‘But what if that’s what they sound like?’: Clips of Joe Rogan mocking Asian accents add to controversy
By Ryan General
Video clips of Joe Rogan mocking Asian people on his show “The Joe Rogan Experience” have emerged online amid ongoing condemnations of alleged racism in his content.
Twitter user Alex Paterson, a senior researcher for progressive media watchdog group Media Matters who has dubbed himself a “Joe Rogan watchdog,” created a Twitter thread on Tuesday that highlights the “most hateful things” Rogan has said on his popular podcast over the past year and a half.
“I’m seeing a lot of Joe Rogan’s worst comments from the 2010s circulating,” wrote Paterson. “I get paid to listen to his podcast & want to remind people that he hasn’t changed.”
In an episode recorded in October last year, Rogan said, ”You can’t even do an Asian accent, or you’re a bad person. But what if that’s what they sound like? ‘No, you can’t imitate it.’ OK. You have to just give up. I give up.”
When a female guest shared that people get upset when she does a Jewish accent even though she is Jewish, Rogan said those who get offended are “retarded.”
The guest laughed and told Rogan he can’t say the word. The podcast host then responded, “But I’m on Spotify, you can get away with it.”
In other videos, Rogan can be seen either imitating an Asian accent or laughing at guests who did. In one clip, the podcaster laughed as he said, “You can’t even do that anymore, that’s racist!”
Paterson’s thread, which has earned thousands of likes, retweets and comments, also includes a video in which he questioned the authenticity of some trans people and a clip in which Rogan made insensitive comments about Angelina Jolie’s Bell’s palsy diagnosis.
Rogan, who has also been accused of spreading COVID-19 misinformation on his podcasts, recently issued an apology on Instagram after a video compilation showed him saying the “N-word” numerous times in past episodes.
On Saturday, Rogan called the slurs “the most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.” While he said in his video that he hasn’t used the slur “in years,” the comments he made making fun of Asian people were recorded more recently.
Prior to Rogan’s apology video, JREMissing.com, a website that automatically tracks “Joe Rogan Experience” episodes that are removed from Spotify, reported that around 70 episodes of Rogan’s podcast were suddenly removed from Spotify.
In a memo acquired by The Verge, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek addressed Rogan’s use of the “N-word and the removal of the episodes.
“Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful — I want to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company,” the memo read.
Ek said that while he “strongly condemns” Rogan’s statements, he does not believe “silencing Joe is the answer.” He then went on to announce that the company is committing $100 million to promote content by “creators from historically marginalized groups.”
Featured Image via @AlexPattyy
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