Story – Robert McKee's Creative Storytelling Magazine Issue 005 – Drew Carey | Page 15

MCKEE
INTERVIEWS
RUSSELL BRAND
hypocrisies. If your intention is,
“How can I annoy Muslims?” Or,
“How can I annoy homosexuals?”
I think that’s stupid. Comedy is a
tool to attack power, not to attack
people who don’t have power.
When I’m doing these things and
when I’m writing these things, I’m
thinking, “Well, who is the target?
Who is the victim of this joke?
Who am I attacking here?” If it’s
the Muslim community, who by
and large are already subject to
a great deal of abuse, prejudice,
bigotry and attack, then I don’t.
That’s not my side of the argument.
RM: Crippled children?
RB: Well, there’s some humor to
be had. In fact, I had to stifle a
laugh when you mentioned the
little bastards. It depends. There
are situations where a crippled
child could be humorous. Not
when you’re dealing directly, but
it’s like the death penalty, right?
People say, “Oh yeah? You don’t
agree with the death penalty.
How would you feel if someone
you loved was murdered?” I’d
want to kill them. That is when
I shouldn’t be making legislation. So, like I say, the legislation
should be made by people who
are even-tempered, even-headed, and humor has a place in
that, I think.
RM: The excuse I make in my

comedy lectures is that if you
make a joke about somebody
who’s deformed, it’s not for
their deformity, it’s for the way
they think behind that deformity, because there’s a lot of
really rude people in wheelchairs.

an absurdity in that, and it’s kind
of a relief from the piety and nervousness we all feel around disability. We know that as human
beings, we have to be compassionate and loving to people, but
that doesn’t preclude our right to
be humorous.

RB: Yes, there are. It’s got to stop.

For me, Bob, it’s about creating
the context where you earn the
right to say those things. I don’t
think you just go around saying
hateful, disparaging things. You
have to create a context. I always
get in trouble when people take
the stuff I’ve said out of the context that I’ve created and then
say, “Well, see, that’s dubious that
you’ve said that.” In those circumstances, it is, but that wasn’t
when I said it. That’s the other
thing about live work, because
you hear when the audience is
shocked, and you say, “Oh, God,
I’m sorry; I didn’t mean it like this.”
As an artist, you create the context, and then within that context
you create whatever you want.

RM: So it’s the rudeness that’s
important, but a lot of people
can’t make that separation.
RB: No.
RM: Joan Rivers does jokes
about the Holocaust; she does
jokes about blind people. It
kills me. She said that here in
New York, no blind person
should have a view, right?
RB: Yeah.
RM: No, they should, and you
could just tell them, “Yes, you
have a view.” How would they
know? So the view is, for us,
the scene. I hope there’s truth
in that—that it’s really not the
deformity. But that joke, blind
people shouldn’t have a view.

RM: So if they groan, you apologize?
RB: I sometimes tell them to fuck
off for being so pious.

RB: The key for me is…
RM: It’s not about their point
of view about their attitude;
it’s about their handicap.
RB: I think it is. But in a way, there’s

Story Magazine // Issue 005

RM: Yeah. Joan Rivers just says,
“Oh, grow up.” Right?
RB: Yeah, yeah.
RM: Oh, grow up, get over it. I