Russell Brand explains awkward "Morning Joe" segment
Russell Brand drew headlines in June following his unreserved appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Known for his quick wit and brash humor, Brand was clearly unsettled during several portions of the "Morning Joe" interview and at one point appeared to take over the segment and deliver the news in place of the anchors.
A video clip of the awkward chat went viral, and Brand is now getting candid about what was going on behind the scenes.
In an op-ed piece for the U.K.'s Guardian, Brand says that things got off to a bad start when he first arrived at the "Morning Joe" studios at New York's Rockefeller Center. Brand claims that the show's sound technicians were rude to him before the taping began.
"Often when you encounter rudeness from the crew, it is an indication that the show is not running smoothly, perhaps that day, or maybe in general," Brand wrote in his op-ed piece.
Things apparently got worse from there.
"One of the things that's surprising when you go on telly a lot is that often the on-camera 'talent' (yuck!) are perfectly amiable when you chat to them normally," Brand wrote, "but when the red light goes on they immediately transform into shark-eyed Stepford berks talking in a cadence you encounter nowhere else but TV-land -- a meter that implies simultaneously carefree whimsy and stifled hysteria."
On several occasions throughout the course of the interview, Brand had to remind co-host Mika Brzezinski and the other members of the "Morning Joe" panel that it was rude for them to speak of the comedian as though he wasn't in their presence.
"You're talking about me as if I'm not here and as if I'm an extraterrestrial," Brand said during the live segment. "You shouldn't say 'he' when a person is present. That's not good manners."
The "Morning Joe" team continued to refer to Brand in the third person, until he finally had enough.
"Stop saying 'he.' I'm present. I'm Russell. What's wrong with your manners?" Brand asked the panel.
"Why is our culture behaving like this? How has this become normal?" the comedian wonders in his op-ed piece.
Brand also criticized the morning talk show format in general: "It's the unreal, sustained glitch in naturalism that makes this genre of TV disturbing to either watch or be on."
The funnyman had originally appeared on "Morning Joe" to discuss his upcoming Messiah Complex world tour, which kicks off in August.
Tell us: Do you think Brand is right?
