The comedian and podcaster used his huge platform to spread more COVID disinformation, talk up Alex Jones and Elon Musk, and reveal an odd obsession with gay sex.
Rogan’s entire career was predicated on the normalisation of reactionary right-wing beliefs/prejudices. He was the motte to the bailey of the Thiels and Bannons, easing perfectly normal dudes along the path, one casual joke at the expense of minorities at a time. And for a while it worked, to the point where Spotify bet the company on him. And then, the word “weird” entered the discourse, and people realised that casual cruelty and obsessing about strangers’ genitals weren’t the time-honoured values of a silent majority.
It would suck to be holding Spotify shares right now.
We don't need to care about him. Bad comedians with shitty world views are a dime a dozen. He's famous because he communicates well and not because his ideas are worth attention or respect.
When was the last time you even had a special before this? I thought he stopped doing comedy like in 2010. It's been a while. And he was a failed comedian. Like that's why he got into everything else. He wasn't very good at it.
Holy shit, a double whammy! Weird Vance discussed gay sex with his grandma, and Weird Musk permanently deleted a picture from the internet forever.
"I'll never forget the time I convinced myself that I was gay. I was eight or nine, maybe younger, and I stumbled upon a broadcast by some fire-and-brimstone preacher. The man spoke about the evils of homosexuals, how they had infiltrated our society, and how they were all destined for hell absent some serious repenting. At the time, the only thing I knew about gay men was that they preferred men to women. This described me perfectly: I disliked girls, and my best friend in the world was my buddy Bill. Oh no, I'm going to hell."
When he brought up the issue with his grandmother — known to Vance as "Mamaw" — she replied bluntly: "Don't be a fucking idiot, how would you know that you're gay?"
When Vance explained his reasoning, she laughed.
"JD, do you want to suck dicks?" she said, according to the book.
The young Vance, apparently "flabbergasted," said: "Of course not!"
"Then you're not gay. And even if you did want to suck dicks, that would be okay," she replied. "God would still love you."
I agree that he wasn't that funny. But it was also really tame. I don't remember it being "gay sex obsessed". I don't understand why people care so much about him. He's really just extremely average.
It's so crazy how this show is basically the exact same shit the exact same type of guy would have done 10, 20, 30 years ago with the exact same jokes. The only difference is the post-covid brainworms and the context of the transphobia being presented as a losing ideology. Kinda mindblowing that this dude is a couple years from AARP eligibility and still talking like he's in middle school. That sucks.
I thought it was a bad comedy special but it's just wild the amount of hate I've seen for him and it. Like we already knew he had no idea what he was talking about on Covid, he admits as such (standard "don't listen to a comedian for that" take that he and Jon Stewart trot out all the time). You could see it as his surrender on the topic. People seem to be taking it more as a "he's still talking about it."