Thursday, February 10, 2022

Joe Rogan Fires Back with Hilarious Set: ‘If You Want My Advice, Don’t Take My Advice’

By Kyle Smith

Wednesday, February 09, 2022

 

Joe Rogan confesses he’s embarrassed by that supercut of him using the N-word over the years: “I used to say it if [I was talking about] a Richard Pryor bit or something, I would say it in context,” he said in a standup routine in Austin on Tuesday night. “Somebody made a compilation of every time I said that word over 14 years and they put it on YouTube, and it turned out that was racist as f***. Even to me! I’m me and I’m watching it saying, ‘Stop saying it!’ I put my cursor over the video and I’m like, ‘Four more minutes?!’”

 

More: “I haven’t used that word in years. But it’s kind of weird people will get really mad if you use that word and tweet about it on a phone that’s made by slaves.” Ouch. Did you hear that, Neil Young? Maybe you should rethink allowing Apple Music to host your stuff. When you’re done taking down the banking system, of course.

 

Rogan added, “I talk sh** for a living — that’s why this is so baffling to me. If you’re taking vaccine advice from me, is that really my fault? What dumb sh** were you about to do when my stupid idea sounded better? ‘You know that dude who made people people eat animal d***s on TV? How does he feel about medicine?’ If you want my advice, don’t take my advice.” Funny stuff, and a good illustration of how to handle this kind of gotcha attack: acknowledgment, together with self-deprecation. It works. We’re all human. We’re all flawed.

 

As for what was clearly a coordinated campaign to destroy him, Rogan said on a podcast, “In a lot of ways, this is a relief. That video had always been out there. This is a political hit job. They’re taking all this stuff I’ve ever said that’s wrong and smushing it all together. It’s good because it makes me address some stuff that I really wish wasn’t out there.”

 

Rogan comes across as a humble and thoughtful guy as well as an unusually curious interviewer. I think he’s winning his fight.

No comments: