Joe Rogan’s rise from sitcom actor to podcasting juggernaut reshaped comedy in ways few predicted. In this clip, W. Kamau Bell joins Luke Thomas to unpack how Rogan went from being an average club comic to the defining voice of an entire generation of performers — and what that means for the future of stand-up.

Bell recalls seeing Rogan’s early act after NewsRadio was canceled — complete with “stool-f***er” bits that divided comics — and explains how Rogan leveraged charisma, online message boards, and Fear Factor fame into a cult following. The two explore whether Rogan’s marketing genius and podcast success came at the cost of stand-up artistry and how his Austin scene has shifted comedy’s center of gravity.

They also dig into the modern crowd-work boom flooding TikTok and YouTube, arguing that algorithms — not audiences — are driving what comics now perform on stage. Bell insists that “the algorithm eats it up,” but most comedy still happens far from that world.

This candid conversation charts the strange evolution from Patrice O’Neal and Bill Burr’s club era to today’s influencer-comedian ecosystem — and asks whether Rogan’s dominance ultimately helped or hollowed out the craft he came from.

Listen to the full conversation over on Luke’s Substack: https://lthomas.substack.com/

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Chapters

00:00 How Joe Rogan Became Comedy’s Power Center

01:20 Rogan’s Early Act and Club Reputation

02:40 The Marketing Genius of Fear Factor Rogan

04:10 Why Podcasting Changed Stand-Up Forever

05:50 Crowd Work and the Algorithm Era

07:00 Social Media vs. Crafted Material

08:10 What Austin Did to Comedy

09:00 The Future of Stand-Up in the Rogan Age

10:05 Final Thoughts on Comedy’s Next Wave