Joe Rogan, one of cancel culture’s fiercest critics, defended every comedian’s right to make jokes on his podcast, including Dave Chappelle, who continues to be under fire for jokes deemed offensive to the LGBTQIA+ community in his latest Netflix comedy special “The Closer.”
But this is about more than Chappelle and Netflix and his jokes – our society is facing a wider problem.
On the latest episode of his eponymous podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” with podcaster Michael Malice, the former “Fear Factor” host called Chappelle a friend and “one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life.”
Joe Rogan Defends Dave Chappelle – ‘Jokes’ Are ‘Fun’
Forty-eight-year-old Rogan understands that it is dangerous when a society decides who you can and cannot make jokes about:
Look, it’s fun. It’s just making jokes. That doesn’t mean hate. This is the problem with today: if you don’t have an enemy, you make an enemy. And this is a real problem with people. We look for things.
Rogan is right, people love to be offended. Feeling offended gives a sense of entitlement, makes you special, and that the world “owes” you something.
More importantly, Rogan warned against attacking comedians over jokes saying, “these ideas that you can’t make fun of are dangerous.”
The fact that Rogan knows Chappelle personally certainly adds credence to his defense of the comedian.
He’s just a guy who loves this art form called stand-up comedy and he tries to do his best navigating this world of talking s*** about things and saying outrageous things that get huge laughs, or placating really sensitive groups that feel like they’re in a protected class and then the other people that pile onto that, that also feel like this is a protected class. They equate any jokes with hate and this is where they’re wrong.
Part of having an open and free society is that everyone is fair game when it comes to jokes. When you say “You can’t make fun of them” you are not only censoring people, you are ostracizing members of that community.
A universal human trait is that we can make fun of each other, not out of malice but out of the understandings that humor unites us and that deep down we are all the same.
I’m glad Joe Rogan is fighting against the woke mob. However, I do wonder if the media is just playing this all up for ratings and controversy.
Is The Media Stoking The Chappelle Controversy?
As we move into nearly a month of talking about Dave Chappelle’s Netflix controversy, some are wondering if the media is just concocting this all for ratings.
Joe Rogan retweeted this in response.
Netflix is doing fine. You, on the other hand, are not, which is why you need to concoct artificial crises like this to stay relevant.
— Gurwinder (@G_S_Bhogal) October 21, 2021
I tend to agree, the media continues to push this as a divisive issue, when in actuality it seems the protests against Netflix were smaller than the “1,000” the media claimed:
This NYT article is pretty funny. “One of the most visible signs of worker unrest in the history of the streaming service” is a protest that had…100ish people participating? “The employees joined more than a hundred supporters and activists” — OK, so how many total, lol? pic.twitter.com/HGGIoBQMsj
— Liz Wolfe (@lizzywol) October 21, 2021
A Bigger Story Than Afghanistan?
So was the “1,000 person walkout” claim made up?
It looks like the “1,000 Netflix employees are walking out” meme can be traced to one anonymous source in THR and was then treated as true by everyone, because journalists don’t really journalize anymore pic.twitter.com/9FAtvBWXn3
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) October 21, 2021
One user suggested this cancel Chappelle saga is getting more coverage than our slapdash withdrawal from Afghanistan
I see that the Chapelle Discourse has outlasted news about Afghanistan in the media cycle.
— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) October 20, 2021
Then there’s the fact that Chappelle’s cancel critics seem to be ignoring hot-button comments he made about Israel and Jewish people:
You are a true imbecile. Did you miss @DaveChappelle’s last story in his latest show? Did you miss his jokes about space Jews (I’m Jewish with tons of family in Israel)? Stop being such a whiny faux-victim. You could not have survived 5 minutes of my childhood in Lebanon. https://t.co/063CquBzXe
— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) October 16, 2021
So where does that leave us?
Joe Rogan Vs. Cancel Culture Vs. Hunter Being Tired Of All Of This
I personally have no idea why we are still talking about this.
It was a comedy special. It contained some cringe-worthy jokes. What standup special doesn’t?
Jokes, by the way, that clearly elicited laughter and not a mass walkout from those who actually attended the taping.
I can’t help but feel that the corporate media exists to divide and anger us. The more angry people are, the more they will watch, the more they will be angry.
The cycle continues and CNN and their ilk make millions off of it. I’ve had it.
Enough of this division. America is not nearly as divided as the media wants us to believe.
Are you tired of the media stoking division? Is Joe Rogan right about jokes? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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