“I hope it’s 3 hours straight of trans jokes,” Instagram user newsupdates4real commented on a July 9 promotion post from Joe Rogan for his live Netflix special, which took place on August 3. At the time of writing, the comment has garnered 532 likes.
Other comments from Rogan’s fans on the same post held slightly different hopes—and trepidations. User seany_bakes_nyc admitted, “I love him as a podcast host and a UFC analyst. There’s few, if any better, than him in the world. And as far as genuinely decent and humble celebrities go, he’s right up there as well. But as a stand up comedian, he’s mediocre at best. Definitely not the worst I’ve seen, but in the 3 specials I’ve seen of his I’m not sure I laughed (not particularly hard either) more than 2 or 3 times combined.”
This seemed to be the consensus, with users like mikethomas6120 adding, “I love how Joe has helped the careers out of so many struggling comics in a similar way Rodney Dangerfield did. However he is better at podcasting than at comedy specials. It’s not a bad thing. Artie Lange was great on radio but his comedy was only so-so. Same thing with Rogan.” To hear more without actually having to visit Rogan’s page, I’ve read a selection in a TikTok video.
But perhaps the most telling was user danny.smith.06’s statement: “Damn the second hand Embarrassment I got from watching this in the future was so strong I felt it in the present lmao.”
When I mentioned in a TikTok video my own reservations about viewing the special, namely Rogan’s transphobic, sexist, racist, misinformed, and all-around bigoted rhetoric, a fan of his commented, “I’m confused why you think he’s a bigot, misagony [sic] and misunderstood science? Where does that come from? His jokes?”
I responded, “His podcast.”
See, I’ve listened to Rogan’s podcast—or rather, had it played for me ad nauseam by a man who also argued with my neurologists and therapists after I had awakened from a 10-day coma about the type of care I should receive. He argued that Joe Rogan, famously not a doctor, knew more about these professionals about healing brain injuries because of his association with the UFC and mixed martial arts. As evidence, he had me listen to the podcast—hours upon hours of it.
All of this to say, when Rogan’s special began, I experienced a glimmer of hope.
“That might be misinformation,” he says two minutes in. “Don’t say you heard it from me because I am known for that shit.”
He even mentions that you shouldn’t be listening to “the Fear Factor guy” for medical decisions. Then, he proceeds to make contradictory claims about trans people—“trans people exist” but “crazy people exist, too,” two statements that make no sense together unless you’re a transphobe. For Joe Rogan, anything someone can explain to him exists; everything else does not. The problem is who he has explaining things to him.
After some back and forth with his fan on TikTok about Rogan’s views, I linked Seth Simons’ recent piece on Joe Rogan for The Daily Beast. And here’s the rub—the exact problem with Joe Rogan’s audience is baked into one comment:
“I struggle with most articles and news in general, everyone has an angle, agenda, etc.. More often than not taken out of context as well. Even with the best intentions,” the person wrote.
Joe Rogan’s fans think he is unbiased. After I responded, “And you don’t think Rogan has an agenda? He invites specific people onto his podcast…” this user claimed, “Sure, everybody does. We’re all driven by our award systems. His ego as well. Talks about psychedelic [sic] to try and break them down.” His fans believe ego death induced by consumption of psychedelics allows humans to see clearly—this is obviously why Joe Rogan is anti-vaccine but draws the line at believing the earth is flat, as he emphasizes in this special. The whole time, Rogan repeats he isn’t homophobic, transphobic, racist, or anti-science, then proceeds to make homophobic, transphobic, racist, and anti-science statements in joke format, calling out that people will identify them as homophobic, transphobic, racist, or anti-science, but insisting they’re not because he’s not any of those things. I’d call it a deft rhetorical move on his part if I didn’t know any better—Rogan simply wants to have his cake and eat it, too.
The positives I will say about this special are Joe Rogan has at least seemed to have learned joke structure, plus performing in front of a live audience made it impossible to fake which parts elicited laughs from his audience. More importantly, it highlighted the parts where they did not clap or cheer—his statement “Trans people exist” being one of them.
And a note to all of Joe Rogan’s fans: I’ve taken a lot of mushrooms in the past—and still do—since scientific studies have shown they help with neuroplasticity! Why aren’t you hanging on my every word?
You can watch the Joe Rogan special on Netflix, if you really want.
Brooke Knisley is a freelance journalist and comedy writer. She has balance issues.