Noel Fielding..

[CurlewKate]

… is very silent about Russell Brand, isn’t he?

Why TF should he say anything?? He doesn’t owe anyone a ‘statement’ or an interview.

People are human even those who are on the sacred TV. They are allowed to have private lives, they are allowed to have emotions about what has happened in their lives and they are allowed to do that in private. They don’t have to immediately say something to every Nosy Parker out there who wants more gossip - or to condemn them as well for being friends with someone.

😂

He denies dating her. That doesn't mean it didn't happen but it's not established fact. He was 'friends' with her which IMO means 'wanted to sleep with' when there is that kind of age gap so he's by no means innocent in that situation even if they didn't actually sleep together.

Then in your quest for outrage you’ve missed the entire point we were making earlier.

Russell’s offending was tightly woven within a certain subculture in the 2000s. The slightly homeless, slightly emo look, coupled with the ‘edgy’ humour, a lot of it centred around sex and sexual offending and sexual crimes. They all took part in the same shows, moved in the same circles. Yes the look is relevant as it was highly relevant to that subculture at the time. Look at Ian Watkins - again the backcombed black hair, the tight gothy clothes.

It was a way of dressing up their appalling attitudes as ‘progressive’, because back then rapists and perverts were more traditionally seen as ‘Tory MP’ or ‘dirty raincoat’ types who would act respectably outwardly. So if they dressed in a very modern and edgy way, and actually joked about rape and offending, they couldn’t actually be offenders, right? Hence the ‘hiding in plain sight’. And NF enthusiastically ensconced himself in this subculture.

I can tell you weren’t part of it. I was exactly of the era of these men, and was talking to a friend and former huge Mighty Boosh fan this morning about the ‘red flags’ at the time. You won’t get it unless you knew it back then.

So anyone who was friends with RB or ever worked with him must have known he was a rapist, and it's ok to single out a specific person (NF) and make veiled accusations about him just based on association with RB?

I despair.

I don't think this necessarily follows. Brand was known as a shagger - he had a LOT of willing partners as well as those he assaulted and raped. Hanging around with RB anyone would have seen a lot of willing women participating in shenanigans. I don't think it follows that they would have automatically seen him abusing women.

What kind of man is "friends" with a 16 year old girl ?

I think everyone knew he was a promiscuous sleazeball, RB made no secret of that.
Not sure how anyone is supposed to know what goes on consent wise?

No I’m saying somebody who made rape jokes with a rapist and that rapist was a close friend and work colleague for many years, whose raping and offending took place via work contexts, and had a huge reputation which apparently everyone knew about, and where that friend definitely did as he joked about it… deserves to be viewed with suspicion. Not in terms of NF being an offender himself… but in terms of what he may have turned a blind eye to, what he did or didn’t know.

Very different to (eg) somebody who worked briefly with him, or in a capacity where it’s plausible they wouldn’t really have known.

‘But think of the men!’ You cry.

I don’t know why we have a justice system still honestly. So many people so sure of who others are because of ‘what they’ve seen in the paper’. And what they feeeeeeeel about whether they’re a good person or not. Apprently now, because of their choices in jeans…

Yes that was part of the point I was making in my post

My husband has said for years that he used to see them both partying around Camden with questionably young girls…

I don't know how they thought it was ok ?

I appreciate pixie geldoff probably had a lot of freedom and was mixing in an adult world, but she was still a teenager.

Always found him very cringe inducing and his laugh is horrible. I know people can't help how they laugh but his really irritates me and it seems so false and put on.

But this is completely disregarding the culture at the time. Lads mags were at their peak, this sort of edgy "humour" was promoted, encouraged, broadcast and lapped up by many. Whilst looking back now we can all agree it was inappropriate, it doesn't mean that anyone who made such jokes at the time, or associated with RB is automatically suspicious.

And just to add, I can't for the life of me understand why people would think close friends of RB must have known he was a rapist. Do you think rapists go around telling their friends that they've raped someone?

I’ve just watched it on YouTube. RB didn’t look too happy. Brilliant!👏

I don't know if NF dated Pixie, they denied it.
It was creepy as a 'friendship' regardless.
Him & RB were/are mates.
Will anything NF puts out as press release be believed?
If he says he had zero idea, most people will think he's talking bollocks.
He clearly can't say he knew & did nothing, it would possibly implicate him, certainly the police would want to interview him to see what RB had told him, or what he'd possibly seen.

So saying nothing is self preservation.
Same for JR and anyone else who cosied up with RB because he was 'edgy' and doing & saying shit they knew they couldn't in their own careers.
Pathetic.

RB conviction has obviously made its way to the US. I find it odd that a lot of the reactions I've read seem to be he's only been found guilty because he spoke out against the government & therefore this is punishment 🤯
Brainwashed dweebs

Lads mags were pretty much dead by 2005. They were more late 90s, early 2000s. Brand and his ilk were late 2000s, part of the ‘London set’ of ‘cool people’ who painted themselves as progressive. Something I doubt the lads mags did at the time.

I always thought these comedians were supposed to be left wing.

Their mutual friend Jonathan Ross apparently met his wife when she was only 16 and married her T 18. He is 10 years older. And Wikipedia says they were close friend with the also-now-disgraced writer Neil Gaiman. Like calls to like, perhaps.

He had a tantrum/meltdown, refused to leave his caravan for 5 hrs, then left and never returned.

The latter have said some hideous things.

Brand was also close with Noel Gallagher and David Baddiel. It seems unfair that NF is the only one under scrutiny…

Right, but you've ignored the fact that this type of humour was promoted and encouraged at the time (these people wouldn't have been on TV otherwise), and that making such jokes doesn't mean anyone knew that RB was a rapist.

I think this is unfair tbh, Jonathan Ross was the creepy one here and he set the joke up for the other two to riff off.

The person at fault here was Jonathan Ross for calling Lilly Allen “a sexually attractive young woman” and saying she could finish the show with her dress on. Honestly I feel like NF and RB were making silly jokes about capes and Jack the Ripper to move the conversation on to them as Lilly Allen was clearly uncomfortable.

I do wonder if our era will be looked on as slightly puritanical / policing of humour if it swings the other way in the future. There is a difference between joking about wearing a creepy cape and actual insensitive rape jokes.

I honestly get zero creep vibes from NF, he seems like a gentle nice person all around. And I don’t believe everyone RB has ever known needs to make a statement! Ridiculous notion.

Let’s all use our precious time to worry about actual issues that society needs to solve in the present day.