Honestly, it’s hard to know exactly what to make of this interview. There are a couple of moments where Russell Brand clearly embarrasses Mika Brzezinski in a benign kind of way, pointing out she’s wearing a low-cut blouse in the early part of the segment, and suggesting there was some phallic subtext to a hand gesture she made late in the interview. But for the most part, it’s Russell Brand according a lot more respect to the “journalists” around the table than they give him. In fact — as someone who considers Russell Brand fairly obnoxious and grating — I still found the journalists treatment of a guest on their show to be condescending and shi**y, ignoring the content of his book and instead focusing on how they can’t understand his accent.
But more than that, it’s the really crappy way they keep referring to him in the third person — despite the fact that he’s SITTING AT THE TABLE WITH THEM — that rubbed me the wrong way. Credit to Brand for calling them on it, with good humor. But really, the whole thing comes off, to borrow a phrase from Dan Harmon, like a bunch of “prep school frat ass f**king dipsh**ts” instead of the so-called journalists they claim to be.
Watch the interview, and no matter what your opinion is on Russell Brand, I think that by the end of the interview, you’ll agree that any humiliation he offers up to the dicks at Morning Joe feels very deserved. It is fun to watch them squirm. Start at the 5:30 mark if you can’t commit to eight minutes plus.
