Russell Brand’s wildest conspiracy theories – from ‘aliens as God’ to 9/11

After finding fame as an eccentric and risque stand-up comedian and actor, Russell Brand has spent the last few years transforming himself into a guru for an army of disenfranchised fans attracted by right-wing conspiracy theories.

First launching his internet career in 2014 with his own YouTube series, the 48-year-old’s followers most significantly grew during the Covid pandemic, when he started to question the government, the pharmaceutical industry and “mainstream media”. As of today, YouTube has suspended the monetisation of Brand’s channel, which boasts 6.6 million subscribers, for “violating our Creator Responsibility policy” following allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Brand has been accused of sexual assault, rape and emotional abuse by several women at the height of his career working for the BBC, Channel 4 and starring in Hollywood films. The Met says they have also received an allegation of sexual assault in Soho, central London, in 2003. Brand responded ahead of the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary Russell Brand: In Plain Sight , with a YouTube video in which he said he “absolutely refutes” the very serious allegations. As the spotlight intensifies on Brand, we have taken a look back on some of the wildest conspiracy theories Brand has become involved in….

Bill Gates and lab-grown meat

Russell Brand regularly targets Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, with his latest attack on the billionaire questioning his motives for investing in lab-grown meat. Captioning his video, Brand questions whether his motives for fighting food waste and climate change are “true motives” or just “food fascism”.

Claims an antiparasitic drug could treat covid

During the pandemic, Brand shared a video on YouTube inaccurately suggesting that an antiparasitic drug Ivermectin was effective at treating Covid. The video was seen more than a million times before it was eventually deleted from Facebook, YouTube and TikTok – with FullFact writing to state that it was false.

In other videos, Brand has regularly questioned the vaccine and information around Covid, telling his followers: “We have been persecuted for misinformation. And it’s right we have a responsibility to make sure the information we convey is absolutely 100% accurate as it possibly could be.”

Aliens as ‘Gods’ we’ve been communicating with

Two years ago, Brand said extraterrestrials may be “Gods” who we have actually been communicating with years. Among his many videos about UFOS and extraterrestrial life, Brand spoke about his beliefs with UFO guru and filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, who believes aliens have been covered up by militaries that seek to learn from their spacecraft.

Brand, 46, said of Corbell: “He says it ain’t advanced human tech, there is s**t in there that defies the laws of physics. The [US] government have known about it for ages and they are slowly making these releases. It is not a distraction from Covid, it is happening because there is no choice because there has been a whistleblower situation where a bunch of data is being released. So it seems to me that life is out there somewhere with crazy creatures and new cultures that will come to you shortly.”

9/11 nonsense

Back in 2014, Brand said he was “open-minded” about the idea that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks, during a Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman. Brand described the “interesting” relationship between the families of former US president George Bush and the one-time al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US special forces in 2011.

‘Truth’ behind Ukraine War

Since the war in Ukraine broke out, Brand has made many attacks on Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky and questioned the ‘narratives’ coming from mainstream news about the war. He asks questions such as “How did a US-backed, far right–led revolution in Ukraine help bring us to the situation we find ourselves in today with regard to the Russian invasion?”

Among his many questions and criticisms, the comedian suggests we should be pointing the finger of blame at America’s President, even though Joe Biden has resisted calls to take military action against Russia.

What ‘really’ started the Hawaii fires

Recently with the Hawaii wildfires, Brand revelled in bringing conspiracy theories about their cause to the fore. In his video called ‘What REALLY started the Hawaii Fires’, Brand writes: “Claims about the deadly wildfires in Hawaii – blaming celebrity “elites” including Bill Gates for orchestrating the disaster with a laser beam – have been dubbed “disgusting conspiracy theories”. But, as with all conspiracies, is there any basis to them? And is an elite landgrab occurring independently of this disaster?”

Towards the end of the video, Brand turns to the conspiracy that the fires in Hawaii were possibly “started deliberately to benefit rich elites” such as the investment management company and financial services provider BlackRock. He continues: “Now look at the Ukraine war. Ukraine have already done a deal with BlackRock to rebuild their nation using BlackRock investment. If you apply that mentality to this situation, if BlackRock end up benefitting from the fires in Hawaii, then the conspiracy is almost a redundant detail. Did they start it? Didn’t they start it?”