Joe Rogan is spewing some seriously problematic — and downright unfunny — antigay jokes in his new Netflix comedy special Burn the Boats.
In the new special, which is of course on Netflix, the same streamer that gives Dave Chapelle repeated platforms to go on transphobic rants, Rogan blustered on about vaccines, trans people (of course), and even gay men.
Early in the special, Rogan talked about COVID-19 pandemic and how the vaccine for the illness changed the way he views the world.
"Before COVID, I would have told you that vaccines are the most important invention in human history," he said. "After COVID, I’m like, 'I don’t think we went to the moon. I think Michelle Obama’s got a dick. I think Pizzagate is real. I think there’s direct energy weapons in Antarctica.' I'm just kidding — I don’t think Michelle Obama’s got a dick, but I believe all of that other shit."
The claim that Michelle Obama was a man or trans is part of a pattern of racist, anti-Black, and misogynistic hate that Black women have been dealing with forever.
And the Obama reference wasn't the only jab he made against trans people, as he later directly attacked them as well.
"It's almost like a pervert wizard waved a magic spell on the whole world," he said. "'With a wave of this wand, you can walk into the women’s locker room with a hard cock, and anybody who complains is a Nazi. Abracadabra!' And it just works! And everyone just accepts this new reality, and it’s fucking weird. I just think we need standards. You can’t just put lipstick on and now you can shit in the women’s room!"
But Rogan's ultimate enemy, according to the special, are gay men, who he views as predators.
"I don't hate anybody. I love everyone," he claimed. "And I love gay men. But I think about gay men the same way I think about mountain lions: I'm happy they're real, but I don't want to be surrounded by them."
"They're a bunch of dudes who fuck dudes. I don't like my chances, okay? They're not unicorns – they're just men who fuck men. And every man who's ever lived is a shifty cum salesman, okay? 100%. Especially the ones who say they're not."
The idea that gay men are predators who will pounce on any straight man they see is as old as homophobia itself.
This idea is behind the "gay panic defense," a legal strategy that people have used to "partially or completely excuse crimes such as murder and assault on the grounds that the victim's sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for the defendant's violent reaction," according to the American Bar Association.
This legal defense is only prohibited in 19 states and Washington, D.C., meaning that in the majority of states, Rogan's belief that gay men are like mountain lions could be used as a defense if someone were arrested for assaulting, or even murdering, a gay man.
While we're not particularly surprised that this level of homophobia still exists, especially in the world of comedy, it's still disappointing to see it get a huge platform.