Michael Ian Black Spent His Sunday Roasting Joe Rogan

“I’m neither a fan nor a detractor of Joe Rogan,” confessed Michael Ian Black on his Substack in the aftermath of Rogan’s Burn the Boats Netflix special. “To me, he’s a popular, but largely irrelevant, entertainer. Sort of like Matt Gaetz.”

But that didn’t stop Black from spending his Sunday blasting the popular podcaster for his terrible jokes. One in particular stuck in Black’s craw, in part because he couldn’t even figure out what the punchline was supposed to be. Here’s Rogan’s “joke”: “A lot of people say, ‘Hey man, you’re a fucking hypocrite ‘cause you’ll say the R word but you won’t say the N word? Yeah. You’ll say the R word, but you won’t say the N word? Yeah! ‘Cause I’m more afraid of Black people than I am of (r-slurs)! Duh! Don’t you know how jokes work, (f-slur)? It’s all just supposed to be funsies!”

Black’s problem isn’t with Rogan’s word choice. He says he’s in favor of comedians saying whatever words they like, no matter what letter they start with. “Say whatever you want, my ‘roided-up brother, but at least make a joke. What is the joke here?”

At the very least, Black says, the bit tells us something about the comedian’s fans: “Apparently, that the people who enjoy Rogan would prefer that he used the N word more often.” 

The setup of the joke is Rogan’s fans want him to attack Black people as well as the mentally disabled. The punchline? Rogan is too scared of Black people to do it.

“That’s the joke,” Black says. “To break it down further: the joke is that the mixed martial artist Joe Rogan is afraid of Black people.”

Maybe the terrible joke could have been a launching pad for insightful comedy about Rogan’s relationship with Black people, Black said. Instead, Rogan went in another direction, ending this particular bit with “Don’t you know how jokes work, (f-slur)?”

“Let me be clear,” says Black. “I’m not offended in any sense other than I’m offended at Rogan’s laziness and cruelty. Because that’s what this entire joke is, a lazy riff on naughty words that, allegedly, people are ‘no longer allowed to say’; it’s bigotry as victimization. And, like Rogan, it’s stupid.”

Back on Black’s Twitter/X feed, he dissected more Rogan jokes. “I know I’ve been talking shit about Rogan today, and I’m going to do so again,” he tweeted. 

Black says the first part of this Rogan COVID joke isn’t funny because he has to take so long to explain what he means — the people he’s talking about didn’t actually die, but Rogan no longer has anything to do with them. “Too much of a head scratcher to work.”

Rogan’s follow-up was funny, Black says, until he ruined it by adding this kicker: “I’m just kidding. I don’t think Michele Obama has a dick, but I believe all that other shit.” 

If you’re going to be offensive, don’t backtrack after the fact, Black explains. “Just own the joke, my man.”