Noel Fielding controversy moved into the open after he said he was “horrified and deeply disturbed” by Russell Brand’s crimes. Fielding said he had no contact with Brand for many years and that the resurfaced footage left him appalled by jokes he made with him.
Fielding said he was “completely unaware” of Brand’s crimes until they became public knowledge, and added that his thoughts are with the women whose courage brought him to justice. Brand was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison on Monday for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others.
Fielding’s statement to the Sun
“I appeared on TV, radio and live charity shows with him, and whilst we played it up for the cameras and in the media, I considered it a professional relationship, rather than a personal one. I have had no contact with him for many years,” Fielding said in a statement issued to the Sun. He also said, “Looking back at some of the jokes I made alongside him, I was appalled. They were horrible and inappropriate, and I very much regret them.”
That is the practical shift in this story: Fielding is no longer just a former collaborator in old clips. He has now drawn a line between the work they did together and Brand’s conviction, while also conceding that his own jokes were part of material that looks different after the crimes became public.
2007 clips and old material
Footage resurfaced of Fielding and Brand joking about rape with Jonathan Ross on an episode of Big Fat Quiz of the Year in 2007. In October 2007, Brand also joked with Fielding about kissing and holding an underage grasshopper on The Russell Brand Show.
Fielding’s own line in the clip was blunt: “How do you even know if it’s a child or an adult? You don’t even care, do you?” Brand answered with a longer routine about the grasshopper being “above age,” then added, “Before I know it, I’m in it, right, I’m kissing it, I’m holding it. Then it turns around and looks at me with onyx eyes and says: ‘I’m 12.’”
The timing matters because those old jokes are being judged against a new legal record. Brand was sentenced on Monday, and since then a new investigation by the Times and the Sunday Times has accused him of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour by a further six women.
What Fielding said next
Fielding said he considered his relationship with Brand professional rather than personal, and said the pair often appeared together on TV, radio and live charity shows. He also said he and Brand met at the NME Awards in the early 2000s and often performed at charity gigs as The Goth Detectives.
The statement adds a clean, uncomfortable conclusion for anyone still sorting old comedy footage from current facts: Fielding says he did not know about Brand’s behaviour toward women, and there is no suggestion he did. What remains in view is his regret over the jokes themselves, and the scrutiny now attached to every surviving clip that once passed as routine banter.
