In a recent Joe Rogan Experience Companion episode, former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub managed to smoke a cigar not only backwards, but with the cellophane wrapper still intact. He was seated at the table with Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, and Joey Diaz as the group watched UFC London together.
The moment, captured on camera and rapidly circulating online, shows Schaub with the unlit end of the cigar in his mouth while the band and wrapper remained fully on.
“He smoked through the wrapper. That can’t be good for ya bud,” one observer noted.
For seasoned cigar enthusiasts watching, the scene was particularly difficult to process. “I’m an avid cigar smoker,” wrote one commenter. “If I give a friend a cigar I watch and help to make sure they do everything right so they have the most enjoyable experience possible. This dude is literally a clown, there for them to laugh at. He didn’t even think to ask.”
What amplified the moment further was that no one at the table stepped in to help. Rogan, Bravo, and Diaz all appeared to let it continue without a word. “Not a single friend in the room,” one person observed dryly.
Many speculated that Rogan absolutely noticed and made a deliberate choice to stay quiet. “I bet Joe Rogan noticed but decided, forget it,” one commenter imagined. “If I tell him, he’d probably just say, ‘I’ve been smoking cigars forever, b. Grew up watching my dad smuggle real Cuban cigars and he used to teach me how to smoke. You know, in some cultures they do light them backwards, it’s a sign of intelligence and strength, b.'”
Another added simply: “I’ve smoked it bowlth ways.”
The consensus online was less charitable toward Schaub’s companions than toward the man himself. “The fact they let him do it is wild,” one person wrote.
Another suggested that Rogan’s silence may have been intentional: “Joe could have easily told him, taught him, or corrected him about it. No way in he ll he didn’t notice. This makes me think he put him on there to watch him fail as an inside joke.”
Others zeroed in on what they saw as a deeper pattern. “He’s such a narcissist that the last thing he would ever do is admit to not knowing how to do something, especially something as cool and bada*s as cigar smoking,” one commenter offered. Another simply called him “a poser in everything he does.”
“He can’t even do performative juvenile masculinity correctly,” one commenter wrote. Another kept it even simpler: “Bapa is literally the most unintentionally hilarious person ever.”
The appearance came at a precarious time for Schaub professionally. The comedian and podcaster has publicly listed his home for sale and reduced the asking price, is reportedly downsizing his podcast studio, and is navigating the end of a media distribution deal.
The invitation back to Rogan’s table was seen by many as a lifeline of sorts, which may explain the apparent eagerness to fit in. “Poor Bappa got all excited after being invited back to the big boy table and forgot himself,” one observer noted.
The podcast conversation itself covered a range of topics, including an anecdote Schaub shared about attending Tucker Carlson’s Christmas party, where he discovered just how close comedian Theo Von is with conservative commentator Candace Owens.
According to Schaub, Theo’s children call Owens family, and Von reportedly visits her home multiple times a week for dinner. “She’s like a sister,” Schaub claimed Theo told him.
