Joe Rogan Explains Jussie Smollett to a Guy Who Lives in the Wilderness

Reality television is a very strange animal because it's not reality, you know, a lot of the times at least. And one of the things I think that's really exciting about those shows like Life Below Zero and your situation in particular was that there's only so much of that you can fake. I mean, just the actual undisputable reality of your existence is so fascinating. You have this tiny little fucking house that you built yourself on a lake and then wolves are trying to kill you. Like that shit is real. You know what I mean? I mean, and you're out there walking in the snow. Well, you have a rifle and some snow shoes and a backpack. That's as real as is humanly possible and anything that they bullshit with there. It's like so what? Because the scene itself is so crazy. Like just your life. I always feel like, yeah, there's no need to bullshit. Why do people think they need to bullshit? And it's not just reality TV, but in general. I mean, come on, it's in politics and everything. Just being straightforward and honest can get you a long ways. But a lot of people think for some reason that it's better to bullshit. Why do you think that is? Because in the short term it can work. For some people it even seems to work for quite a while. I mean, come on. You're talking about the president? Yeah. I was thinking about... You can go a long ways on bullshit. But I don't know. I mean, to me, how do you feel inside about yourself if you're making some false story up about yourself? Yeah. Right. Yeah, there's something about it too that when someone gets caught, like that Jussie Smollet guy when he got... Am I saying it wrong? You said it like Dave did. I did. I did say it like Dave did. No, he said Jussie Smollet. Is it Jussie Smollet? Jussie Smollet, yeah. Smollet. Do you know who he is? No. Good for you. I should not even tell you. You don't need to know this nonsense. No, I'm trying to get up to date. It's a guy who was an actor on the show Empire. He was actually in one of the Alien movies too. He was in... Which one was he in? He was in the one with... It was a good one. He was in a good one. He was one of the people on the ship. Anyway, he was in one of the more recent Alien movies. He's in The Mighty Ducks too apparently. Well, there you go. I didn't know that. He's been in a bunch of shit. Anyway, he's an actor and he made up a story, allegedly. Seems like he made it up, of getting beat up by these white supremacists with Trump hats on, MAGA hats on. They put a noose around his neck and he walked into the hotel with a noose still around his neck and told the whole story. He didn't even bother taking the noose off of his neck, which is like, everybody's like, what? Wait, what? Everybody that heard the story. It's such a badly concocted story. Everybody that heard the story was like, what the fuck? And then the two guys that he got to rough him up, he got these two guys to rough him up and then they came out and said, nah, it was bullshit. This guy paid us. And then the Chicago Police Department is... They're prosecuting him and they're trying to get him to pay for their investigation. There's lawsuits and he's still... It's the most obviously fake story ever. And it's coming out of a guy who is a really successful actor. So it's so crazy. It's this, you know, racial hate, this hate crime story that this guy concocted for attention. And then suddenly, you know, the thought is that he wasn't happy with his role on Empire or what, but it was a huge national story. Because everybody knew kind of right away that it was fake. Everybody's like, wait, what? He's got the noose around his neck and he was holding a Subway sandwich. He went to a Subway. So he still had the sandwich, right? Somebody smacked him in the head a couple of times and he had noose around his neck. He's telling this crazy story and he wants to hold press conferences. He said he was the black Tupac or the gay Tupac he called himself. Sorry. It was just complete nonsense. And there's something about him talking, telling his story where you know it's bullshit and you're like, what are you doing? Like what is this? It's such... It's so compelling. When you see someone lie like that about some crazy wacky made up story, it's so compelling. It's like, cause you know, like when I was a little kid, I would lie about shit. I'd make stuff up, you know? Every little kid will tell you a lie. I remember thinking, this guy never stopped. He like lied like when he was a little kid and he just kept lying. That happens to some people. Yes! Yes! That's the dangerous thing about lying. Oh yeah. If you lie enough, I think some people actually start believing it. Oh for sure. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a psychosis involved for sure. Some people when they lie about their past, you know, like one of the weirder ones is like when guys get caught with stolen valor, like they have a crazy lie made up story about their military history and war record. That happened with somebody in reality TV that was working with Cody Lundeen. Wasn't there somebody working with him? Dual Survivor or something? Oh, one of his guys was a stolen valor guy? I shouldn't say. I don't know. I never watched the show, but if I remember right, I heard that. He's a weird one, huh? That guy just walk around barefoot with his disgusting feet. I like to go barefoot. Yeah, but his feet, they look like the monster's feet. They would show him, like it'd be like a thing, like a badge of courage would show these gigantic calloused feet. Like, what? Because he didn't have any shoes. Because everywhere he walked, he worked barefoot. So the bottom of his feet was like the top of this table. Like this hard, crusty, fucking, look at that, look at that guy's shoe. Look at his foot. Look at that. But here's the thing, man. Mine don't get like that, even when I go. He's out there in the fucking desert constantly. That's not his foot, dude. That's a little kid's foot. Really? It says Cody's flip flops. Oh, it's like a flip flop that he made? He made it for someone, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. There's something about walking around barefoot that seems really fucking gross. I love it. In the summer, it's the first thing I want to do is get my shoes off. Yeah. Oh yeah, I climb up the mountains barefoot until I get to where the rocks are, you know? Really? Oh yeah. 20 miles from the road to my camp, two-thirds of the way barefoot. Really? Yeah. Got a blister on my foot after about 20 miles and took my shoe off and I realized, hey, the foot without a shoe feels a lot better than the one with a shoe. So I took them both off. Really? When the rest of the way, oh yeah, I'm big into walking barefoot.