Joe Rogan built part of his reputation on calling out comedians who appropriate material from others, most notably in his public confrontation with Carlos Mencia that effectively ended Mencia’s career. Yet now one of Rogan’s closest associates in comedy faces multiple allegations of the same behavior, and Rogan has remained conspicuously silent.
Tony Hinchcliffe, host of the popular podcast Kill Tony and a frequent collaborator with Rogan stands accused by at least four comedians of lifting their material. The allegations span from comedy legend Norm Macdonald to emerging performers who appeared on Hinchcliffe’s show.
According to sources, the Norm Macdonald incident remains the most prominent. In 2016, after Hinchcliffe’s Netflix special debuted, Macdonald tweeted about it then deleted the message.
The internet preserved his words: “No, not parallel thinking, but taken.” Macdonald later added, “You take jokes, you pay for the consequences. I have friends in low places.”
Following this exchange, Macdonald never worked with Rogan or Hinchcliffe again.
Chelsea Morgan presents another case. She performed a joke about firearms on Kill Tony in 2022, comparing the experience to an intimate act with a specific punchline. In Hinchcliffe’s 2024 special “Man of the People,” a nearly identical joke appears with the same rhythm and punchline structure.
Morgan went public not to accuse Hinchcliffe directly, but because audience members accused her of taking his material when she had performed it first. She discussed the situation on the Spitballing podcast, noting that reports of Hinchcliffe performing her joke surfaced just months after her appearance.
Dillon Jarboe experienced perhaps the most direct appropriation. During his debut in June 2021 on Hinchcliffe’s show, he performed a joke about a “500-mile peninsula of trash in the Atlantic Ocean” called Florida. Video footage shows Hinchcliffe writing immediately after hearing it.
Three years later at a political rally in Madison Square Garden, Hinchcliffe used the same structure, setup, and beats, only substituting Puerto Rico for Florida. The backlash was immediate, with campaign advisers publicly distancing themselves from the comment.
Jordan Fisher, a regular with a Tonight Show appearance told radio host Angela Yee about it. He said, “Word on the street is Tony Hinchcliffe has a joke of mine in his special right now.”
Fisher’s joke about a pregnancy situation in Texas and Spirit Airlines travel appeared in his special “Bits and Pieces,” which premiered on May 25, 2024. Hinchcliffe’s version appeared in “Man of the People” on June 9, 2024, using the same structure and airline punchline.
Multiple comedians have suggested the show functions as a material sourcing system, with Hinchcliffe observing hundreds of performers testing new jokes weekly. Chelsea Morgan addressed this directly: “With the amount of resources and money that he has, he should have people that are on the lookout for that.”
What makes this situation particularly noteworthy is Rogan’s silence. The same comedian who confronted Mencia on stage, who made joke appropriation a moral issue in comedy, has said nothing publicly about allegations against his close friend and frequent guest.
