What do y’all think of this? Russell Brand went on Morning Joe to do a standard promotion/interview for his upcoming comedy tour. The hosts all acted . . . really freaking weird. At first I thought they were just off balance due to his being rather out there (as he is in general, apparently). But their persistence in referring to him in third person (not just in the intro), talking about how they can’t understand his accent, and calling him (again, in a third-person way, talking to each other) “Willy Brandt.” All on top of a general nervousness and lack of poise. What the hell was their problem? I’m left wondering who took more drugs before this interview - the comedian or the the “journalists.”
In any case, when he finally gives up and demonstrates for them how to do their job, it’s charming, even if he is totally bonkers! I actually don’t have a problem with fluffy news being fluffy, but if you’re going to bring someone on to plug their show, learn their name, be nice to them, give them a positive lead-in to talk about their product, and keep it together. It’s not that hard!
The only host that seemed to be acting strange was Mika, and that wasn’t all that unusual for her. I really don’t like her, she’s always making these little passive eye rolls and furrowed brows. It just seemed more pronounced here with Russell. That guy-host just seemed like he had his inner ‘square’ exposed.
I watched at the time and absolutely loved his taking over the segment. This morning on the show they were commenting on it (in the context of his cancelling his Dubai and Lebanon shows) and being totally good sports about it. Even replayed the crowning moment when he turns to Mika and says " and look at the way you’re grasping that bottle" :D.
This is the reverse of your usual Morning Show, they are ostensible political wonks and he could tell they were wondering who is this and when can we get back to something serious.
I am not a Russell Brand fan; on the contrary I find him annoying. He’s not half as clever as he thinks he is. But it’s pretty hard to reverse that feeling and actually having me rooting for him having to suffer those fools. It reminds me of that Seinfeld when Kramer appears on Live with Regis and Kathy Lee to promote his coffee table book and they’re doing that morning show schtick when they - just like here - talk like he’s not there. “This guy’s bonkos!” “He’s a nice looking guy.”
I wanted to hit that guy with a shoe. I hate Americans who can’t understand fairly standard British accents. Granted Brits tend to talk faster but Americans are so debilitated by an accent. I had the same problem when I came to America with a slight accent and lived in Florida. Nobody could understand me unless I spoke at the cadence of a Southern senator. :mad:
Cite? I’m not aware of any evidence that that is the case, nor does it really strike me as true. I’d be interested in what makes you say that Brits tend to talk faster.
I didn’t notice anything, but then I have no idea what the show is, so if it was different then normal, I wouldn’t have caught it. If anything, it seemed as if they just had no idea who he was. Not even in a “I don’t like him, so I’ve avoided him” but more like a “Russell Brand? Never heard of him, is he like a singer or something” type way. The guy knew that he was a comedian, but that seemed to be about it.
As for Russell, I’m turning around with him a bit. I hated. HATED him. But then I started hearing a bit of his stand up and it’s actually pretty funny. I saw his remake of Aurthur. Which, you have to admit, is right up his alley. I don’t think I can take more then 5 minute doses of him (and that one movie) though.
Did anyone else notice that his accent is considerably easier to understand in that clip? I’m guessing that he’s taking speech/(American) English lessons to make it easier for us to understand. Sure his silly accent was fun for us to laugh at, but if he wants to be a serious comedian in the states, we do actually have to be able to understand his jokes.
Brand was visibly upset when Mika said she didn’t know him.
Sure, she didn’t do her homework, but, you know, does he expect everyone on the press junket to be a fan?
They do make an attempt to ask him softball questions so he can riff on them and promote. But, since he’s pissed, he derails the interview by ignoring the hosts and complaining about the noise from the ‘extras’ on the set. You know, at that point, any one of the hosts could have attacked him for being a bad guest, but they didn’t.
Sure, Brand got further pissed when the dumb guy says he can’t understand him because of his accent. But then when Mika addresses the dumb guy and refers to Brand as ‘him’… that was perfectly natural and OK. How do you talk to one person about another and not use the 3rd person? But Brand got really pissed at that and started chiding Mika for doing that.
Now the panic sets in. Mika’s frozen, dumb guy is sputtering, and British lady calls Russell ‘Willy.’
At that point, I can see why Brand would take over like he did… but he’s not innocent.
For someone like Russell that’s still very much a B-list celeb and actively trying to claw his way up to A-list (doing movies, high profile marriage/divorce, stand-up comedy tour etc), being told that someone doesn’t know you (while on the air no less) was probably pretty insulting. Insulting as in it probably really didn’t hurt his feelings.
Either way, both sides can probably just write it off as a bad interview and go on with their lives.
Seems a lot of us are as unfamiliar with the show as the anchorwoman was with Brand. Morning Joe is characterized by alternating sort of randomly between being Meet The Press and being your usual Morning Show, with a main focus on political wonkery, with Mika Brzezinski usually in the role of the put-upon serious journalist whose attempts at gravitas are at risk of being derailed by the main host, the eponymous (former Republican Congressman) Joe Scarborough and regular male cast members Willie Geist and Mike Barnacle. None of whom, you may have noticed, were on set for this segment, probably being elsewhere in the building doing segments for Today or for radio.
How about me living in Britain as a child and moving to America? I did it twice. Both times I found myself being told to speak slower. Never heard that in Britain. As a six year old I had a fairly strong East Anglia accent; at age 14, I didn’t have a strong accent - but again, I was asked a lot to slow down in America.
I’m currently watching EastEnders. On occasion when Americans watch it with me they invariably say “I need subtitles!”
My Google-fu isn’t working but I keep seeing a Yahoo! Answers post where a respondent quotes a linguistics prof that says speech rate slows as one crosses the Atlantic.
Ok, so the Morning Joe crew is Joe, not there, the blowhard leader of the pack who shouts down anyone who crosses his moderate conservative and occasionaly sensible political beliefs. Otherwise he cracks wise with the sub-intelligencia that makes up the rest of the crew. Mika seems to be a person of some experience and intellect, yet never is able to make a substantial contribution to the show. She is eye candy on the show, playing the part well, yet oddly is a prude, something Brand was able to take advantage of. They really aren’t the witty hipsterish personalities they believe themselves to be, and Brand, whose US success is somewhat based on him talking funny, is easily a match for them. If Joe were there he would have either talked over Brand or joined him in disparaging the conduct of the rest. So they are rude, and inconsequential, but they aren’t the total fluff headed nitwits that appear on the competing news channel morning shows either. The result turned out to be, at least for morning political gossip shows, something a bit different and interesting to see.
