Hater Hall of Fame: Joe Rogan Edition

Joe Rogan, Born August 11, 1967

Joe Rogan was born in Newark, New Jersey, but spent most of his life growing up in Boston.  I was unable to find any information about his parents or if he has any siblings, but I imagine he has at least one of the two.  Rogan has said that he was a troublemaker growing up and was constantly getting into trouble until he was around thirteen years-old.  It was around that time that Joe first discovered martial arts, and claims that the discipline and focus is what helped turn his life around.  Within a couple of years of training, he had earned a black belt and would eventually win the Massachusetts Full Contact Tae Kwon Do Championship for four consecutive years.  At the age of nineteen, Rogan won the U.S. Open Tae Kwon Do Championship as a lightweight; amazingly, he also went on to defeat both the middle- and heavyweight champions to earn the title of Grand Champion.  His friends saw more than just a martial artist though, and Rogan says, “They thought I was funny, and they were constantly trying to get me to do stand-up.  But they were my friends and they knew how I thought, I really thought that other people would just think I was an asshole.”  Eventually Joes’ friends convinced him to try out his material during an open mic night at a local club, and he immediately knew this was where he wanted to be.  When recalling his first experience as a stand-up comedian, Rogan said, “I literally heard a voice in my head saying that this was what I was supposed to do and to just get up there and do it.  It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever felt in my life, and the only time before or since that I’ve ever contemplated the notion of fate.”

As with most young comedians, commercial and financial success didn’t happen as quickly as Joe would have liked.  When he wasn’t performing at local comedy clubs, Rogan took on odd jobs to support his new career path.  At different times, he was a construction worker, limo driver, paper delivery man, and even a private dick – detective, not gigolo.  Rogan’s big break came one night when he convinced a club owner in Boston to let him perform five minutes of new material for no money.  During that five minutes, an entertainment manager by the name of Jeff Sussman was a member of the small audience.  He was impressed with Rogan’s act and asked the comedian if he would be interested in moving to New York to further his career.  Within a couple of days, Joe moved to Yankee Land and Sussman had him booked on MTV’s Half Hour Comedy Hour.  This appearance led to him being offered a role in a TV show called Hardball, which was produced by – wait for it – Disney.  After a brief stint with this show, he was cast as a janitor named Joe Garelli on the Phil Hartman-led project Newsradio.  He played, in his own words, “a very dumbed down censored version of himself” from 1995 until the show ended in 1999.  Rogan entered the world of reality TV in 2001 as the host of Fear Factor, and continually grossed American audiences out for the next five years – the most memorable being an episode involving everyone’s favorite crackhead.  Currently, he may be best known for being the voice of MMA’s most popular brand, the Ultimate Fighting Championship.  He has been the main color commentator along with Mike Goldberg since 2002, and provides the most insightful, hilarious analysis for an exciting sport that he knows very well.  Rogan has released two comedy CD’s and three DVD’s, his latest being Talking Monkeys in Space.  Here is some vintage Joe Rogan stand-up that proves he is truly worthy of this meaningless honor.

(All videos contain language)