Grantland logo

Afternoon Links: Russell Brand Takes Over Morning Joe

The world’s boyfriend, Russell Brand, appeared on Morning Joe. The hosts were pretty tacky to him, referring to Brand in the third person and generally treating him like an “extraterrestrial.” Sure, the comedian rocks the casual chest hair, but harping on his appearance, asking for jokes on command, and complaining that he’s unintelligible on the radio because of his accent were unwelcome distractions from Brand’s promotion of his show Messiah Complex, which Brand was more than prepared to intelligently plug. When he’d finally had enough of the a.m. provocation, he took control of the program and administered a smackdown, focusing a lot of energy on making Mika Brzezinski blush after getting called out on stroking her beverage. It’s OK, Mika. You can marry him. I don’t want to. I’ll just admire him and his boots from afar.