‘Joe Rogan: Strange Times’ On Netflix Sums It Up About Right

Two years ago this month, Joe Rogan joked in a Netflix special about how close we were to getting a President Trump, how he didn’t much care for Hillary Clinton, and wished we had an alternative (such as Elon Musk) to run for office.

Now Musk is stepping down from chairing Tesla, just a few weeks after smoking pot live on Rogan’s hit livestreaming podcast, which boasts 3.6 million YouTube subscribers.

Strange Times, indeed.

That’s also the title for Rogan’s second Netflix comedy special, out now.

Rogan dedicates this 63-minute set to the late Mitzi Shore, founding owner and matriarch of The Comedy Store in West Hollywood, where Rogan and his funny friends often hold court at night.

Of course, Rogan’s schedule has become increasingly busier as both of his other gigs have become increasingly popular. He now podcasts five days each week, and is on the road all over the globe commentating live octagon-side for UFC matches.

So it may not surprise you or anybody else that Rogan salivated at the president hypothetically challenging former Vice President Joe Biden to a fight via Twitter. One thing that has stayed the same since Triggered: Rogan’s belief that American politics, from the notion of sticking to the ideas of the Founding Fathers to our presidential election process, has outlived its shelf life. “It’s a ridiculous idea to have a popularity contest to see who controls everything,” he jokes here.

And if the past two years have made him rethink his stance on Hillary Clinton, think again.

Before you write your angry @ replies, know that Rogan not only understands your sensitivity, but also calls his own bluff by calling himself a moron.

“This is a new time for jokes, because everything I say on this Netflix special is going to get me in trouble,” he acknowledges. “But I say shit I don’t mean, because it’s funny.”

What’s funny to him now is rethinking sexism by switching up the genders to show us how ludicrous some of our customs and methods truly are. Imagine FOX News with the women in suits and the men in barely-there clothing. Or a 20-something undercover cop flirting with teenage girls to entrap them into arrests. He circles back around to gender issues at the end, in a set piece mocking Men’s Rights Activists and appreciating feminism. Even if he momentarily will forget context for the sake of a premise.

Then again, he does admit multiple times that if he’s a moron, what does that make his audience.

And it’s a fortuitous time to indulge us with a lengthy set piece about how 17-year-old boys are even more moronic than anyone of any other age.

Rogan is 51 now, and he enjoys the largest audience offstage that he’s ever had. Which also means he has more haters now than ever, too.

Sure, you might think he’s gone a bit soft with an extended riff about the natural instinctual differences between cats and dogs. What’s less offensive and more mainstream than that? That won’t stop him from speaking his mind, though, about homo-erotic undertones in professional wrestling, the odds of one in 100 vegans being an idiot, or the miraculous odds of giving birth to a child without ever having a vagina. And going into great detail about all of it.

You can believe Rogan when he tells you he’s not making any of this up.

Just don’t quote him on it.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Joe Rogan: Strange Times on Netflix