Russell Brand: The GQ Awards Felt Like A ‘Corporate Ritual’

Russell Brand is striking back at GQ after he was kicked out of the magazine’s awards ceremony for an inappropriate joke.

The 38-year-old comedian received the Oracle Award at the magazine’s Men of the Year ceremony last week, but ruffled some feathers when he made a joke about Hugo Boss making uniforms for the Nazis.

“Any of you who know a little bit about history and fashion will know that Hugo Boss made the uniforms for the Nazis,” Brand said. “And the Nazis did have flaws, but, you know, they did look f***ing fantastic, let’s face it, while they were killing people on the basis of their religion and sexuality.”

Hugo Boss was sponsoring the event, so they weren’t too pleased with the joke, and ejected Brand from the after party.

After the event, Brand tweeted, “GQ editor: ‘What you did was very offensive to Hugo Boss.’ Me: ‘What Hugo Boss did was very offensive to the Jews.'”

Now, Russell Brand is telling his side of the story, saying that he “felt like something was up” the minute he stepped into the awards ceremony.

“In case you don’t know, these parties aren’t like real parties. It’s fabricated fun, imposed from the outside. A vision of what squares imagine cool people might do set on a spaceship. Or in Moloko,” he said.

“The magazine, the sponsors and some of those in attendance saw it as a kind of ceremony that warranted respect,” he added. “In effect, it is a corporate ritual, an alliance between a media organization, GQ, and a commercial entity, Hugo Boss.”

Brand went on to say that his intention wasn’t to “herald a campaign to destroy” Hugo Boss.

“They’re not Monsanto or Halliburton, the contemporary corporate allies of modern-day fascism; they are, I thought, an irrelevant menswear supplier with a double-dodgy history,” he said.

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