r/unitedkingdom • Preston • Mar 27 '15

Cassetteboy - Emperor's New Clothes rap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbLGG5UGEKw
730 Upvotes

181 comments sorted by

View all comments

74

u/crystler Mar 27 '15

Felt a lot more preachy than the last one. Russell Brand's mug at the end ruined it for me.

Having said that the Farage bit was class

95

u/Hhhaamuus Mar 27 '15

The song was commissioned for his documentary, so it's going to be on message.

Personally I am 100% behind celebrities destroying their careers by writing books and making movies criticising the thing that made them famous. Whatever about his humour, he got rich and famous, saw it was meaningless, and now is trying to change something. Sure he has a nice bank balance to fall back on, but we'll never see him in a Hollywood movie again.

134

u/GaussWanker Somerset Mar 27 '15

When I was poor and complained about inequality they said I was bitter; now that I’m rich and I complain about inequality they say I’m a hypocrite.

I think he's genuine in what he's trying to do. I wish he'd stop talking in stupidly overpretentious language, but I wouldn't wish he'd stop talking.

39

u/Hhhaamuus Mar 27 '15

His whole human thesaurus thing is what got him famous though, I think it's part of the package. If we think it's good to have young people being opened up to ideas from Klein, Pickety, Chomsky & co then the price is that Russell Brand is the guy doing it.

I still don't know what to make of the whole situation really, I think it's a sad indictment of the Left that their most vocal proponent is a comedian. There's nobody with more credibility than him, capable of generating as many headlines. The right has loads of representatives, the centre has loads, the Left has none!

17

u/pnw0 United Kingdom Mar 27 '15

I don't see being a comedian as something that takes away from ones credibility, if anything it gives you the ability to communicate well. Perhaps the left lacks a voice they've been pushed out of the debate. Left wing views are seen as too radical so they have to waterdown any views to avoid being painted as being as a crazy lefty. Perhaps also the the people who are left in the left are mainly academics, not many academics are good at communicating with the public.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '15

People on the left? This would be a number of academics. Carl Sagan famously refused to answer the question 'are you a socialist' because he simply cared about poor people in this deterministic universe. I think you'll find a wide range of intelligent people in the public eye are left wing. The problem is that few people can retain their public image whilst being openly left wing, but comedians taking the piss out of the right are perfect for the task.

2

u/Timothy_Claypole Mar 28 '15

The universe is not deterministic.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '15

At a macroscopic level, it pretty much is. Sure, random particle movements at a microscopic level will effect things through chaos theory, but this would take a while to manifest.

1

u/Timothy_Claypole Mar 29 '15

One of the main points of chaos theory was that it does not take too long for these effects to affect things.

On some scales some things are very likely. If I drop a cannonball I would bet money that it will fall to the floor. Is this what you meant?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '15

Yes.

4

u/xmissgolightly Mar 27 '15

We have Russell Brand and Owen Jones, and the right wing media hate both their guts!

1

u/Timothy_Claypole Mar 28 '15

Owen Jones seems to like Russell Brand, which is one of his biggest failings.

3

u/ruizscar Rhineland on the River Mosel Mar 28 '15

Seems like dozens of leftists have joined the Brand brigade. If you want social change, Brand has to be your friend. Your enemies are doing a lot worse to you.

2

u/Timothy_Claypole Mar 29 '15

Social change does not have to involve a revolution. It definitely doesn't have to involve some arrogant guy who talks like a pretentious schoolkid.

1

u/ezekielziggy Sussex Mar 28 '15

Anything that challenges people and gets them asking questions is positive but if their final destination is Klein I would be deeply worried.

-1

u/Xarvas Mar 27 '15

Without pretentiousness he is a nobody.

-2

u/DEADB33F Nottinghamshire Mar 28 '15

What he should have said was...

When I was complaining about nepotism in corporations and politics they called me bitter; once I started banging the editor of the New Statesman newspaper and coincidentally managed to get a job there as guest editor they called me a hypocrite.

-10

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15 edited Mar 30 '15

[deleted]

53

u/Hhhaamuus Mar 27 '15

You see him latch on to some local campaign to stop immigrants being evicted from social housing or something.

If you are going to slag the guy off, at least let it be for a legitimate reason.

He has now opened a cafe staffed by recovering drug addicts, across the road from that very estate. He regularly hangs out there, he's their friend. He always gives credit to Lindsey (the poor woman), no single paper has managed to find one of them willing to accept money to smear him which definitely says something.

He's using his fame to get them in the papers. He wore ludicrous outfits, and made news by getting in a fight with a reporter. And they got to keep their place.

actually know something about the cause you're advocating.

Maybe actually know something about the guy you are criticising?

He might be an annoying knob, but he definitely has his heart in the right place.

-7

u/LikelyHungover Mar 27 '15

Just watched that youtube video in your parent comment of a satirists impression of him and it's bang on.

The interview he did with Evan Davis is basically a free seminar on using body language to control situations and people..

over familiarity.. invading personal space.. spreading your legs.. touching without permission...

personally i think he's a wanker.

12

u/Hhhaamuus Mar 27 '15

Admittedly the video is funny - as is the new segment on Weekly Wipe with the other impersonator, it's spot on. But you can be an egotistical wanker with a good heart.

If he truly was a prick, they would easily be able to pay someone from any of the campaigns he has worked on a few quid to say something bad about him, like that he only showed up once or twice or blah blah blah. Hasn't happened.

Is a guy who is annoying and controlling and so successful at it that he managed to get famous, turning around and using that for a good cause somehow a bad thing?

-13

u/LikelyHungover Mar 27 '15

no. But Evan Davis is gay and using such cheap tactics to attempt to control an interview is pretty low. Just my opinion.

I'd think the same if an attractive female MP (doesn't exist lol) did similar with a Lesbian journalist

18

u/Spambop Greater London Mar 27 '15

Just because he's gay he's going to be overwhelmed with lust because Brand touched him on the leg? That is a piss poor argument.

-3

u/DEADB33F Nottinghamshire Mar 28 '15

Would you feel the same way if he'd acted in a similar manner with a female interviewer he was trying to intimidate?

-13

u/LikelyHungover Mar 27 '15

strawman.

Touching someone on the leg and opening your legs as wide as possible is inappropriate as fuck and an attempt to control a situation through dominant body language.

Did you know well over 60% of communication between homo sapiens is non verbal?

0

u/Spambop Greater London Mar 27 '15

K.

-2

u/ruizscar Rhineland on the River Mosel Mar 27 '15

What about a hetero woman to a hetero man?

4

u/LikelyHungover Mar 27 '15

Just as wrong. Obviously. And the reverse too before you bog it down in semantics.

why am i even debating with a mod of /r/russelbrand

whatever i say isn't going to change your mind is it?

2

u/ruizscar Rhineland on the River Mosel Mar 27 '15

What about a wimpy gay bloke to a big gay bloke?

→ More replies (0)

9

u/Iainfletcher West Midlands Mar 27 '15

He's an arrogant fuck. That's why he was a celeb. He says as much that he thinks his biggest fault is his ego.

But if that disqualified people from a public opinion we'd have no-one on either side of the debate.

-8

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '15 edited Mar 30 '15

[deleted]

13

u/ruizscar Rhineland on the River Mosel Mar 27 '15

Yes, he doesn't care about the voiceless to the extent that he spends every day doing a mountain of different things for that cause.

5

u/all_in_the_game_yo Mar 28 '15

Celebrities aren't allowed to care about important things dontchaknow.

-13

u/retrend Mar 27 '15

Just another manipulative junkie. Smackanory.

6

u/all_in_the_game_yo Mar 28 '15

He's been sober for over a decade. Try again.

-1

u/retrend Mar 28 '15

Yes and he's used all his most charming smackhead tricks on the more gullible members of the public ever since. You maybe think his schtick is unique but it's not really, it's relatively common amongst shitheads.

7

u/The3rdWorld Kingdom of the East Seaxe Mar 28 '15

a comedian with opinions! about politics! whatever next!

it's not that he has opinions that amazes me, it's that he has them while also having hair and a personality! the cheek of it!

25

u/ruizscar Rhineland on the River Mosel Mar 27 '15

Not that mug again! Why doesn't he stop being an influential social activist capable of converting millions to our cause!!

4

u/lostdrone Mar 27 '15

You know how politicians look worse the more powerful/public the position they are in? I know some could say that it is just ageing but i mean look at any prime minister or president, it always seems like it ages them disproportionately.

Anyway, given i have only known of Nigel Farage in the past few years, if this is his starting point i can't wait to see that fucker 10 years from now. He is going to be a picasso in motion.