The thing about Joe Rogan is that he’s not simply an enthusiast for the pandemic, Covid conspiracies and Covid misinformation. He’s also pretty racist and transphobic too. Some people have complained that Rogan’s other problematic behavior has gotten lost in the larger conversation of his peddling of dangerous Covid conspiracies and misinformation. India Arie was a major voice on Rogan’s racism – she criticized Spotify for underpaying musical artists while giving $100 million to problematic and racist Joe Rogan. Arie posted clips of Rogan uttering the n-word repeatedly. A newly surfaced clip of Rogan calling a historically black neighborhood in Philadelphia “Planet of the Apes” has also been part of the “wait, Rogan is racist too” conversation.
So, Joe Rogan heard all of the new criticism and he must know that this time, his ass is actually on the line. Covid misinformation is bad enough, but Spotify only gave him a proverbial slap on the wrists for that. But a history of racism in addition to a history of peddling Covid misinformation? Yeah, Spotify might actually have to DO something. So Rogan tried to get out ahead of it by posting another “apology video.” First of all, in the video, Rogan looks like Blofeld from the James Bond movies. He legitimately looks like he’s sitting in his dark underwater lair and stroking a cat as he tries to explain to James Bond why he’s used the N-word dozens of times in a 12-year talk show career. As for his explanation… yeah, it’s as bad as you think:
Joe Rogan has responded to a resurfaced clip of him using the N-word almost two dozen times while hosting his wildly popular podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Calling the clip “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly,” Rogan, 54, insisted the video consisted of “out of context” snippets from “12 years of conversations” on his show.
“It looks f–king horrible. Even to me…. I know that to most people, there is no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, nevermind publicly on a podcast, and I agree with that now. I haven’t said it in years.”
He then admits to using the word in his past, but claims it would only be within the context of the conversation. “Instead of saying ‘the N-word,’ I would just say the word. I thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing.”
Rogan claims, however, that he would often be discussing comics of yesteryear who used the word, or quoting bits from acts like Lenny Bruce and Paul Mooney. He went on to explain his fascination with the word, and the fact that one race isn’t allowed to use it while another can use it in countless ways.
“It’s a very unusual word, but it’s not my word to use,” he continued. “I never used it to be racist, because I’m not racist, but whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you’ve f–ked up, and I clearly have f–cked up.”
The podcaster went on to address a clip of him referring to a black neighborhood as “Planet of the Apes,” after being dropped off to see the movie with friends in Philadelphia.
“I was trying to make the story entertaining,” Rogan claimed. “I did not, nor did I ever say that black people are apes, but it sure f–king sounded like that. It wasn’t a racist story, but it sounded terrible.”
I’m at a loss as to what to say here, honestly! This was probably the best and most honest thing he’s ever said? “Whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you’ve f–ked up, and I clearly have f–cked up.” Like, that’s dead-on. I can’t even make fun of him for insisting that he’s not a racist, because clearly even he knows that such a blanket denial is bullsh-t in the face of a minute-long clip of him repeatedly saying the n-word.
Friday night and into Saturday morning, Spotify removed 70 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience – those are the episodes where he apparently said something racist AF. SEVENTY EPISODES!! This is not “I said one thing one time and I said it the wrong way and I sincerely f–ked up, I’m so, so sorry.” This dude is a rampant racist douchebag. 70 EPISODES!! Update: now it looks like Spotify has removed MORE THAN A HUNDRED EPISODES. Holy sh-t, Rogan was just saying the n-word every day, all day for years.
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It’s a little late for Spotify to do anything. Removing episodes is just covering their own hides. And at this point if they fired Rogan he would pop up somewhere else.
This is why I don’t like Joe Rogan & I never found him to be funny. Didn’t like his stand up comedy act, didn’t like him on fear factor & then he’s spewing dumb stuff besides Covid misinformation on his podcast.
Fear Factor is where I first saw him and thought he was a misogynistic a-hole who totally got off on watching the discomfort and yes, FEAR displayed by the young women on that show. you could literally see the pleasure on his face when they freaked out.
he was a GD CREEP.
Yes about Fear Factor! The women were always young and attractive and most looked a certain way. I could imagine him selecting them himself out of their audition videos 🤢
I’m not here to defend Joe in any way shape or form but you’re wrong about Fear Factor. I worked for Fear Factor for 3 years. Joe Rogan had nothing to do with women wearing bikinis or the “Fear” involved. He had nothing to do with the casting. The “Fear” was not women centric. If you have a problem with it contact Endemol, the production company.
At that time Joe was simply a hired hand. It was not his show and he did not create it. The exec producers of that show made every call.
I’m not defending any of his recent actions. His racist rhetoric and spreading of misinformation is dangerous. However nothing on Fear Factor was decided by Joe.
And I must say he was a pleasure to work with. I’m saddened by the recent events as I have nothing but good memories of working with him.
I don’t care if he didn’t make ANY of the decisions on that show.
I could see on his face the sadistic pleasure he took from watching the young women squirm, and NOT any of the men involved. he was a creep then and he’s a creep now.
“He was a pleasure to work with”…said in the same voice as all of the women that Harvey Weinstein DIDN’T assault. “well, I never had that experience with him”. he may not have shown you his racist, misogynist side, but it was there. people don’t change. don’t cape for this scumbag.
His first big break was hosting The Man Show with Adam Corolla on Comedy Central, then he got Fear Factor. What he is about was all there on that show.
Always side eyed Fear Factor trusting him with women, so yep, I agree with whatWhat- they knew who they hired & it was edgy, cute sexism (roll my eyes).
Do you see the hypocrisy in your response to me? You’re denying MY experience because it’s not what you want to hear.
Also is you were so offended by him, why did you watch Fear Factor?
@melissa thank you for sharing your experience. Its important in these situations we have all the facts so we can hold JR accountable for what he did and not what he wasnt accountable for.
Melissa — first you say you’re not here to defend Joe Rogan in any way and then you go in to defend him about Fear Factor. So which is it? Sure sounds like you want to defend him so don’t say first one thing and then the opposite.
Also he’s shown himself to be sexist multiple times on his show so you can miss me with what a pleasure he was for one person to work with once upon a time based on one anonymous anecdote. Rapists and harassers *typically* act one way to the general public and a very different way to their targets. Serial killers put on a front (not that he’s a serial killer, just saying it’s completely possible for even a terrible person to pretend to be normal). Your subjective personal claim doesn’t mean he isn’t sexist or racist and is just an attempt to derail the conversation.
no, I’m not denying your experience. I’m just saying that YOUR experience is not everyone else’s. and by saying “he was a pleasure to work with”, you’re downplaying the experiences of the women and minorities that he has mistreated, and statements like yours make people doubt the recent stories we’ve read.
just like there were plenty of people that weren’t assaulted by Weinstein, and there were plenty of people who weren’t drugged and assaulted by Cosby, and just like there were plenty of people who weren’t groped or assaulted by Chris Noth…it doesn’t negate the dozens (hundreds?) of other times that those men mistreated or assaulted someone.
good for you that he was a pleasure to work with. and though you said you weren’t here to defend him in any way, shape or form, you proceeded to do just that. I wonder, what was your role on that show? were you in a position of power over Rogan, or at an equal level? I’m betting if you talked to any of the women who worked on that show as PAs, or interns, or even women who were contestants, you might get a different take. I’m sure there are plenty of women who worked with Jake Gyllenhaal who think he’s a good guy.
and for the record, I DIDN’T watch Fear Factor, but had a bf that did, and I’d suffer through a bit of it before I’d ask him to change the channel.
EDIT – This is for Melissa above
Melissa’s statement was a correction to Lemon saying she “could imagine him selecting them himself out of their audition videos”
He was not in casting. She then goes on to say.
“His racist rhetoric and spreading of misinformation is dangerous.”
“I’m saddened by the recent events as I have nothing but good memories of working with him.”
Those are not a defense of him. She is not saying “I saw nothing then so he can’t have done anything now.” She is saying “he was a pleasure to work with then, it’s a shame that he’s shown himself to be a dickhead”. It seems like you are intentionally missing her point? I also don’t think that it makes anyone doubt recent events. Very ‘nice’ people do shitty things and I think most people understand that.
What did Jake Gyllenhal do? (Not defending him. I just missed that story.)
Yeah, he’s a racist.
He is a flaming pile of garbage masquerading as a human.
You know Spotify lawyers are sweating like they are in a Moose Lodge sauna.
What good does removing old episodes do? They already paid him for them and who is listening to years old episodes of a current events talk show. To actually punish him they need to stop him putting out NEW stuff and end the contract.
This guy.
This is why capitalist protests are so important. Cancel your Spotify account and delete the app. Use your social media to explain why you are canceling and use their names. When they lose enough money, they will remove him.
Someone online said he looked like Uncle Fester and I can’t unsee it.
“I sound terrible” because you are. Yeah you don’t get to say that word under any circumstances.
every time I hear a person (racist) complain, “why do THEY get to say and we can’t?!” I’m like “why do you WANT to say it so badly?”
sheesh, it’s such an ugly word, and I wish nobody said it but it’s not my word to say or not say.
@whatwhat
Exactly how I feel!
When Spotify bought Joe Rogan’s show, they deleted all of his episodes with the founder of the Proud Boys. JR was INSTRUMENTAL to their growth as a hate group. Spotify knew what this was from the beginning; they just didn’t think they’d get caught and called out. Disgusting.
This part. He has always been like this and only now that people are talking about the conspiracy nature of the bs he promotes, specifically related to Covid we are talking about it. But this dude has been peddling racism, transphobia, and misogyny for awhile.
Disgusting. But this is going to look even worse for Spotify, they’ve already said that Rogan stays. Something tells me that this too may be okay for them and he will just get a couple of slaps on the wrist.
And the Spotify CEO is doubling down *again*, saying JR’s content is a problem, but that “silencing” him is wrong. They are going to keep going through some things.
I saw a tiktok talking about this. He also had a guest saying black people are more prone to aggression and Joe just went with it. Mix that with the n word and the planet of the apes he just seems like another fragile white person who thinks they aren’t racist but 100% is. Oh I can’t be racist because I don’t hate all black people, but I literally make comments as if we are different species and casually say the most offensive word. A full racist jerk.
Eagerly awaiting the walk-backs of the assorted idiots who patted him on the head for his “I’ll try harder” bullshit.
The Rock already issued his 🙄
…yep, and reading it, I’m now kinda sorry I asked!
LOLLLLL GOOD! Wow though. I can’t believe people had to do MORE digging on Rogan to get spotify to do something. I love it, like “oh, covid denier isn’t enough? Well heres proof he’s also racist”.
And A LOT of people are STILL defending him. He uses the same rhetorical practice as Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson. They pretend they don’t have an opinion or an agenda but are, ‘just asking questions’ and they hide behind that to say the most revolting and horrible things. If they get called out, they say, “Hey, don’t be upset. I’m genuinely asking because I don’t know/want to learn.’
This is also super effective in converting people to your point of view who don’t have great critical thinking skills. People naturally become defensive when we tell them our opinions, but are more receptive if they’re made to feel there’s no pressure to pick a side.
The misogyny and sexual assault “jokes” are also shocking. The guy is utter trash.
I have never been a Spotify customer and I will never be one. This guy is disgusting. For me, him spreading COVID misinformation is just enough to cancel his ass into oblivion.
How did the Spotify lawyers put nothing in his contract that would allow them to get out if he crossed too many lines? Or did they just hire him knowing full well how appealing he is and roll with that…
Bye Spotify.
What fucking universe are we living in where this dildo uses the n-word all the time, says other baldly racist things, and hangs out with white supremacist terrorists and we’re supposed to believe he’s not a racist POS? We know. And just like Trump, for Rogan’s fans: this is the draw.
While I appreciate that he says if you have say you’re not a racist then you f*cked up, he denigrates that with the rest of the apology. He goes on to explain how he meant the word when he used it and how his intention wasn’t racist and same for the planet of the apes and it wasn’t a racist story because he was just trying to be funny. I’d have so much more respect if he said yeah, I’ve said racist things and held racist views and I’m sorry. Obv, then he would say it was in the past and he’s going to be better, and well that would have to be proven with future words and actions, a wait and see. But be honest and don’t explain it away like you were just trying to be funny. You were racist and if you can’t say that in your apology you don’t get it and will just continue to be the same.
He’s extremely manipulative. That’s what makes him dangerous. He says horrible things and when caught, instead of being defensive, he backs right down and says everyone is right and he’s wrong. This disarms the people who want to believe what he’s pushing. Then they defend him and he goes right back to saying more horrible things.
Meanwhile Spotify pays the musicians that made this company relevant fractions of pennies for each stream.
Sadly, if Spotify actually does the right thing and cans him, he will quickly pop up elsewhere. He’s unsurprisingly becoming a right wing hero.
Then let him pop up elsewhere. Non-action is implicit approval.
Oh I absolutely think they should get rid of him. And the fact that Spotify doubled down the first time saying they won’t get rid of him means that even if they actually do, this will still hurt Spotify. And the right wing media will happily embrace him. Joe and Gina Carano will probably go have their own show together.
I will never understand the excuses people will use to justify their use of this word. I grew up in south Texas, I heard people use it all the time when I was a child- the word will not come out of my mouth. Like it legitimately cannot be spoken, I can’t even say it in an empty room by myself. It’s that awful! What is wrong with him?! He is terrible.
Man. Spotify chose the wrong f-ckin hill to die on.
Meanwhile my 11 year old willingly turns off gamer youtube videos that has rap music in it if he hears the word because he feels guilty listening. It’s not actually that difficult to not be a douche, it’s just a choice you make JR.
Is he canceled for real yet? Because he should be. This man and anything he has to say is trash. Utter trash.
We all heard the video Joe. Why can’t he say, I’m sorry I said that, I’m truly disgusted with myself and ashamed. Something to that effect, just admit what you did and issue a SINCERE apology. Is that too hard for people? I guess ones with massive egos, yes it is.
We left Spotify the day after Neil Young pulled his music. I didn’t like the interface anyway. I hope more people leave now.
“In context”? there is never a context for using that word.
First of all. INDIA ARIE! Love that she was out front in all this. Second, Spotify really fucked up on this one. I canceled my premium account a week ago and am not turning back.
A bunch of fellow douchebros must run Spotify and think that this guy is ok.
@Trish He can`t say it because he is not disgusted with himself, and he is not ashamed. The same reason why narcissists never offer an apology of their own volition. They don`t mean it, so why lie? (lol) Many sociopaths are proud of how “honest” they are in expressing their lack of caring for other people.
“Racially insensitive”… that’s the term we’re using now SPOTIFY? MmmmKKK. Not racial slur. Not racist. “Insensitive”. UNREAL.
+100
Well, if you actually look at and listen to all the videos of him, he and his white guests have decided that it doesn’t make sense for Black people to be upset about the use of the word because it’s ‘just a word, like any other word.’ White Joe and his friends also decided it was perfectly ok and terribly funny to say the word aloud. They wonder what all the fuss is about. Because, of course, it’s totally up to them to make that decision.
I’m waiting for a celebrity to call him out on his misogynistic comments.
He is just trash. I’m mIddle aged, middle class, middle of America and I’ve never said the n word. It’s always been derogatory and demeaning. I guess I haven’t always been the nicest person in the world but I never wanted to be that kind of an ass.
This is not even all of the bad stuff out there and I don’t know why it isn’t all coming out. I’ve tweeted it to NYT and other journalists covering the story. Anyone who listened to Rogan (pre Spotify) would know that there are dozens+ of episodes where he watches and insists that his guests watch (listeners only heard the audio) a porn video of beastiality involving a man and a horse. He claims the man actually died (I don’t think this is apparent on the video). He was absolutely obsessed with the video and not because he was appalled, he was giddy, laughing. The fact he obsessively played it over and over and over again tells you there was more to it than a giggle. Every one of his comic buds/guests and many others were subjected to it if they wanted to or not. That is also why I was surprised Whitney Cummings got on her high horse (pun not intended) defending him, she’s an animal activist and was one of the one’s he played it for (she refused to watch).