Let’s be clear: Joe Rogan is NOT a conservative. And he’s never been anywhere close to being a conservative. Ever. In fact, if you ignore the media’s coverage and focus instead on what Rogan actually believes, he’s a liberal man who “identifies” as a conservative man.
And I’d even go further: If he’d hosted “The Joe Rogan Experience” in the 1990s or 2000s, Rogan would’ve been — by a ridiculously wide margin — the single most leftwing man in American media: He supports gay marriage, increased social safety nets, drug legalization (and how!), abortion, and universal basic income. He even backed Bernie Sanders for president. His ideology isn’t exactly “The Way Things Ought to Be, Part II.”
This is why he’s such a useful barometer of how far to the left everyone else has gone: Only on a planet that’s completely fallen off a cliff could a leftwinger like Rogan appear to be a conservative… simply because he likes MMA, works out, wasn’t a fan of mandatory COVID vaccines, and thinks it’s unfair for men to fight women.
But Rogan’s biggest crime — and the reason the liberal media will never forgive him — is that he’s not hostile to conservatives.
Today’s TV comedians are aggressively hostile, of course. If you’re a conservative and watch Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, etc., then you know that conservatives are the punchline. That’s the whole point of their TV shows: It’s not just to be funny, but to be funny in a very particular way.
It’s a party, and if you’re a conservative, you’re not invited.
Rogan’s other sin was simply being too popular. He’s far bigger now than most of the media covering him… and that REALLY pisses 'em off. These “serious journalists” believe their solemn mission is educating the rest of us dirty, filthy, unwashed rubes about the ways of the world, so the idea that a guy like Rogan would drink beer, smoke pot, chat about politics, and still have exponentially more viewers than they do is de facto evidence of social chaos. It must not stand!
And so, when Joe Rogan’s first live Netflix comedy event aired on August 3, “Joe Rogan: Burn the Boats,” the mainstream media couldn’t wait to sharpen their keyboards and hurl their verbal daggers:
TheWrap claimed, “‘Joe Rogan: Burn the Boats’ Review: Netflix Special Relies on Same Old COVID and Gay Jokes”
The Daily Beast warned, “Joe Rogan Is Weirder Than J.D. Vance in Live Netflix Special”
Variety wore their bias on their sleeve: “Joe Rogan Slams COVID Vaccines, Mocks Trans People in Live Netflix Special ‘Burn the Boats’: ‘Anybody Who Complains Is a Nazi’”
MovieWeb (which knows funny when they see it) said, “New Joe Rogan Comedy Special Is a Boring Showcase for the Dunning-Kruger Effect”
The Independent announced, “Joe Rogan’s new Netflix special features anti-vax jokes and mocks trans people”
Cracked (which you might vaguely remember as a crappy version of Mad Magazine) declared, “From Aliens to COVID to Cancel Culture: Every Joe Rogan Cliché Got Play in His Live Netflix Special”
If you actually watched his comedy concert, you probably had a great time. Rogan touched on many of the same themes from his uber-popular podcast: the possibility of space aliens, the virtue of getting stoned and having weird thoughts, the ways we’re different and the ways we’re the same, conspiracies, freedom, COVID, family, and American life. Which makes sense, since these are the topics that he consistently finds compelling.
The best comedy, after all, comes from skewering the sacred cows of your own imagination.
By his own admission, Rogan isn’t a natural comedian. He’s not a Robin Williams — a manic form of kinetic comedy where nonstop mayhem oozes from every pore — but to be fair, not many are. Instead, Rogan hones his thoughts, tightens his lines, and beta-tests various concepts before dropping an hour-long concert. He’s discussed the process many times on his podcast, and it usually takes him more than a year to trim the fat and complete the show.
It gives his comedy a workman-like quality.
If Rogan were an architect, he wouldn’t design something that would blow your mind with its off-the-wall creativity, but he would be obsessed with his craft, study hard, master the basics, and figure out how to build a house that makes you very happy.
Overall Grade: B+
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