Joe Rogan attempts to explain his “Planet of the Apes” joke

UFC broadcaster, podcaster, and comedian Joe Rogan has made it into the headlines yet again.

Rogan has been enduring massive attacks from mainstream media for the last couple of months. But at this point he’s no longer shying away from the controversy.

The whole Rogan controversy started when a group of artists headlined by Neil Young, issued an ultimatum against misinformation regarding COVID-19 featured on Joe Rogan Experience.

Once Rogan was put on the spot, a compilation of Rogan using a racial slur resurfaced. Once Rogan’s defenders and the public accepted that most of the individual clips from the compilation were taken out of context – they were quotes and lyrics most of the time many detractors pointed to the now infamous ‘Planet of the apes’ joke.

The joke in question goes as follows:

“And [he] says okay, take me to this one. And the guy goes, is that in a good neighborhood?” Rogan continues his joke.

“They say oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, this guy barely speaks English… He takes us there, we get out, and we’re giggling, “Oooh, we’re gonna go see Planet of the Apes!”

“We walked into Planet of the Apes, we walked into Africa. We walked in the door and there [were] no white people.”

Rogan later regretted this unfortunate joke and publicly apologized for the use of the N-word.

In a recent episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” with comedians Freddie Gibbs and Brian Moses, that joke was put in question once again. Brian Moses jokingly starts the conversation by saying:

“I don’t think… I’ve never seen a black person look like the planet of the apes,”

Rogan then interrupts him by questioning.

“Are you talking to me about the video that I said,” The podcaster then starts his explanation, “This is what I meant to say…”

“We were high as f**k, and we got dropped off in this neighborhood, and we didn’t know where we were going. The guy just let us out of the car.”

“And we were barbecued, going to see The Planet Of The Apes…”

“I was trying to have an entertaining way of saying “it was like we were in Africa”.

“I said, right after I said it, I said that it was a racist thing to say.”

Rogan then furthers his explanation:

“Africa is where all the chimpanzees emerge from, [Planet of the Apes] is a movie about chimpanzees”

“I didn’t mean [to compare black people to monkeys] nor would I ever say it”

Rogan then jokes about his appearance being “ape-like”

“Listen if anyone is one [an ape], I am”

“I have a whole bit about it, I am 57% more Neanderthal than a regular person.”