Avi Joshi ’26 is an English major. He is a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, eats a lot of food and plays the drums. Contact him at asjoshi@wm.edu.
Modern comedy is in serious trouble. Long gone are the days of the most popular comedians being voices for the general public, using jokes to not just entertain but also deeply critique the institutional evils that plague everyday life. Modern comedy has entered an era of emphasizing anti-woke rhetoric and championing free speech. The man heading this movement, and the man who is at large fault for the downfall of nuanced, interesting comedy is Joe Rogan.
For fear of going straight into ranting, I want to explain the history behind Rogan and the Rogansphere. Joe Rogan first began the “Joe Rogan Experience” in 2009. He was inspired by some of the earliest forms of podcasts created by guys like Tom Green. Since then, Joe Rogan and his podcast have become the biggest in the world. Part of Joe Rogan’s whole shtick is that he claims to be a “real” comedian who understands the art of making people laugh. This is not true.
The best evidence I can give you is to just listen to the podcast. Most of the time, Rogan is never the reason something is funny. Oftentimes, jokes fly completely over his meathead brain. There are so many compilations on YouTube of his guests making jokes that he simply does not understand. Not to mention, all of the comedy specials that Rogan has done are genuinely so bad, they are difficult to watch. He has no tone besides yelling, and his jokes are not written well. So no, Joe Rogan is not a “real” comedian.
So, if Rogan isn’t a real comedian, why do I feel like he is destroying comedy? This is where the Rogansphere comes in. The Rogansphere encompasses all of the comedians that have appeared on the “JRE” and, immediately afterwards, saw an increase in their own popularity across all platforms. These would be guys like Bert Kreischer, Tom Segura, Andrew Schulz, Brendan Schaub, etc. These people are not comedians, they are grifters. They want a piece of the money pie so badly that they are willing to suck up to big daddy Joe and do less than the bare minimum when it comes to jokes. Joe Rogan platforms these people, lets them spew verbal s—, and then they all get to make more money while branding themselves as “artists” who just want to have free speech. In all reality, these comedians that Rogan brings on only ever punch down. They do not make jokes, they bully.
I think Marc Maron really put it best. Maron is a comedian and podcast pioneer who used to run the “WTF!” Podcast. Recently, he went on to Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee’s podcast, “Bad Friends.” On it, he discussed his opinions on what Joe Rogan has done to comedy, specifically talking about Rogan’s move to Austin, Texas. At one point, Maron says, “Whatever they [Rogan and fellow Austin comics] represented in terms of policy, and it’s not a stretch, it’s like they won. Trans people are frightened and have no ability to get health care anymore and they are afraid of being alive and they have no freedom left. So, that’s done. When do you stop with the jokes?” Maron says something similar when it comes to immigration, and I completely agree with him. With the way the world is right now, do we seriously need a bunch of white, meaty bros laughing at suffering and never addressing the reasons for that suffering? No, we need nuanced, interesting comedy. We need comedy that peers into the systems we live in and verbally dismantles them. We need to get back to what the greats of comedy were doing. Comedians like Katt Williams, George Carlin, Bernie Mac, etc. used their incredible writing abilities to not just entertain, but also get people to think and talk about what is REALLY going on. Joe Rogan and his band of meat men want to distract you from reality. They want to get you to think they are cool and smart to be able to control you. Young, straight men are the most vulnerable for this manipulation, and it is painful to see so many guys my age actively choose to lower their IQ and listen to the “JRE”. You are destroying your mind, please wake the f— up.
I don’t want to end on a completely sour note, so I am going to list some old and current comedians that ACTUALLY write their own jokes and that I think you should check out instead of Joe Rogan. I already mentioned some of the best comedians of all time in Katt Williams (my personal favorite), Bernie Mac and George Carlin. Marc Maron himself is also pretty good. For my young, straight men who need “bro” comedians, check out Stavros Halkias, Nick Mullen and Adam Friedland. Caleb Hearon is hilarious and has a really wide variety of guests on his podcast. More comedians/podcasts you should check include Steph Tolev, Ralph Barbosa, Dan Soder, Ali Wong, Monét X Change, Trixie Mattel, Katya Zamolodchikova and Greer Barnes. All of these people are so much better to listen to than Rogan, and I implore anyone who is still listening to the “JRE” to stop.
