Joe Rogan Discusses Sexual Misconduct

Hello freak bitches. Yeah, well I would just love to be a fly on the wall back then. I mean when you're talking about people that had very little understanding of how the universe worked or their rudimentary understanding of science just to hear the wisest of the wise amongst them try to figure out what makes everything tick. Talking about how acne is the devil. Yeah. Yeah. Well you want to talk about how women were treated then. That's what's really weird. It's like women have always been treated like shit. Always. It's always been some weird sort of relationship between men and women because we can get away with it. That's really the bottom line about it all. It's like what's happening today I think is that because of the ability to express now like it's almost like something could happen to you in a bad way and no one could know about it right. But now everyone can know about it. If you express it. Yeah if you express it everyone can know about it. Everyone can know. Sure. And now everybody's realizing that and there's like a shift. Well everybody's it's like when Black Lives Matter really came to the forefront you know and all these white people are like oh my God I didn't realize America was racist and black people are like really because we did. So all these women now are like yeah the shit goes on all the time. And I even think about in comedy you know and I went on this like Twitter rant the other day about it. This idea it's an it's art comedy is art and people feel ownership over it so you get these like boys clubs you know I'm very lucky in that I have it. You know like you get like it's a group of dudes that run the show and they don't like girls whatever it is or the way a lot of guys make women feel and it's so insane I'm like so because you moved to L.A. a year before me and you and your friends wrote the same jerk off jokes. You somehow think you own this art form that I've always felt a connection to my whole life just because you get you remember because I know I would not only that I mean I don't mean you get it like do you understand it but I mean does it happen to me does it happen to you. No. And the truth is I was able to avoid it because of what I did in my career early on because like winning a show like that makes you you get the headline. So I was never respected. It's not even that as much as I just was never in the trenches as much because I got to headline which is always the goal like I just had a different path. How much how much how many years were you doing stand up before you won last comic standing. Whoa that's crazy. Right. So for me I'm even more firmly I guess planted in my in my convictions about sympathizing or empathizing with women who didn't have the same advantage. And I want to or anyone being bullied but I see it you know at clubs that we do and these are my home clubs and I love it coming up the last 10 years I've watched. Oh no he's a good guy and this guy says like systematically like daily harasses women and all the guys like no he's we're cool he's friends we're friends with him. You know it's like you've seen that I've seen that I'm not going to say names but there are people who go out of their way to be horrific and I never see the guys around us and these are all you know contemporaries. Say anything because it's like now he's a good guy he's a friend and women will DM me. Female comics will send me messages. This is happening to me. He said this to me. What do I do? And I'm like all you can do is be kind work on your jokes. Fuck that guy. He doesn't mean anything but it is it does mean something psychologically if you have to go to the club and then you see that guy. And if you see him right before you have a set. Oh my God. Yeah. Oh my God. I've had you know disagreements. I was nervous. This isn't you. When I went you and I had that this thing about your phone number I was like I don't want to run into Joe. I'm so afraid of Joe. And that's someone who's a friend of mine. You know it's already such a weird thing to go to work but the girls who are like oh yeah I he told me I wasn't funny. He told me I was a slut. He told me this. He told me I was too X Y Z to this and just as if the guy owns the art form when what breaks my heart is like real comics like you are like Sebastian or like people that I or Mark Maron like guys that I look up to that I think they're like. I look up to that I think are so brilliant. They don't have time to sit there and get in the head of some girl who's just trying to make 15 bucks. You know it's not your M.O. it's only losers. Well I always feel that we're all in the same boat together and that if you have a vagina and I have a penis it doesn't. We're all comics. I think they're really I mean that's God it sounds like even to be sincere sounds like such horse shit in this weird day and age because you feel like you're trying to cover up and try. And try I'm not those guys hey I'm not that Harvey Weinstein guy I'm different. You come with me. Yeah I'm a sweetie. We could sleep on the couch together wouldn't even bother me. But you know I mean like there's but I think it's very important that all of us that work together. Look I can learn shit from comedy about from you. I can learn shit from anybody. I mean I've seen people do do stand up. They've seen me do stand up. They do it different than me. Sure. We talk. You've got a different method than I do. There might be something you see. It's always we're all peers. It's art and we're peers. But you I feel like that with friends and I feel like that with peers and I feel like that within it. You've got to you've got to be open. And if you're not open you're going to miss stuff. You're also very secure. And I really do believe that insecurity whether you're a woman hating another woman whether you're a dude trying to like step to another guy it all comes from insecurity. Yeah. So when you're I run this show with my buddies or you know I've been doing it three years I've owed the world like you're told that you're that you're owed more right. I conquered show but I should have more. It comes from this insecurity of if she gets something that I deserve and it comes from this place of you think you deserve something. And that was a big thing for me after I did the show. The men that I had to tour with were horrific like mental scars indelible marks on my brain horrific because there isn't this entitlement like how dare she take that. You know how dare you win the show. How dare you not roll over and die. But so I see that and I don't have to deal with it as much. But my heart breaks because I wish that these girls five years later could look could realize from like a bird's eye view when it's happening. I'm like but that guy's got nothing. Like if you really are going to be that mean to a fellow comic you obviously hate yourself so much. Yeah. But you don't see that like I wouldn't see that if somebody hated me even if they were a loser when someone hates you it sucks. No hate yourself. Like if someone hates on you because they hate themselves it still sucks. You don't know how to handle that. No one I've never even had a woman be that mean to me. And so I I took it. I wrote back a couple times like what's your problem. And it was just he was just a crazy person firing off at someone. And a year later he wrote me an email to be like I'm in rehab now. I'm so sorry. I've got a wife. I've got kids. So you enter into this art form and into the city with the best of intentions trying to keep your soul as clean as possible. And you have no control over the crazy that's going to be in your path. You only have control over how you heal from it. I guess. Yeah. And I think every comic is crazy in a certain way. There's just no way around. If you're funny I've never met a single funny one that wasn't fucking crazy. They're all crazy. It's just everyone's crazies are different crazy. Well here's the other side of it. So you get women and my whole thing is like you should be fired from your job for not being funny not because you didn't like fuck someone. Right. But I think some people take it a step further. They're like more for women. I'm like no no no. Do the jokes. Be funny. You shouldn't get the gig just because you're a girl. You should get a chance and you should have a chance to prove yourself and not have one stand in the way. But this like more women in comedy write the jokes. Be fucking funny. I will I will fight for you to get that chance. But I'm not going to hire you just because you're a woman. Yeah. The more women in comedy thing is like I just want humans to be good at it. I want good funny people. Yeah. And I think there are more women in comedy now than ever before. But I think there's more people in comedy now than everybody else. There's more people in comedy now than ever before. So saturated. It's so saturated. But I think it's a good thing. There's a lot of competition and there's a lot of support. Like one of the things that bothers me the most about any sort of weird shit that goes on with comedians whether it's boy girl shit or anything else is that there is a camaraderie that we share that is very unusual in a fairly competitive art form. Competitive in that I don't think it's as competitive anymore. And what I mean by this is that I don't think that the idea of like getting a sitcom or being the host of the Tonight Show or you know these these limited number of gigs that are available. I don't think that's where it's at anymore. I think there's more people like you that are doing Netflix specials and me and we both do podcasts like that kind of thing. I think is way more open to people. And it's way easier for us to all to be supportive of each other and supportive of each other in the art form of stand up. What's important in our world is don't steal. Yeah. Don't be an asshole to your fellow comedians support each other. And I'm going to be there for you if you're there for me. I think there's two things to that. I agree. I think it's also easier to be supportive when someone's undeniable. I think when you're first starting out and when you're kind of in the clubs and you're all kind of fighting for it to figure out what you have when someone's genuinely funny man or woman. I'm the first one to be like yes. Love that. Like I visibly fell over Sebastian when I bring him on stage. And I'm sure he like doesn't like that. And I'm sure he like doesn't love it. But I'm like he's the best. I'm so excited. And you are. I mean this sounds like a like I'm stroking your ego but it's true. Like you single handedly I think change the sort of landscape in the way that we consume comedy. Like you have this massive podcast. You guys don't know. We're in a studio that is at least two million square feet. And there are stuffed animals everywhere. Like once we're not teddy bears and there's elkhorns and there's an interactive dinosaur exhibit. Like it's huge. He's like. He's like a monster drink fountain. It's crazy. But you know having this podcast and then people see what's possible. So what's funny is you did this and you built this sort of podcast empire and there's other big ones too. But this is definitely one of the most consumed on the planet. So then it sort of opens up this new avenue. So then you get all these other comics. I'm due podcast too. And not everybody's equipped to do it. And there is I think a glory in being one of the originals because you kind of paved the way. Fucked up a lot in the beginning and got better at it. Sure. I was having a conversation with a good buddy of mine this morning about it and he was asking me about conversations. We were just talking about conversations about letting. There's like an art form to letting people talk in a way that's easy to consume for the people that are listening. We are very good listener. And I think a lot of when I started my podcast I did it so I could work on my listening skills. I know you were. And that was so nice. Talk about support. And you did not have to do that. And I think and I don't do a lot of podcasts. I beg to do yours. So it's not like you asked me. I was like I'm busy Joe. But I don't do a lot of them because not every comic is a good listener or equipped to do before the show started about some bad interviews you've done. And there's there's always going to be. It's like you got to want to talk to people. I like. Yeah. I like talking to people. Like this is one of the reasons why podcasts is a good fit for me is because I'm curious. You're very curious. Yeah. Very curious. I like talking to people. I want to like when I was saying like would I be a woman for a day. I want to know how the fuck your brain works. I know. I know you don't know how mine works. And I know I don't know how yours works. I'm fascinated. And I think that we're trying to figure men and women try to figure out our interactions with each other through trial and error. And when sexual harassment and sexual assault and stuff like this what's coming out in the news with Harvey Weinstein and and others and even the Kevin Spacey stuff. And I'm starting to see the Kevin Spacey stuff is not very applicable to what I'm talking about because it's men doing it to men. But the Harvey Weinstein thing is it's like here's someone is not even trying to think about how women think. Not only that he was trying to think how can I how can I do this the most. He had like a network of people helping him exact that plan. This wasn't like I'm drunk touch my dick. This was my assistant's going to escort you in. Yeah. I'm going to send spies to try to cover this up later. Like it's maniacal. Did you ever see that article from 1945 with what was that that woman's name. I'll send it to you again. Oh yeah. The lady or you know her. Yes. The Irish lady the actress. That was like if this is Hollywood. Crazy Jamie I'm gonna send it to you again. Put this up on the big screen. You know what I got a better version of it where it's not cut off. Hollywood is probably like yeah. Goodbye. Yeah. This is 1945. She was complaining that people were trying to fuck her all the time and she couldn't get any work because they said she was cold. She was like. In order to get work I have to like leave my husband get rid of my kids and be just fuckable. Here is Irish film star Maureen O'Hara. Sorry today charged Hollywood producers and directors calling her a cold potato without sex appeal. It's an Irish. Cold potato. Refuses to let them make love to her says the mere New York correspondent. Can I read it. Can I read it in her Irish accent. Sure. I'm so upset with it that I'm ready to quit Hollywood. Marine says it's gotten so bad. I hate to come to work in the morning. I'm a helpless victim of a Hollywood whispering campaign because I don't let the producer and director kiss me every morning or tell them or let them pommy and have them spread words around town that I'm not a woman that I am a cold piece of marble statuary. I guess Hollywood won't consider me as anything except a cold hunk of marble until I divorce my husband. Give me baby away and take my name and photograph on all the newspapers. If that's Hollywood's idea of being a woman I'm ready to quit now. Crazy. How good my accent is. Yeah. It's very good. But 19. But this is what I've always said about Hollywood and this is one of the real problems with the people that are involved in the business not just in terms of like the way it's set up but the problems for the person that's doing it that's trying to be an actor or an actress. Here's the problem. You have to get picked. So because you have to get picked you have to go into places like please like me. You're already fucking insecure which is why you're an actress in the first place. The reason why you're an actor in the first place is because you want an exorbitant amount of attention. You probably didn't get it when you were younger. There's something missing. What about people like Daniel Day Lewis? Oh he's a different cat. Yeah or like Christian Bale. There's a few of those flanks out there. There's a few of those freaks. Especially Daniel Day Lewis. He's like been working the last two years as a cobbler. Yeah. Making fucking shoes. He's my favorite. I love that guy. He's such a weirdo. And then when you watch him in some movies you know like there will be blood and you're like oh okay this is like you're not even really acting. You just become new people. Yeah. There is that. He becomes the guy on the set all the time. He's the guy all day. I don't want to spend that much time outside of my body. I don't either. But the problem that I faced when I first came here was I got first of all I never wanted to act. I had zero intention to act. I wanted to be a comic. But then I started getting these development deals. I went on two auditions in my very first my early days of being an actor. I got both shows. That's that's I got this show called Hardball. And then I got news radio. Those are the first two auditions that I ever went on. Yeah. I know I didn't I just got lucky. I mean I got as fucking lucky as a person can get. Yeah. Part of it was because I didn't want to do acting. There is that. I wasn't nervous about it. That is a thing. And also I was coming from fighting. So I was used to like really being nervous. Sure the stakes were so low for you. Yeah. So I could go in there like hey what's up. How you guys doing. Right. I was fine. Like is this a kick in the nose. No. Then it's fine. Yeah. I'm not gonna get a concussion and bleed out of my ears. Right. This but this environment where you're always wanting to get picked. That's why everybody out here is fucking left wing. It's not even they're they're really left wing. They have to be. Yeah. You have to wear a mask. You have to wear a pink pussy hat. You have to say you know all the things you need to say. You're literally formulating an act. And you bring that act into auditions. You bring that act onto the red carpet. That's why you're seeing these people like Harvey Weinstein who would donate to the Clinton campaign and do all this. What seemed to be like very left wing stuff you know and he was the darling of left wing. He's mere Max which is like right really kind of a progressive studio. People thought meanwhile it's just a house of sexual assault. I mean I think allegedly you can be a total pervert and have good politics bad politics. I don't think but that's not a pervert right. There's a big difference between what he is in a pervert. Fine. A total psychopath. Right. Predator. And it's interesting too because look Donald Trump's a fucking he's he's the worst. He's he's the worst. That being said we're going out and we're attacking people. There are people like I don't speak to my parents. They voted for Trump. I'm like cool. Well when they're dead you can you can rethink that those four years you know. And we out actors like he's a Republican. Like what are you doing. Well some of them revel in it right. Like James Woods. That guy's hilarious. He's on Twitter all day long fighting with liberals. But he also was not of the best moral ground. Here's something interesting. On my book. There is a Weinstein logo. My book is the last one to be published. Get the fuck out on the back. Or it's in the. Sorry it's on the spine. And what I've been likening to and I feel like the people and now it's a shit like they got absorbed. Weinstein books was only two women. It wasn't like a huge company. I'd never met him or anything. I liken it to like when your grandpa comes back from World War II and he brings back like a plate with a Nazi insignia on it. Like because they had they made their own shit. Like Nazis had like a whole bunch of people. Yeah like Nazis had like a whole Home Goods line. And he brings that one thing back. That's what that book is like. Like one of the last ones with the W. Now they don't have him anymore. Well look before this had happened anybody would have done a Miramax movie. He was the guy. I mean the fucking movies that they put together they put together some of the greatest movies of all time. I think it's crazy. I think we're getting to a place now where we're realizing oh yeah for every everything there's an upside down. Ever the upside down world. There's you know. Stranger thing. Yeah there's an underbelly to everything. Every business you can think of there is a seedy horrible side of it with horrible people and most of us choose to live in the light and think things are good. Every industry has that and we're just at a place now where like we're kind of shaking it out and people are coming forward. But this has always existed and it's rampant. In every business. Don't you think there's also. There's like there's systems. Right. And system systems of power where someone gets to a position where they have this massive amount of power almost like royalty. Yeah. And what a guy like Harvey Harvey Weinstein was essentially like a royal in some ways. Right. Like royalty massive power right. Massive money. All these people terrified of this big booming figure almost like a king that would cut your head off. Right. And when you have that kind of power it's such an unrealistic position to be in that I think it's human nature to exploit those unrealistic positions. That's why this Maureen O'Hara articles fascinating to me because this has always been the case. These unrealistic positions where someone has to get chosen. Yeah. There's one person who is a billion dollars and makes a hundred movies a year and ever and people have to be chosen to be the chosen ones to be in those movies. So you have a whole ecosystem. Right. And then you have people that are depending on that ecosystem for their own survival. And nobody even if they know something wants to say anything. It's like well I didn't know. Well you can't be the first one and then get fired and then you're fucked. Right. That's what they're thinking. Sure. You don't want to be the first one. That's the other thing. You don't want to be first because Rose McGowan was talking about this stuff forever and they're like whatever she's crazy. Nobody wants especially for women. Nobody wants to listen to that woman. And historically you know like Monica Lewinsky her life got wrecked. Yeah. And she was a young woman with the most powerful man in the world. And we love Bill Clinton and she gets called a whore. You know so there's a paradigm shift where people are now speaking. And in terms of like you're talking about exalting one position and someone getting chosen. That's shifting to people like fuck it. I got a cell phone. I don't need your movie. I have eight billion followers on Instagram. You know I'll just show my butt. I'll just show my butt. I'll just make a video about me eating pizza. I'm relatable now. And so everything is shifting everything shaking out. I don't think this is ever going to go away because if you're the kind of guy that does that that's just something you're going to do. You're wrong. I think it's going away. I don't I don't see how. I just don't think you can get away with it anymore. Well it's for sure going to get watered down. There's always going to be some amount of influence powerful people have that are in a position where they're choosing people. But you're implying that if you are that that kind of crazy where you're assaulting women that you're choosing good over evil. You just do. If you're a predator you pray on things. Right. But he couldn't do that when he was 20 and he didn't have any money. And nobody might have done it a different way. You think so. He might have done it. It's just who he is. I think sometimes it's who you are. So this whole I went to rehab. I'm apologizing. I'm going to listen. I'm so sorry. It's like it's who you are. And you can maybe stop. But that I do believe that that's we like to think I'll just go. I'll go reflect for a little bit. I love that they have a rehab that they all go to. For a week. For a week in fix you. Is it Canyon Ranch? I don't know. It's not. Kevin Spacey's there right now. They go for a week. But I will say you know absolute power corrupts. Absolutely. Yeah. So Dave Becky gave the whole gate wrote a follow up letter to Louis C. K's which I thought was it's sounded very genuine. And there is something to you know we have these levels that you exist on you know and you can't be aware. I feel like I'm going to put my foot in my mouth but you can't be aware of everything that's going on all the time. Some people think he was aware of it. But when you're dealing with these high level deals and you're at a certain dollar amount and you're flying high above everyone else. You genuinely might not know what's going on but you almost have a responsibility when you are that powerful. And someone tells you something about your client. To like maybe take it seriously. If I go on a Twitter rant my manager calls she's like you're acting like a maniac. Well okay but let's follow that up then. What does one do? I don't know. So if someone is a Dave Becky and you think that this woman might be telling the truth. And I don't know what Louis said to Dave Becky but we know that Louis told Mark Maron a lie. Because Mark Maron talked about it on his podcast. And he said that he asked him hey man are you jerking off for me girls. He said no I'm not. It's just a rumor. It's bullshit. He goes why don't you just talk about this rumor and say it's not. And he goes you can't do that because then it'll give it credence. Which I guess I kind of understand if it wasn't true. But I don't think I have an answer. Yeah I don't have one. I definitely don't. I don't want to seem like I'm going one side or the other.