Joe Rogan on Forced Diversity in Comedy

You gotta be like, well this guy's uh, you know, bi, so go easy on him or whatever. Is this New York? Is this your New York experience in this? Yeah, all New York. I'm a New York guy. Right, but you don't get that out here. Oh, that's right! How do you live like that? I did a show at the store and I was like, there's a lot of guys on the show, we're gonna get in trouble. And Santino was like, yeah, shut up. This is LA. I was like, Jesus. LA is a full-on meritocracy. There's a lot of funny women, but they have to actually be funny. Why? You don't get on a show just because you're a chick. But it's weird that that's even controversial. Like of course it's funny women, it's funny minorities, blah blah blah. It's funny everybody. Why? It's more offensive to put you on because you have a gash. Well this one, like I was saying about this girl that was telling me that she wants to have a certain look for her writer's room. I'm like... That's weird. The look should be hilarious. Yeah. Find the funniest fucking people that are willing to work for you. Right. Don't worry about, I want black, gay women, I want this, I want that. Listen, don't do it. Don't do it. It's a trap. Because you're not gonna get the best show that way. Of course. The best show is fun, the best comics. If they happen to be all women, fuck yeah. Yeah, fuck yeah. Go nuts. You got it. I get diversity. You want different people. Like I don't know all the shit black people know or Asian people know. So get them in here, but like just get the funny ones. Yeah, the real problem is actual racism. Yeah. The real problem is not... And guilt. Yes. Guilt is a problem. That's definitely a problem with some folks. Yeah. But the actual racism is the real problem. Not like ensuring that there's diversity to the point where you're seeking it out. Yeah. Eliminating the better candidates that just happen to be a white woman or a white man. Yeah. You know, you want this instead. Very strange. But it's not wise, okay? Because your product is gonna suffer. Because if someone's got a skill, like the real problem is someone... I mean, and it rarely happens, I would imagine, where someone decides that the far better person... It depends on the job for sure. But if you're in a situation... Like sports, that's one of the reasons why sports is so awesome. Yeah. Like in the Jack Johnson days, they did try to do that. They did try to keep Jack Johnson from fighting for the top because of racism. Of course. Of course. Totally. Because they didn't want a black man to run it because they knew he was the best. Of course. They were trying to keep him from being the best. But in most areas of life, I feel like if you're really good, you get ahead. And if you don't, that's the problem. The problem is racism. The problem is someone trying to stop you from getting ahead just because you are whatever you are. Or sexism. Or white, or sexism. Yes. That's the real problem. The response to that is not forced diversity. The response to that is like racism is awful. We should all agree. But it's not that you should force diversity. I agree. I think it's strange. You make a mistake. You're making a mistake. Yeah. And it's weird and kind of wrong and kind of gross. Especially with comedy. Yeah, of course. But it's just, and I get the whole, we got to like try to, we went so far the wrong way, then now we're trying to, we go far too far the other way. But like it's weird that they, people can't see that. And then they call you racist and you're like, you don't even have, it's always people without black friends who call you racist, ironically. You're like, you don't even know any black people. And why are you using that word so liberally? Weird word to say that. But you know what I'd be like, why are you using that word? So that's an important word. And you can't just, like in a world where we can't fat shame and slut shame, you can call racism and sexism so quick. Racism, the worst thing in America, to be a bigot is the worst thing, maybe pedophilia. But like, that's weird that you use that so quick. You don't even know the person. That's crazy. It's an easy weapon to use. It's an easy weapon. You're playing Dungeons and Dragons and you got a battle axe to throw. Yeah. You let it fly. I agree with this saying D&D, baby. This is, this is life. This is true. People's careers will get ruined because you want to win an argument? Yeah. Ah, it makes me sick. And I hate, now I'm going off on a tear. No, no, you're correct. But I hate these new, it's all whitey, by the way. I hate these people who get like real evolved all of a sudden and then they got to tell us about their evolvement. It's like, yeah, we knew that shit already. But we're not going on social media and having like a big parade about how evolved you are. I already knew these people are marginalizing that. But just because you found out now we got to hear your side, that's privilege. Yeah. That's the ultimate privilege. Like, like these documentaries about, I have privilege. You're getting paid a million bucks to do the documentary, you whore. What are you crazy? It's insane. Like, you think black people are enjoying this? They're going, oh, this is fucking embarrassing. And how come I don't get a show? You have the privilege again still. It's so entitled and narcissistic. They can't even see outside their own. Gah, gah. Sorry. Thank you, Mark Norman. Thank you. Well, that'll get me cancelled. I'm going to bang the gavel. Mr. Speaker, you have four minutes to respond. I'm trying, I want good. I want it all to work out. I want everybody to get a job. And I'm all about the funny. But you also don't want anybody to suffer sexism and don't want anybody to suffer racism. Of course. But you want the best people to be chosen. Yeah. I do too. And I think those things aren't mutually exclusive. I think it's possible. I pitched a show about having these standups and do this and people were like, we love it. Here's a list of people we think you should put on. And I read the list and I was like, these are all hack retards. This sucks. These people are all unfunny. And I know all of them. And you start going, why would they want to use these people? They're talentless. I've watched them. I do shows with them. The industry sucks. The industry is a bunch of finance cunts. They're all just wearing a suit. Nope, you know, whatever. But they're all wearing a suit. And then they're in the room. They don't know anything about comedy. I know about comedy. I'm in the trenches. I'm in the clubs. But they don't know anything about comedy. But they're all in a suit in a, you know, warehouse or a nice building downtown. And they go, this is what we should do. So they look good. They look woke or progressive. But it's not funny. Like, I hate that. And then they all go, I love Pryor. I love that guy. I love Carlin. No, you don't. Name me one bit. You don't know anything about comedy. You're just you're just at work. You got a coffee machine over here and you got a nice car and you want to keep your gig and you want to seem like you're on the up and up and you want to seem like you're, you know, evolved and in the on the right side, but you don't actually care about funny. Well, the problem is that they're involved at all. I agree. But we need them. We need them for TV broadcast. You don't need TV. Well, not anymore. Not anymore. You don't need anymore. Really. They're irrelevant. They've made themselves more relevant with this kind of thing. Of course, but they pay well. They do. And then they don't suck your dick until you're making money. Then they come on. You know, I go, Hey, will you, will you represent me? They go blow me douche. And then I, you start getting some, some, it's like Ari, Ari did a TV show. Everybody hated Ari. Some people still do. And mostly Nazis, but he, he had a show and then he got popular online. So they go, okay, we'll give it to you. We'll give you this. We'll give you the show now. And then now it's a storytelling show that's still on with the Roy Wood, by the way, who I loved. But yeah, so it's just like, you don't know anything. Stop telling me what's funny. I'm funnier than you. And I know what's funny. That's, you know, if they are going to work for a company that is going to pay money, that's going to get involved in the comedy business, there's going to be a bunch of people, not comedy people that are involved in the creation of comedy. And then their ego gets involved and they want to change the suit and to this, do this to the background. And then the show is ruined. Yeah.