Brand vs. Paxman - Newsnight, Friday 01 Oct 10

[eharding]

Hugely entertaining. Brand may be a tt, but he is an eloquent tt.

[Jon C]

eharding said:

Hugely entertaining. Brand may be a tt, but he is an eloquent tt.

I was impressed, actually.

[Getragdogleg]

Good Lord,

I did not like Brand much before I watched that and now my opinion has changed.

A lot of what he said surprised me.

[Shay HTFC]

What was it about? What was said?
That Brand is an intelligent chap. Some people can't see beyond his messed up lifestyle though and assume he is just thick and stupid.

[bob1179]

I would love to hear more about this, I'm abroad so can't watch iPlayer.

[Gun]

Shay HTFC said:

What was it about? What was said?
That Brand is an intelligent chap. Some people can't see beyond his messed up lifestyle though and assume he is just thick and stupid.

I think Paxman went in with that mindset as well and looked a bit shocked at his eloquence. Very good interview and Brand came across well.

[EDLT]

I didn't watch this. Can someone explain why he was even on, does Newsnight have a celebrity section these days?

[anonymous-user]

EDLT said:

I didn't watch this. Can someone explain why he was even on, does Newsnight have a celebrity section these days?

Take a look at Iplayer, it's worth it. Despite his bizarre public persona he's actually a very intellligent and eloquant man. Suprised the hell out of me anyway.

[limpsfield]

Paxman seemed pleasantly surprised - well worth a watch

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/90...

[NoNeed]

He used at least 4 words that I didn't understand. I never expected that.

[FamilyGuy]

Brand certainly wasn't the shallow, frivolous character I'd expected. But I can see him going off the deep end somewhat. I think Paxman's "do you think you are God?" was enormously perceptive.

[AndrewW-G]

Just watched it, he’s either an intelligent supercilious, sanctimonious, self serving tt, or a thick supercilious, sanctimonious, self serving tt, who’s had prior knowledge of the questions he’s going to be asked and is spinning a well rehearsed and scripted line . . .

[XXVIII]

... somewhere in there is certainly a suggestion that Brand knew what he was going to be asked (hence the waved about, latrine-decoration questionnaire) but his responses were already well-rehearsed in his own mind, possibly on many occasions before the interview was arranged for any potential question reply use.

For an annoying, over-loose-limbed git, Brand appears to be both erudite, learned in some ways and clearly the intellectual equivalent of Jeremy Paxman here, who, it's true to say, wouldn't have allowed some vacuous dull-head any leeway at all and certainly wouldn't be engaging in a degree of fellow-feeling, like-minded banter towards the end of the discussion.

Thanks for the link! Without the PistonHeads N,P & E forum I'd never have seen the interview and now I'm quite pleased that I have!

[Oldred_V8S]

Gun said:

Shay HTFC said:

What was it about? What was said?
That Brand is an intelligent chap. Some people can't see beyond his messed up lifestyle though and assume he is just thick and stupid.

I think Paxman went in with that mindset as well and looked a bit shocked at his eloquence. Very good interview and Brand came across well.

Couldn't stand the guy before, but just goes to show you can't judge a book etc...... Was surprised what he had to say about how vacuous fame is, at last someone famous saying it like it is. The youngsters of this country have been sucked into the whole "get your 15 mins of fame and all will be fine" mentality.

Edited by Oldred_V8S on Saturday 2nd October 13:52

[AllTorque]

he seems completely wired!

[zakelwe]

Sorry, but he is still no Oscar Wilde.

Difference between someone sticking their camera up his girlfriends skirt and him doing what he did? Seems that he didn't mean it whilst they did.

How shallow is that?

Turning it about, they knew what they were doing and he didn't. He didn't think ahead. Both were doing it for the ££ that comes off the media gravy train.

Feeble to be honest.

Andy

Edited by zakelwe on Saturday 2nd October 14:17

[zakelwe]

Oldred_V8S said:

Was surprised what he had to say about how vacuous fame is, at last someone famous saying it like it is.

Don't they all say that though? Either you have been living in a cave for 60 years or else you are 3 years old.

Media people have been saying it for 50 years so I am surprised you think a parrot with a beard is the first person to say it in late 2010.

Andy

[Mojooo]

It was amusing

I have known of brand for years - since he was a presenter on MTV - obviously most of what he does is an act

[Xaero]

Just had a watch on bbc news site, it was nice to get an insight underneath the showman exterior. I think anyone in his place has to know what they are doing to get there. In the same way a lot of comedians are very intelligent people (Jimmy Carr, Stephen Fry, the Monty Python crew to name a few) he is not different underneath just has a dumber appearance to appear to a different (bigger?) audience. As he mentions to be big just get with what the media wants at that period in time. The media had found outrage sells well, and Brand delivers there playing to them.

[paddyhasneeds]

He's clearly not thick, but tbh the bit of it that I saw, it just came across as if he'd swallowed a dictionary and was trying a little too hard - if it was some middle manager somewhere speaking like that you'd just think "tt".