Blur’s 1994 song ”Parklife” becomes a battleground for Russell Brand

Criticism of celebrity culture swings like a pendulum from one polar extreme to another and back again. One moment we’re criticizing celebrities’ indifference to the world at-large, but they become easy targets when attempting to use their position and influence for change. This paradigm becomes problematic when the celebrity in question actually has something to say, but even more so when they are as obstreperous as Russell Brand. Brand, the professionally louche British comedian, has a knack for perpetually stirring the pot—who else could turn an apology for lewd remarks made on his BBC radio show into a reproach of The Daily Mail’s sympathetic stance on Nazism?
In the last two years Brand has styled himself as something of a revolutionary, from guest-editing an issue of the British politics and culture magazine New Statesman to sparring with various television interviewers, even publishing a book on the subject. While Brand raises some salient points, the message can often be lost in the noise surrounding its delivery, which is often abrasive, silly, and more than anything, stunningly verbose.
This led one Twitter user, @danbarker, to tweet out the following earlier this month, probably unaware of the impact it would have: