Comedy Scandal: Joe Rogan Allegedly Stealing Material from Brendan Schaub
In an ironic twist, Joe Rogan has been accused of stealing jokes nearly two decades after single-handedly destroying Carlos Mencia’s career for doing the same thing.
Rogan recently returned to the stage for the Netflix comedy special ‘Burn The Boats’ which was met with mixed reviews, generating a 54% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Less than two weeks removed from its release date, Rogan is being accused of recycling jokes and stealing material from other comics.
While the former is nothing new as comedians often reuse and modify old material, the latter is a serious accusation in the stand-up comic community.
YouTube channel The Elephant Grave posted an extensive 36-minute breakdown of Rogan’s latest Netflix offering loaded with criticism, the biggest being that Rogan stole material from fellow comic and JRE podcast regular Brendan Schaub.
Rogan famously helped guide Schaub’s early days in the stand-up game after the former UFC heavyweight fighter laid down his gloves in 2015. Given their relationship, it’s all too likely that Rogan has seen some of Schaub’s stand-up work and may have found himself inspired by some of it.
Of course, the type of jokes told by Rogan and Schaub in the above clip are hardly original, so make of that what you will.
Thus far, neither Joe Rogan nor Brendan Schaub have commented on the accusation.
Critics Shred Joe Rogan’s ‘Burn The Boats’ Special
Joe Rogan’s return to Netflix was largely slammed by critics, earning a big fat 0% on RT and and middling 4.9 out of 10 on IMDB.
“Unapologetically, Joe Rogan stepped onto a stage to vent about what he’s dreamed about saying to a large live audience since COVID became a mainstay in the current state,” Matthew Creith of The Wrap wrote. “The San Antonio audience ate up everything the comic howled about for over 60 minutes, though Netflix audiences might feel different. If you know Rogan, you know exactly what you’re getting with this special … even if the special’s title might need to be clarified for those not familiar with the idiom it offers.”
Daniel D’Addario of Variety appeared to agree with Creith’s assessment, accusing Rogan of offering up diatribes “decades too late” and attempting to garner attention with a controversial subject matter rather than providing any sort of unique take.
“Much of Rogan’s comedy, here, was simplistic to the point of sketched out,” D’Addario said. “Rogan spoke mockingly of at least some trans people as ‘crazy people,’ saying that, while some transness is legitimate, untold others were like the villain of The Silence of the Lambs; this is not only prejudiced, this is amateur stuff. A later bit about feeling intimidated around gay men because of Rogan’s understanding of men’s primal nature felt similar: Outdated. Tired. It ultimately came as a relief, even for the viewer who disagreed, when COVID came up in Rogan’s litany, if only because it was a topic that hadn’t already been chewed up by the culture like so many pieces of offal on Fear Factor.”
Jacques Berlinerblau of MSNBC added that Rogan’s latest special was light on comedy and heavy on complaints.
“I’m going to preface this with — I love stand-up comedy and I don’t mind Joe Rogan. I enjoy his podcast. BUT — Someone close to Joe — please be honest and tell him this last special wasn’t great. This was a bizarre 21st-century Sam Kinison impression.”
Did you watch Joe Rogan’s latest Netflix special? If so, let us know what you think.
