There have been a few interesting think pieces in the media examining the culture of the 2000s. 20 years ago and it was a very different landscape.
There was a lot of fame hungry people getting an airing on TV and, to a lesser extent, the internet that wouldn't have beforehand and who made complete fools of themselves not really believing that this would stick to them years later. Think of a few Big Brother people and the likes who probably thought they would either be famous for life, or their behaviour would be forgotten about. Now with Brand, he never walked past a camera without making a show of himself, hence all the "resurfaced clips" that are appearing.
We had newspapers giving out "swordsman of the year" awards to the likes of Brand or that guy from Blue who went round shagging people. It's unimaginable now.
It's amazing to thing that the decade that had shows like the West Wing, the Sopranos, the Wire, 6 Feet Under and Breaking Bad also produced at the bottom end of the pile a generation of instantly-famous celebrities with no redeeming qualities. And that's where Brand came from, and where he belongs. A z-lister who lucked out getting famous, thought he could act a certain way and has been caught out.