He's the human take on Marmite, and even he himself will tell you that, but hate him or love him British comedian Russell Brand has just been voted the world's fourth most influential thinker, and by a proper serious news publication too!
Prospect magazine's table this year has placed Brand among figures such as the leading economist and bestselling author Thomas Piketty, who topped the table, as well as Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who came second, and Canadian economist and environmental activist Naomi Klein who polled third.
The opinionated comedian was selected from a shortlist of 50 names, initially compiled by the magazine's editorial team. They were chosen based on their leadership qualities within their field and engaging in original and perceptive ways with the biggest questions regarding the world. Readers then casted their votes in order to produce a final top ten.
The anti-capitalist was given the accolade because of the popularity of his book Revolution and an appearance on Newsnight, in which he urged viewers not to vote and called himself, “The spiritual leader of Britain's disaffected anti-capitalist youth.”
Are you taking all of this in? Once you manage to get a hold of yourself, it goes on to describe Brand as “the most charismatic figure on Britain's populist left.” Yeap, this is the same former sex and drug addict who made headlines after conducting an offensive prank call to the 78-year-old Andrew Sachs on BBC Radio 2. Oh, and the guy who recently angered a ton of Brits after he claimed Britain was to blame for terrorist Jihadi John. Awks!
As you'd imagine, the news has p*ssed off a lot of people in the academia world. Philip Cowley, the professor of parliamentary government at the University of Nottingham said: “God, how depressing. It's embarrassing.” And of course, the insults just kept flooding in.
“If Russell Brand is in Prospect's top intellectuals list then there's still hope for Jeremy Clarkson to win a Nobel Peace Prize,” one Twitter user wrote. “Russell Brand has been called the ‘;4th greatest thinker on earth'. Let that sink in and then feel free to weep for humanity,” another tweeted.
