Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan took aim at targets like COVID vaccines and transgender people in his latest comedy special.
Rogan’s latest show, “Burn the Boats,” premiered on Netflix on Saturday night, and it reinforced some of the controversial views he’s discussed on his show before. However, it also satirized his perceived influence on culture.
“This may be misleading information,” he said, as if it were an early joke. “Don’t say you heard it from me, because a favour “For that filth.”
Rogan discussed his skepticism about COVID vaccines early in the special.
“COVID was so weird,” he said. “And we lost a lot of people during COVID, and most of them are still alive. There are a lot of people I don’t deal with anymore. Before COVID, I would have told you that vaccines are the most important invention in human history. After COVID, I said, ‘I don’t think we went to the moon. I think Michelle Obama has a penis. I think Pizzagate is real. I think there are direct energy weapons in Antarctica. Just kidding — I don’t think Michelle Obama has a penis, but I believe all this other bullshit.’”
Later, he mocked the negative reactions to Covid discussions on his podcast, saying, “If you’re getting vaccine information from me, is it really my fault?”
Elsewhere in the special, he followed in the footsteps of comedians like Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais, who have been criticized for making jokes about transgender people on their shows. Rogan began a similar set of material with a series of jokes about “pregnant men,” then expanded on his point that transgender acceptance is happening too quickly in American culture.
“I’m open-minded,” he said. “I just want to know what happened. It’s like some perverted wizard is waving a magic spell over the whole world. ‘By waving this wand, you can walk into the women’s locker room with a hard penis, and anyone who complains is a Nazi. Abracadabra!’ And it works! And everyone accepts this new reality, which is very strange. I think we need standards. You can’t just put on lipstick and then defecate in the women’s locker room!”
Later, he turned his attention to gay men, saying, “I don’t hate anybody. I love everybody. And I love gay men. But I think of gay men the same way I think of mountain lions: I’m glad they’re real, but I don’t want to be around them. They’re a bunch of men who have sex with men. I don’t like my chances, okay? They’re not rhinos — they’re just men who have sex with men. And every man who ever lived is a dodgy sperm seller, okay? 100%. Especially the ones who say they’re not.”
Recorded live at the Majestic Theater in San Antonio, “Burn the Boats” is Rogan’s first comedy special in six years, since “Strange Times” in 2018. It’s his third straight comedy special to debut on Netflix, a partnership that began with “Triggered” in 2016.
Netflix has developed some notable live comedy events in the past year and a half, including Chris Rock's 2023 comedy special “Selective Outrage,” John Mulaney's recent talk show “Everybody's in LA,” and May's “The Roast of Tom Brady.”
