Aside
For those who don’t know, Joe Rogan and Marc Maron have had a bit of a running feud over the years. Joe Rogan doesn’t like Maron for his comments regarding Joe’s confrontation with Carlos Mencia. On the flip side Maron admits to not liking Rogan because he feels like he sold out by doing Fear Factor and feels like Rogan shouldn’t be such an advocate for comedians after hosting a reality show.
The first thing that turned off of Maron’s Podcast was the commercials, talk about selling out. The next thing that bothered me was that he started his Podcast with a rant about irony and integrity. Knowing what I do about Maron’s thoughts on Joe Rogan, and the fact that Rogan was his guest that particular day, I could only assume he was setting up his argument before his guest even arrived.
“I was thinking about irony, I was thinking about Charlie Sheen, I’ve been thinking about myself, I’ve been thinking about integrity.”
He mentions Charlie Sheen because he’s an easy target and that’s what bullies do. He can’t just talk about Joe Rogan because he needs to face him for the interview. Instead he leads the listener to agree with his thoughts on ironic detachment so that you can relate to him later in the Podcast. When he actually faces Rogan he asks in a much less confrontational tone how someone doing comedy with integrity can work on a show like Fear Factor, and at the same time make fun of it? Instead he makes believe that he was thinking about some guys sitting in a strip club making fun of the strippers through what he calls “Ironic Detachment”.
“…Is that your excuse for not committing to your emotional reaction to it? Is an ironic disposition another form of cowardice that just enables you to repress your emotions or not have them? Or do whatever you think the rest of the people are doing? I am sick of this fucking irony shit, I’ll tell ya man because in a situation like that if you saying thats ironic does that mean the strippers are in on it? Are they all old, and backstage, and beat-up, and saying to each other “hey isn’t the great we are really turning stripping in on itself. We’re deconstructing it. We’re presenting it in a different way. Our very existence is mocking the reality of what people expect from strippers in the day and age we live in now…or are they just happy people are coming and throwing money at them for whatever reason they are throwing money at them…in some situations if you have ironic detachment you are actually more depraved than the guys that are actually going there to get some puriant excitement…if your there to say “this is so fucked, oh dude look at her she’s so old, this is so sad…” then you are disingenuous, you are dishonest, your ironic detachment makes you half a person, make you lack of self, makes you a coward.”
This crap goes on and on as Maron plants the seed for his later discussion with Rogan.
“Is it ironic to be at a job that you know you hate but because your over qualified or you have no choice…as you sit with that feeling you are taking an ironic position and that makes you feel better. Is that real irony or is that just sad? How long does that go on for before you realize this just isn’t worth it. I’m compromising my integrity. I’m killing a part of my soul here. That’s not ironic, that’s tragic.”
It’s very obvious to me that the guys in the strip club mocking the strippers are Joe Rogan making fun of Fear Factor. Maron is the guy pulling his pud under the table at an opportunity like Fear Factor. He is convinced that it’s his integrity that keeps him from accomplishing such financial freedom, when in fact it is his own lack of enthusiasm and talent. Tragically ironic that Maron hosted on a similar game show that never caught on. He just never had the chance to show his integrity before it was cancelled. How ironic that his distaste for Rogan stems from that very same brand of selling out.
He says that he “took it in the ass for money…”, got lucky that the show was cancelled, and who knows what he might have become if he had continued to do that job? Um, maybe successful and not working out of your garage?
Once Rogan is on the scene there is a bunch of uncomfortable small talk before Maron jumps into what he doesn’t like about Joe. Maron can’t comprehend how Joe can host Fear Factor and still do an intelligent brand of comedy. How can Joe Rogan, the host of Fear Factor, care so much about comedy that he calls out Carlos Mencia for stealing jokes? He keeps leading Rogan to this path of Fear Factor regret that he wants Joe to repent and it just doesn’t exist.
- Do you feel like you sold out?
- Is it a weighty cross to bare?
- Did it go too long?
- What impact did Fear Factor have on the comedy business and television?
- Do you think you put comedy writers out of work by doing reality TV?
- Does the UFC clear your conscience about doing Fear Factor?
- How would (your dead friend) Bill Hicks feel about Fear Factor as a reality?
Really, your going to make Joe Rogan guilty about doing Fear Factor because Bill Hicks might frown upon a show where you encourage people to eat animal dicks?
One of the questions that bothered me the most was: Do you feel like you contributed to the dumbing down of society? Like don’t you feel bad to be a part of a show that makes people stupid? So Maron is insinuating that people who watch Fear Factor are stupid? When I heard this I went back to a conversation I was having with my friend about Fear Factor coming back on and how pumped I was that Joe had signed on to host it. He told me he didn’t like it. Thought it was moronic. It wasn’t his intent to make me feel dumb for liking it because he knows how much I like Rogan but I wondered how much Maron’s take influenced him.
This crap about writers being out of work because of reality television and Rogan feeling guilty for being a part of it is nonsense. Imagine being a cashier and your store installs a bunch of self checkouts that the customers really seem to like. Your offered a job to be that guy who oversees the self checkouts while a bunch of other cashiers with less seniority are being laid off. Do you pass on the job as a matter of integrity?
At the end of the podcast I was hoping that Rogan would eventually get pissed off and defend Maron’s offensive questioning with a Darth Choke. I wasn’t 100% satisfied with Joe’s own defensive mechanism while being probed about Fear Factor and selling out. What I wanted to hear was “Fuck ya, Fear Factor was fun and I made a shit load of money. Don’t like it, don’t watch it dummy”. It seemed more like he needed to condone his actions and convince Maron that he was still a legit comic while he was hosting the show. It doesn’t matter.
I also loved Maron’s questioning about steroids.
My friend and I had a prior debate on another occasion while watching the UFC as to whether or not Joe was on steroids. I said no and he said fersure. That was another reason he told me to listen to this particular instalment of WTF. He said that Joe admits to doing steroids. Now I know why this show is called: What the fuck? I didn’t hear anything of the sort.
“People come on my show and act a little more low and human than they do in their own world. I guess that’s what I am doing here.”
- Marc Maron (narcissist douche)
