every accusation thrown at him. what kind of comedy do you like? i mean lighten up
I wasn't a big fan of a poofy looking dandy boy till I actually watched and listened to him. I think he is one of the funniest comedy acts of this decade. Who cares about his past drug taking history and kiss and tell stories. (Lucky bugger.) The mans got talent. Rob
I have see his show and it is just weird. He just says things-and then everyone laughs
Brand is indeed taking over the world with his tiny face and gnarled hands. Big Brother now seems to be acting as a halfway house for recovering crackheads. Davina and Brand have now been released into the community - will Dermot be next? You decide.
Oh my god, on the Tottenham Crt tube escalator all the digital ad screens are full of Russell Brand's obnoxious face, making faces. I thought I was decending into hell
Brand is bland and aweful, he could single handedly destroy channel 4, every time I see him on the T.V I have an overwhelming urge to throw up and have to change the channel or risk slitting my wrists!!! I have to disagree with you Sam, he is not a breath of frsh air, rather stale air that has nowhere to go. This man is up there with George Bush as one of the most reviled men around (at least to me!!)
breath of fresh air? It's halitostic..
Sorry Sam, I'm not quite sure of your logic there? You mean, because he was lazy junkie watching Richard and Judy sipping cider and having a few Primrose Hill friends to give him a break...he deserves national kudos even though the staple of his act is to speak in a faux victorian accent?
Steve your entitled to your opinion,but i find it hard to respect what you said,you offered very liuttle there,Russell Brand is a breath of fresh air to comedy,he's finally gettin the recognition he deserves,and after the life he's had,from what i know at least,there are few people who deserve it more,to steal a phrase of his,perhaps he was once a swine,but everyone makes mistakes,i dont think there will ever be anyone as exciting and individual as russell brand for a long time to come,he's unique,we should all enjoy it while we can!
I thought u were meant to be funny...