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Joe Rogan Faces Further Backlash After Footage Of Him Mocking Angelina Jolie's Bell's Palsy Resurfaces

Joe Rogan Faces Further Backlash After Footage Of Him Mocking Angelina Jolie's Bell's Palsy Resurfaces
Carmen Mandato/Getty Images; Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Peter Karleby
By Peter KarlebyFeb 10, 2022
Peter Karleby
Peter Karleby is a writer, content producer and performer originally from Michigan. His writing has also appeared on YourTango, Delish and Medium, and he has produced content for NBC, The New York Times and The CW, among others. When not working, he can be found tripping over his own feet on a hiking trail while singing Madonna songs to ward off lurking bears.
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The controversy swirling around podcaster Joe Rogan has entered yet another chapter after footage of him mocking actress Angelina Jolie for a medical condition and making racist and transphobic comments has surfaced.

Rogan has already been at the center of two other overlapping controversies over the content of his podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience" that grew so intense Rogan ended up posting a public apology last weekend.

Now, the wildly popular Spotify podcaster is once again under fire after Alex Paterson, a researcher for watchdog organization Media Matters for America, compiled a thread of comments Rogan has recently made on his show, including sexist digs mocking Jolie's medical diagnosis.

In a podcast episode taped last month, Rogan claimed Jolie's Bell's palsy, a frequently trauma-related neurological condition that effects the muscles of the face, is a result of her being "crazy."

He said:

“There's a rule. Crazy pu*sy is the best pu*sy… She’s clearly crazy..."
"That’s the problem with crazy is crazy comes with all sorts of neurotic sh*t."

Jolie revealed her diagnosis in a recent Vanity Fair article in which she also discussed other health problems that arose during her divorce from fellow actor Brad Pitt.

But Rogan's comments on Jolie were just the tip of the iceberg of those compiled by Paterson. In another clip, Rogan joined his guest in mocking transgender people and opined that most are just adopting it as an identity to seek attention.

Rogan said while he believes transgender is a legitimate identity that has "existed throughout history," he agrees with some of transphobic author and conspiracy theorist Douglas Murray's claims about transgender people.

As he put it:

"What Douglas Murray was saying is that some of them aren't really that. They're just latching onto this need to get attention, or to be special, to stand out, to be a victim."
"You're not experiencing real adversity... so you create discrimination against yourself."

Murders and hate crimes against transgender people have skyrocketed year after year, with 2021 the deadliest so far—a record that has been beaten every year since statistics began to be compiled.

Murray, for his part, claims these statistics are fake. No word from Rogan if this is something he also agrees with Murray on.

In other clips from just months ago, Rogan joined his guests in mocking Asian accents.


When he and his guest subsequently discussed how such jokes frequently offend people, Rogan called such people "retarded" and joked that he has a pass to use that word because his show is on Spotify.

"But I'm on Spotify, you can get away with it.

So far, that seems to be true.

Despite intense backlash from both consumers and its own staff, Spotify has chosen to mostly stay out of the furor surrounding Rogan's podcast, citing censorship concerns. Instead, the company has opted to add disclaimers to episodes that amplify COVID-19 misinformation and to delete scores of episodes containing bigoted comments.

But on Twitter at least, Rogan's comments generated intense anger.






Despite the repeated uproars, many experts agree the backlash is unlikely to negatively affect Spotify or its deal with Rogan in the long-term. It seems likely the consternation around his content is here to stay.

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