If you thought Gilbert Gottfried making jokes about 9/11 a mere couple of weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center was in poor taste, you probably haven’t heard about the gag Russell Brand pulled on September 12, 2001. In fact, if anyone could’ve given Gottfried a run for his money in the “too soon” department, Brand was that guy. Back in those days, the up-and-coming comedian was working as a video journalist for MTV UK. He was also a very active crack and heroin user, by his own admission.

As Brand explained in his 2007 memoir My Booky Wook, September 12 was the day he decided to let his drug dealer, who went by the nickname Gritty, come to the MTV studio to have a look around. Joining Gritty for this impromptu studio tour was his eight-year-old son, Edwin. And, apparently, part of the tour involved the three of them cramming into a handicapped stall in the bathroom so that Brand and Gritty could smoke a little crack. Afterward, the trio made their way over to the set to greet Brand’s guest, Kylie Minogue.

Russell Brand Dressed as Osama bin Laden at MTV the Day After 9/11

Oh, and did we mention that, all the while, Brand was dressed up like Osama bin Laden, complete with a camouflage jacket, a fake beard, and a towel wrapped around his head? In his own words, it was “the worst time to do it, in many ways.” But, as Brand tells it, he’d only become aware of bin Laden about a year earlier, and the al-Qaeda founder wasn’t generally familiar to people in his age group. However, Brand knew that bin Laden had been connected with other attacks, which is why he picked that particular costume for the occasion.

In full terrorist regalia, Brand introduced Gritty to Minogue and proceeded to soak in all the awkwardness he’d just created. “What do you do?” Minogue asked Gritty at one point, as Brand stood nearby looking like one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. “It don’t get any better than this,” Brand remembered thinking at the time. He was fired by MTV two days later.