British comedian Jamali Maddix is well known around these parts for his acclaimed VICELAND show on zealots, racists, and other angry people, Hate Thy Neighbor. Lately, Jamali’s been back on the extremist beat, hanging out with pedophile hunters and a gun cult led by a man named ‘King Bullethead’ for a new TV docuseries.
We called him up to get a read on Follow The Leader, set to air from September 17th in the UK.
VICE: Hey Jamali. Obviously this beat is a familiar one for you. But how have extreme ways of thinking, cults, etc. all developed and changed in recent years?
Jamali Maddix: I think the internet changed everything when it comes to those communities. If there was a small group in a small town in America, it stayed within that small town in America. But things spread more now, so you’ve got movements or ideas that can spread easily. And the cost of making content has dropped dramatically. So you’ve got men and women making their content, of whatever their ideas are, at a high quality—and they can push it out on the biggest channel in the world, which is the internet, you know? So I think these ideas are more easily accessible than ever.
Yeah, it’s also interesting how everyone’s nan now seems to have quite a fringe view of the world.
When it comes to certain views—maybe political or low-end conspiratorial views—it’s also because there’s so much information. I think it’s difficult for certain generations to decipher what is and isn’t real, because there’s a generation of people who grew up when newspapers were just… I mean, obviously, there’s always been lies in newspapers, but journalists investigated a story and then they presented the story, maybe with a twinge of political bias, but they presented pretty much the story—and now it’s just, “I can make a website and say whatever I want,” and it’s considered fact. So I don’t think everyone’s got a ‘fringe’ view. It’s just some people can’t decipher between what is the real and the fake thing on the internet.
AI images are going to change things a lot as well, because they will actually trick people’s eyes into thinking real images—things that have never happened—actually happened. It’s gonna be a weird future.
What role has COVID played in all this?
I think people during COVID had a lot of time to think. It’s not my line, but a comedian once said to me: “Some people have too much time to think, and they have arguments with themselves that they always win.” I think people had so much time on their hands, and they reflected on their life and made more brash decisions.
In terms of the new series, Rod of Iron [a militant pro-gun offshoot of the Moonies religious movement, led by brothers Yung Jin Moon and Kook-jin Moon] used a lot of people’s apprehension [of the vaccine] to draw more people towards their ideas.
So what’s some of the exciting new stuff that you unearthed while shooting this series?
I enjoyed doing the predator hunter one; I enjoyed doing the passport bro one. I don’t know what mad things I uncovered. I don’t think there was like a mad…
Predator hunter as in like…?
It’s people who they’ve alleged to have spoken to underaged children, and then they go and confront them.
I think there’s something a bit off about that.
Yeah. In the film, it’s that complication. That’s what the film’s about, is the complicated nature of it, because we all agree that’s a bad crime, but it’s like, should they be… you know what I mean? All those questions get thrown up, and there isn’t really a definitive answer to it. That’s how I wanted to make it. I wanted it to be as if the audience member decides for themselves, where their morality lies within it, you know?
Has anything in your films made you feel like “we’re fucked”?
I felt that going in.
Yeah.
I think that’s just apparent with the state of the world. I don’t think my docs are going to be the change of that; I’m not the canary in the coal mine. Human beings, we just adjust. If you would have said pre-COVID, there’ll be a time when you can’t go out for two years. You would have gone, “Nah, fucking I’ll go mad.” But you did it. You know what I mean? If you went to prison in fucking, the world’s worst prison, the first few days [would be tough], but after a couple months, you’d adjust. That’s just how human beings are. We just adjust, or we don’t and we don’t survive. And I think human beings just survive. So I think wherever the world goes, whether it’s the internet or whether it’s this, we just adjust, or we don’t. That’s the two options we have. The films are just exploring what’s going on and the people behind it.
Jamali Maddix: Follow The Leader airs on U&Dave at 10PM each Tuesday from 17th September, with the box-set available to stream free on U from Tuesday 17th September.
Follow Nick Thompson on X at @niche_t_
The post “It’s Gonna Be a Weird Future”: Jamali Maddix Has a New Series About Extremists appeared first on VICE.
The post “It’s Gonna Be a Weird Future”: Jamali Maddix Has a New Series About Extremists appeared first on VICE.
