Is this the making of a bromance?
Comedian and “cancel-proof” podcaster Joe Rogan has hailed Elon Musk as a “superhero” for free speech following the Tesla head’s divisive $44 billion takeover of Twitter Monday. Rogan heaped praise on the billionaire during a Tuesday episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” with guest Jessica Kirston.
“Oh s–t, oh s–t, Elon Musk just bought Twitter,” gushed the former “Fear Factor” host, who has received fierce backlash over his alleged anti-vaxxer comments, among other controversies. “We got a movie star cut type of a superhero. Like a movie and there was a guy who was like a hero in the movie who happens to be a billionaire who does wild s–t.”
He added, “Like makes his own rockets and drills under the city with electric cars and then buys Twitter.”
The comic, who has had Musk on his show a whopping three times, was reacting to news that Twitter’s board of directors had accepted the entrepreneur’s massive offer to buy and privatize the company.
The 50-year-old SpaceX visionary, who will pay $54.20 per share for the firm, has long stated that he wanted to acquire Twitter in order to restore the platform’s status as a bastion of free speech.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement.
However, the power play split Twitter users with right-wing personalities lavishing praise upon the supposed free speech crusader. Meanwhile, pearl-clutching leftist celebrities threatened to depart the platform, citing fears that the regime change would turn it into a haven for hate — although as of Wednesday morning, the majority of the “Twitter quitter’s” accounts were still up and running.
Rogan, for one, thought the acquisition was “f—ing amazing,” adding that the purchase is “vital” for a “functioning democracy.”
“We found out some things about Twitter and one of things they do is shadow ban,” said the UFC commentator, explaining that the social media giant deletes accounts for saying things “they don’t agree with.”
In fact, prominent conservative figures from Florida governor Ron Desantis to Tucker Carlson have seen giant spikes in Twitter followers since Musk’s takeover. Right-wing watchdogs question whether the phenomenon was due to the firm releasing them from digital house arrest.
“[The Takeover] It’ll change everything,” fawned Rogan, who wondered “how quickly it is before Donald Trump’s back.” However, the outspoken former US president insisted he won’t return to Twitter even if the ban on him is lifted, pledging instead to stick to his own “much better” Truth Social app, which launched in February, and was recently beating out both Twitter and TikTok on the Apple Store.
The buyout perhaps hits particularly close to home for Rogan, who has been the target of an ongoing cancellation campaign that started over a New Year’s Eve “JRE” episode featuring alleged anti-vaxxer Dr. Robert Malone. In it, Malone had compared the current US public health climate to Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, when the Nazis rose to power.
In response, A-list musicians from Joni Mitchell to Neil Young pulled their music from Spotify in an attempt to get the platform to remove the podcasting juggernaut. Meanwhile, Rogan watchdogs made headlines that same month after sharing clips of the comedian uttering the N-word numerous times in his podcast over the years.
Spotify never acquiesced to the cancellation campaigns, although it did yank over 100 episodes, some of which featured well-known conservatives, far-right pundits or conspiracy theorists, including Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, Michael Malice, Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos.
“‘Maybe Elon will buy TikTok next,” quipped Rogan during the latest podcast.
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