Joe Rogan has executed extra for comedy than most individuals on the planet.
The 58-year-old’s “Joe Rogan Expertise” podcast is the last word platform for brand new and established comics. One look can introduce a stand-up expertise to tens of millions of listeners.
It stays one of many greatest podcasts within the audio area and a haven for right now’s funniest voices.
Plus, Rogan established the Comedy Mothership in 2023. The Austin membership, hailed by comics for its spectacular design and twin showrooms, helped rework the Texas metropolis right into a comedy Mecca.
It’s not New York Metropolis or Los Angeles, however various comics (Shane Gillis, Tyler Fischer, Tom Segura, Tony Hinchcliffe) have relocated to Austin because of the Rogan impact.
Inform that to W. Kamau Bell.
The woke comedian complained at this week’s Atlantic Competition that Rogan is unhealthy for comedy. And he was simply warming up.
Talking to extreme-Left pundit Jemele Hill, Bell described the present comedy scene as poisonous because of woke’s decline.
For years, comedians needed to watch what they are saying or self-censor for concern {of professional} reprisals. It explains why R-rated comedys all however evaporated from multiplexes.
The issue got here to a head when the far Left tried to cancel Dave Chappelle in 2021 for telling jokes concerning the trans group. That Netflix particular in query, “The Nearer,” additionally included Chappelle’s poignant tribute to a late trans comedian.
The woke mob ignored that, specializing in the opposite materials. Netflix had his again, although, and the woke wave began to fade. Now, roast jokes are again, and insurgent stand-ups like Tim Dillon, Ryan Lengthy, Gillis and Andrew Schulz are in excessive demand.
Once more, inform that to Bell.
He implied to Hill throughout “The Politics of Comedy” chat that Rogan and his ilk have been answerable for Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension. The “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!” host stated Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a part of the MAGA motion on Sept. 15.
That was a lie, one he nonetheless hasn’t retracted. He has been suspended ever since.
Bell began by saying stand-up comedy exploded in America because of free speech. Giants like George Carlin and Lenny Bruce suffered in order that future comics might flex their rhetorical abilities with out concern.
He’s proper, in fact. But he proceeded to defeat his personal logic by attacking fashionable comics who don’t abide by the woke guidelines.
Hill, who like Kimmel, initially misled concerning the motivation behind Kirk’s homicide, requested Bell to handle comedy in the intervening time. Bell stated he might communicate for all comedians, save “a subset of comedians within the Joe Rogan universe.”
“I’ll be talking AT them,” he continued, “as a result of they did this to us.”
“The powers that be, Trump and the Trumpettes, have determined that comedians can’t say what they need to say anymore. They’re essentially redefining America as a spot that I don’t wanna dwell,” he stated. “If this nation doesn’t have free speech, then we’re not America.”
The place was Bell, a supporter of Antifa, over the previous decade? He stayed silent over the serial assaults on free speech sparked by his woke allies.
Later, he claimed with out proof that Rogan’s endorsement of Trump close to the top of the 2024 presidential marketing campaign was “purchased.” He then stated different comics who equally endorsed Trump, like Hinchcliffe, have been additionally “purchased.”
“You bought your soul for little or no,” he stated.
He then circled again to Rogan.
“It’s so gross what Joe Rogan has executed not solely to discourse on this nation however simply to comedy,” Bell stated. The woke comedian claimed that Rogan’s comedy buddies insist they need to inform jokes that cruelly goal the trans group and use the “N-word” – notably if the comedian in query isn’t black.
“He has made comedy worse once more,” he added, ignoring how of us like Carlin, Richard Pryor and Dick Gregory opened up comedy for all voices and opinions.
Hill then requested Bell if comics like Theo Von, Hinchcliffe and Rogan, as a result of they supported Trump’s re-election bid, have been answerable for Kimmel’s suspension.
“Sure,” Bell stated, laughing. That ignores how affiliate teams like Nexstar and Sinclair yanked Kimmel’s exhibit their airwaves as advertisers started bolting from this system.
The comedian then accused Rogan of bigotry by saying he largely interviews white friends and “doesn’t speak to everyone.”
Effectively, he can’t speak to everyone, however he did lengthen an invite to Vice President Kamala Harris throughout the 2024 presidential marketing campaign. Her staff declined the chance.
Bell additionally insinuated that Spotify is the rationale Rogan grew to become such a podcasting big, ignoring the truth that Rogan had constructed up his fan base earlier than the Spotify deal went down.
Rogan, like liberal peer Invoice Maher, routinely interviews friends from throughout the political spectrum. Bell isn’t a fan of that method.
He stated moments when a liberal like Ezra Klein debates a conservative like Ben Shapiro signify “two white guys who’re mainly endorsing White Supremacy.”
“Cease taking comedians that critically, ” he warned later within the dialog.
Couldn’t agree extra.