British comedian and former Katy Perry lapse-in-judgement Russell Brand invited two members of the violently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church onto his FX show Brand X and boy did the sparks fly. The romantic sparks.
No, just kidding. More like the sparks of vehement, religiousy hatred. Known for advocating that “God Hates Fags,” picketing the funerals of LGBT veterans and praising natural disasters as God’s punishment for those eternally-damned homosexuals, the WBC was bound to make for a great sit-down with a man they’ve branded as a “Fag Pimp.”
Steve Drain (the one wearing the charming PriestsRapeBoys.com T-shirt) and Timothy Phelps (most likely of the notorious Phelps klan) gifted Brand with a large placard bearing that endearing title and then the three got to talking about the Church’s favorite topic: gay sex.
After claiming that Madonna, Mahatma Gandhi and “definitely” Tom Hanks are going to hell, Drain and Phelps were introduced to three of Russell’s gay pals. It’s like you can see the clenching of Phelps and Drain’s rectums just from their faces. Then when Brand tries to cozy up to them, well…there were less awkward embraces between gay 90s sitcom characters.
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Through it all, Drain and Phelps are dead serious about the fire and brimstone awaiting any and all of us who don’t prescribe to their myopic interpretation of the Bible. But if Gandhi, Madonna and “definitely” Tom Hanks are going to hell, sign us up for a first class ticket. On United Airgays, naturally.
(h/t: Pink News)
Katt
Just two notes.
1. These WBC people are cat sh*t crazy!
2. I now have an insane crush on Russell Brand.
Fin.
Mjl-428
I would need a bath in Hand Sanitizer after touching one of those WBC freaks
tdx3fan
http://richardwaynegarganta.com/abomination.htm
Funny how they ignore all of these but only focus on one. Also, I’m pretty sure gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins, so these fat asses better start eating less and working out.
When you try to use the judgment of perfection to judge those that are imperfect, a lot of crap isn’t going to hold up.
2eo
All that horror in one place and no Al-Qaeda in sight.
You lazy sons of bitch terrorists, this was prime time and you could have gotten loads of people who deserved exploding in one attack.
I despair.
scallywag53
Wow I had no idea Brand was that intelligent and socially aware. His hotness just went way up!!
Gigi Gee
Love me some Brand!
Dumdum
@tdx3fan: Gluttony is Catholicism. These guys are hate mongers using the bible to justify their evil. Mark Twain said. “You go to heaven for the weather and Hell for the company.” These guys claim to be Christians. My neighbor is a Black Christian woman in her 70s. And she is so sweet and good and kind. I guess that is the difference between a true Christian and all the others.
JayHobeSound
“The Holy Spirit ain’t got a pen.” – Epic retort.
Good on Russell Brand for inviting them on and challenging them with humor and reason. Anger and mockery doesn’t phase the WBC folks – they are all an extended family, Rev Phelps’ children and cousins, they grew up with anger and being mocked locally. Imagine the psychological damage imposed upon all of old man Phelps’ children and grandchildren from being raised with all that hatred and self-serving sanctimonious negativity.
Cam
They have become clowns.
The funny thing is, they were actually good for gay rights because the right wing was TERRIFIED of being associated with them after they started picketing all the military funerals.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
speaking as long time british fan of brand i have to say this encounter didn’t work for me. i realise he was handing them enough rope etc but these people don’t even care. whatever you say about wbc they are consistent and sincere in their world view; you can’t defeat them on their own turf they’ve got it locked down, minds hermetically sealed against anything outside their own biblical exegesis, not amenable to rational debate or direct appeals to the heart. so why even bother.
the only downside of russell brand is his tendency to wanky mysticism and sympathy for anti-rationlist beliefs. had he been an atheist i don’t think he would have indulged their crazy and seeded so much ground to them, helping them accomplish what they set out to do. the wbc won’t have been unhappy with how this panned out.
yeah, it was still funny though.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: typo – ceded so much ground
Mjl-428
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: there is one way. the bible mentions a whole ton of things that were used in the past to just slavery, ownership or women, segregation, and killing your women and children if they developed a mind of their own. and something tells me, that they can’t make up some easy excuse to ignore that
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
@Mjl-428:
biblical literalists can and do make excuses — easy or not — for inconvenient facts and ethical inconsistencies in their sacred texts, and cognitive dissonance resorts to the most elaborate and convoluted routes in order to achieve some semblance of a consistent belief system. reasoning with such people is almost always futile.
btw i also think their appearance on this show had the unhelpful effect of humanising them, or at least maybe the younger one, who, tbh, even i slightly warmed to cuz he looked quite vulnerable. and being an evil hellbound homo i’m sexually turned by the vulnerable uncorrupted innocents of this world, natch.
leliorisen
Great, these SOBs live for free publicity and now they have it in spades. Can we just ignore these creep already? @leliorisen
Dumdum
@leliorisen: Unfortunately they have been around for quite some time now and they are not going to go away. Showing them for what and who they are in a public forum spewing their lies and showing their unwavering stupidity may be our only recourse.
GreenmanTN
I fall on the “Why give them any exposure at all?” side of this argument.
Are you going to change their minds? No.
If you want to discuss them or mock them, fine, but since their “message” never changes, they don’t actually have to be there.
And unlike trying to teach a pig to sing, arguing with them or trying to reason with them doesn’t even annoy them. Turn a camera on the WBC and they’re more like pigs in shit, because it’s exactly what they want- attention. I’m sure they jumped at the chance to be on Brand’s show, just like they’d jump at the chance to be on some 3AM excess channel program.
So why give them what they want?
Now if brand wanted to invite some other, more mainstream anti-gay Religious-Right figure to discuss the Phelps and pin them down about how they are different, other than selling their hate more slickly, that might be interesting.
1EqualityUSA
This is the night that I realized Russell Brand is truly incorrigible. He was on Craig Ferguson and they both fed off of each other, winging through an impromptu exchange. I’ll provide the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPZ5ytlh1LQ
Cam
Give them as much exposure as they want. The more people see them, the more they see the reality of anti-gay bigotry.
The right wing can try to lie and say “Oh golly gee it’s just my opinion, but I don’t want to hurt anybody”.
But seeing these folks out there shows that that is a lie.