The Trews (web series)

On 20 August 2015, Brand uploaded the 366th Trews video, announcing that it would be the final episode. He said "I think we've come as far as we can with The Trews... for now."[15][16]

On 12 October 2016, Brand uploaded the 367th Trews video announcing his return.[17]

Brand frequently analyzed the commentary of the Fox News Channel and criticized its owner Rupert Murdoch, eventually sparking a feud with the network's conservative pundits.[1]

In June 2014, Brand lampooned Jeanine Pirro in response to her appearance on Justice with Judge Jeanine, in which she suggested that ISIS "was trained by U.S. instructors at a secret base in Jordan" and that her solution to defeat ISIS is to "bomb them, bomb them, keep bombing them, bomb them again."[18][19][20]

During Brand's analysis of Pirro's rant on 24 June 2014, he "picked apart"[21] her argument:

Pirro: What should we do? Send in more troops to protect sacrifices already made? Cut a deal with the devil, Iran?
Brand: Iran is not the devil, and referring to them as such is incendiary and provocative. She's talking about the situation in Iraq, she's judged Iran to be in league with Satan or even the embodiment of Satan…
Pirro: The ISIS assault, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, signals the beginning of the reverse crusade. They are coming for us. To THEM, WE are the infidels.
Brand: Hold on. They're not (laughs). They're not coming. Also it's interesting the way she said "to THEM, WE are the infidels" meaning that she regards them as infidels! Which means unclean, disconnected from God. Don't try to counter religious extremism with religious extremism.
Pirro: Americans have shed enough blood there. My resolution? Airstrikes. Bomb them, bomb them, keep bombing them, bomb them again and again!
Brand: Fucking hell, Justice Judge Jeanine! Bomb them? She's pointing and everything, "Bomb them!" When they do these bombings, it creates more insurgents. That's what creates them. Don’t think of them as going down there and destroying stuff. Think of it as like a seed that goes into the ground and grows insurgents out of it.
Pirro: ISIS is a radical religious terrorist organisation.
Brand: So is Fox News. It's a fanatical terrorist propagandist organisation. This isn't reasonable, is it? The way she's talking: "Bomb them! Bomb them!" She's worse. You know when you see those videos of someone with like a (face mask) on and a rifle, going, "(imitates Arabic) Bomb them! Bomb them!" you go "fuckin’ hell, they're a bit heavy" – she's doing it, she's just doing it with a city backdrop! She's the savage. She's totally espousing savage values.[22]

The Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple wrote of the episode, "The Brand video is indeed fun stuff. It's 100 percent derivative fare ... His riff gained a lot of recirculation on the Internet, via Raw Story, the Wrap, The Times of India and several others."[21]

In a July 2014 episode ("Israel-Palestine: Is This A Debate?"), Brand ridiculed Sean Hannity's interview with Palestinian-American Yousef Munayyer, labeled the Fox host "a bully" for his treatment of Munayyer and said Hannity resembled "the Ken doll from Toy Story 3." The episode went viral,[23] and Munayyer quipped that Brand's video received more viewers than Hannity's original interview.[24] Hannity responded on air, showing clips from The Trews and calling Brand a "D-list actor better known for his failed marriage to Katy Perry."[25]

The Trews and Brand's commentary on Fox were discussed on the network multiple times, and there was wide media coverage of the ongoing feud.[26] In late August, panelists on Fox roundtable "The Five" derided Brand's comments on the network's coverage of the ongoing unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Greg Gutfeld referred to Brand as a "scruff bucket" and a racist, while Brand laughed off the insults and referred to the Fox News presenters as "aliens."[6][27] Gutfeld also called him a "left-wing commie scum" and said "radical Islam is spewing from his homeland, but he's too much of a coward to actually focus on that."[28][29]

In October 2014, Brand said he had been scheduled to appear as a guest on Hannity's show, but producers canceled his appearance. He attempted to film an episode of The Trews outside of Fox News headquarters in New York City, but a security guard threatened to arrest him for trespassing.[30][31]

Australian news media discussed Brand after the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis, which began on 15 December, due to an episode of The Trews titled, "Don't Let Sydney Siege Claim Your Freedom". Using footage of Australian prime minister Tony Abbott, Brand explained in the 16 December episode:

That is the important thing here. Now, at this time, when we're finding out that the CIA used unconscionable torture methods to get information to go into a war that subsequently proved to be illegal and unfounded, gave the state more power as the result of events that may or may not be intrinsically linked to political objectives seems like a dangerous thing to do ... Terrorism is continually used as a tool to control the domestic population.[32]

Yahoo!7 News website described the 212th episode of The Trews as a "crazed siege rant",[33] the online Brisbane Times newspaper published just over two minutes of the episode,[34] and the Nine News website wrote that Brand has "taken aim" at Abbott and targeted Rupert Murdoch.[35] The video was viewed more than 235,000 times in a two-day period.[36]

In the week before the 2015 UK general election, The Trews received extensive media coverage after Brand interviewed Labour leader Ed Miliband for a two-part "Milibrand" episode that aired 30 April and 4 May. Prior to the interview being released, a photo of Miliband outside Brand's residence attracted significant media attention,[37] and British Prime Minister David Cameron derided Miliband for doing the interview, saying "Brand is a joke and Miliband is a joke for seeing him." Britain's conservative papers and tabloids criticised Miliband harshly for the interview.[38]

Writing for The Independent, Simon Usborne noted the popularity of The Trews and wrote, "By aligning himself with The Trews, Miliband may yet have the last laugh by reaching an audience for whom Newsnight is anathema."[14] Another columnist for The Independent wrote, "my overwhelming feeling after having watched the interview was that it was authentic, and that in being so it had unwittingly revealed so much of the pre-election build-up to be the opposite. By comparison, the televised debates and interviews were both staid and staged."[39] Journalist Alastair Campbell, who appeared on The Trews in May 2014, praised Miliband's decision in his Huffington Post blog.[40]

International media also covered the story; The Washington Post asked in a headline, "Will Russell Brand decide the British election?"[41] Steven Erlanger wrote in The New York Times that the interview "drowned out" Cameron's campaign promises on 30 April.[42]

Ed Miliband's Labour Party lost the 2015 General Election while David Cameron's Conservative Party secured sole control, following their previous coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, increasing both their share of the national vote and number of votes, and increasing their number of Parliamentary seats.