Whitney Cummings tried to defend Joe Rogan and it backfired badly | indy100

Joe Rogan claims 'lockdowns don't work' in new podcast

The Joe Rogan Podcast

Whitney Cummings has waded into the controversy surrounding Joe Rogan, and her defence of the podcast host backfired pretty badly online.

The comedian and actress spoke after some medical experts alleged the podcast is spreading “societally harmful” Covid-19 disinformation, while past use of racial slurs in his show has also been criticised.

It comes after the CEO of Spotify has admitted he finds some of Joe Rogan’s content “very offensive”, with musicians pulling their music from the streaming platform over the controversy.

Cummings - who created the sitcom 2 Broke Girls and released the Netflix special Can I Touch It? in 2019 - came out in defence of Rogan in a series of tweets, urging her followers to critique politicians and not entertainers over moral issues.

The comedian threw her support behind the controversial podcast hostGetty Images

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The 39-year-old wrote: “Don’t look to why so many people trust Joe Rogan, look to why so few people trust the mainstream media.”

She added: “Comedians did not sign up to be your hero. It’s our job to be irreverent and dangerous, to question authority and take you through a spooky mental haunted house so you can arrive at your own conclusions. Stay focused on the people we pay taxes to to be moral leaders.”

Comedians did not sign up to be your hero. It\u2019s our job to be irreverent and dangerous, to question authority and take you through a spooky mental haunted house so you can arrive at your own conclusions. Stay focused on the people we pay taxes to to be moral leaders.
— Whitney Cummings (@Whitney Cummings) 1644153114

The tweet didn’t appear to have the desired effect, with a number of high profile comedians taking issue with her comments.

Marc Maron was one of the first to hit back, suggesting that being “to be funny” was more important for a comedian than ‘being your hero.”

Maybe add \u2018to be funny\u2019 to the list.
— marc maron (@marc maron) 1644165636

Writer Jeff Yang also posted a link to a 2012 story criticising the Cummings' show 2 Broke Girls for its portrayal of Asian-Americans.

“I remember when you created a show that was irreverent and dangerous,” he said, before adding: “That questioned authority and took me through a spooky mental haunted house.”

A host of other comedians and Twitter users also took issue and parodied the tweet online.

I remember when you created a show that was irreverent and dangerous, that questioned authority and took me through a spooky mental haunted house\nhttps://twitter.com/whitneycummings/status/1490312297117589504?s=21\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/iSkCAbCofv
— Jeff Yang (@Jeff Yang) 1644179112

Comedians did not sign up to be your hero. It\u2019s our job to be irreverent and dangerous, to question authority and get chips on the way home and try and eat them while driving and ruin a perfectly good shirt with chip grease and also spill a can of coke all in the footwell ffs.
— Sooz Kempner (@Sooz Kempner) 1644170735

Comedians did not sign up to be your hero. It\u2019s our job to be irreverent and dangerous, to question authority and drive for hundreds of miles to tell some people in the backroom of a pub that they live in a shithole.
— Matt Green (@Matt Green) 1644182593

Comedians didn\u2019t sign up to be our heroes, but they also didn\u2019t sign up for some strange immunity from criticism.https://twitter.com/WhitneyCummings/status/1490312297117589504\u00a0\u2026
— A.R. Moxon (@A.R. Moxon) 1644176093

Comedians did not sign up to be your hero. It\u2019s our job to be irreverent and dangerous, to question authority and take you through a spooky mental haunted house so you can arrive at your own conclusions. Stay focused on the people we pay taxes to to be moral leaders.pic.twitter.com/yBzFJxF3o5
— Rob (@Rob) 1644181280

Comedians did not sign up to be your hero. They signed up for an improv class and then had to watch all their friends and family make up excuses to get out of going to their level one showcase.
— Johnny Frittata (@Johnny Frittata) 1644174206

A comedian\u2019s job is not to be your hero. A comedian\u2019s job is to live across the hallway from Kramer and star in a show about nothing
— it was rachatha all along (@it was rachatha all along) 1644216162

Last month, musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell requested their music be pulled from the platform in defiance against The Joe Rogan Podcast which spread misinformation surrounding Covid.

The likes of David Crosby, Steven Stills, Graham Nash, India.Arie, Failure, Nils Lofgren, and rumored Barbra Streisand have also followed suit, along with podcasters like Rosanna Arquette, Roxane Gray, and Mary Trump.

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