Cancel Culture is no laughing matter for most comedians.
Some, like Stephen Colbert, never tell jokes that might upset the progressive mob. They follow the unwritten rules, avoid targets that might irk social justice types and laugh as voices are silenced.
Others understand, and rightfully so, how punitive Cancel Culture can be. Spotify star Joe Rogan learned that lesson the hard way in 2022.
The podcaster dared to question elements of the pandemic narrative on his program. Perhaps healthy 20-somethings should think twice before taking the COVID-19 vaccine, Rogan opined. The comic downed Ivermectin, among other medications, when he contracted the virus early in the year.
Three days later he was back to normal.
Rogan also let experts like Dr. Robert Malone, who didn’t recite Dr. Anthony Fauci’s so-called wisdom line for line, have a voice on his show.
For that, rocker Neil Young demanded Rogan get bounced from Spotify, and he pulled his iconic music from the platform in protest.
He hoped more musicians would follow his lead, but only a few bothered.
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The battle quickly expanded, with the media taking Young’s side and others digging through Rogan’s past to find other ways to “cancel” him. Voila, a compilation of the comic using the “n-word” in the past suddenly surfaced, and Rogan was on his heels.
He apologized, which generally makes matters worse. He didn’t self-censor, though, nor did Spotify CEO Daniel Ek bow to the howling mob.
Ek stood by Rogan, and eventually the Cancel Culture storm passed. Young’s sometime-bandmates, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young even returned its music to Spotify’s digital airwaves after a five-month protest.
The attack seemed to be over, but what impact would it have on Rogan’s Spotify standings?
Now, we know.
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The Wall Street Journal reports “The Joe Rogan Experience” ended 2022 as the number one podcast on Spotify’s audio platform. That’s the third straight year Rogan came out on top globally in a very crowded marketplace.
Cynics could say Ek and Team Spotify stood by Rogan for purely financial reasons. He’s a proven draw, and the platform invested anywhere from $100 to $200 million to secure exclusive rights to Rogan’s show.
That’s possible, but we’ve seen other examples where media titans threw away millions to appease Cancel Culture. ABC fired Roseanne Barr in 2017 for one terrible, racially-charged Tweet at a time when her “Roseanne” reboot was the year’s hottest new show.
That move cost ABC plenty. The show’s replacement, “The Conners,” never drew ratings quite like “Roseanne” 2.0.
Rogan’s unlikely survival came the same year Netflix stood by comedian Dave Chappelle after woke critics howled over his late 2021 special, “The Closer.” That comedy routine poked fun at elements of the trans ideology while wrapping with a heartfelt ode to a deceased trans comic with whom Chappelle shared a professional, and personal, bond.
Comedian Andrew Schulz similarly defied Cancel Culture, buying back his special from an unnamed streamer after it demand he cut specific jokes.
Schulz celebrated the results on Instagram this week:
The new year is but a few days old, but Rogan’s dominance suggests the woke forces aren’t as strong as they once were.
The post It’s Official: Joe Rogan Beat Cancel Culture in 2022 appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.