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Death scams about the star podcaster are a curious constant among his fans
On his podcast, Joe Rogan tackles the huge issues. Politics, approach, the unusual and the unidentified– the significance of it all. In one episode, he and his regular guest Michael Shermer (a historian of science) go over life after death. Shermer makes the point that given that we can not want to find out what takes place after we pass away, brief of dying ourselves, we require to focus on how to live. Rogan concurs. “There are interesting things to consider,” he says, “however eventually, you really, for usefulness’s sake, you really must be focusing on life.”
Excellent guidance.
But for a guy who appears consumed with how to be, whether in terms of physical fitness routines or intellectual interest, Rogan has a fanbase, and a digital footprint, that continuously alleges his unanticipated death. At the age of 53, with millions of dollars in the bank and no apparent health problems, he is unlikely to die from any natural cause in the future. However you can turn up countless examples of people insisting he’s died in a freak accident.
The YouTube comedy channel International Enquirer, for instance, in 2015 published a video titled “A Tribute to Joe Rogan– Gone Prematurely,” styled as a captioned news clip without voiceover. “While on a walking with his dog, he slipped off a cliff,” the text reads. “His brains were later discovered in the death of his pet dog’s bowels.” The video goes on to hypothesize that he was murdered by the U.S. government for promoting the keto diet and slamming the Food and Drug Administration.
Or, here’s a redditor sharing the image of a tombstone for Rogan, setting 2058 as the year of his death and pointing to the T1 fiber-optic web he declares to have actually paid $10,000 a month for in the 1990 s in order to play the video game Quake online without bothersome lag.
And how about a chyron that states Rogan has been found dead in his house, “likely due to a marijuana overdose”– something the podcast host would reject as medically difficult?
According to Know Your Meme, jokes and fake statements about Rogan’s death have actually been a pattern for at least a decade already. The web being what it is, each iteration begets more content– and browse interest in “Joe Rogan death” has ticked steadily higher in this period. The Google algorithm will even dish out associated queries like “did joe rogan died today 2020” and “joe rogan dead tmz 2020,” which suggests people are trying to confirm each brand-new rumor that he’s died.
After a parody death notice made the rounds in 2014 (this time it was a DMT overdose), Rogan himself refuted the story, adding that he ‘d had nothing to do with it, as he ‘d “never [been] much of a prankster.” A year before, he ‘d dispelled a different scam relating to the purported death of Appalachian folk dancer Jesco White Rogan puts an excellent premium on “the fact” in his work; it makes sense he ‘d be set against whatever he thinks about fake news.
@msgtd911 @_n1k_nak I’ve never ever beem.much of a prankster.
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) January 5, 2014
Obviously Jesco White IS NOT dead. It was a hoax. Long live Jesco.
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) April 7, 2013
Why, then, do we have so lots of memes that reference Rogan’s departure from this mortal coil? Why stage a reaction video where you pretend he’s suddenly croaked, and why do people spam Twitter, NFL Twitch streams and UFC live chats with the hashtag #RIPJoeRogan?
On the surface, it’s just ridiculous trolling: State something incorrect for your own amusement, and once in a while you might quickly deceive someone. (You can view former NFL running back Arian Foster get hindered in a Twitch stream by a commenter who composed “RIP Joe Rogan 1967-2020 rest easy,” breaking off his stream of thought to examine Google.) Gradually, the repeating becomes the gag. It’s filler, stuff to clog up timelines and chat boxes. The equivalent of saying, H ey, I’m here
Joe Rogan passed away in a crash leaving the arena tonight. #RIPJoeRogan
— Meme Chef Lance (@TheDragula) June 7, 2020
That #RIPJoeRogan is technically false information, whatever the funny intent, draws an arrow back to Rogan’s podcast, on which he’s periodically pressed false stories and, most recently, aired dangerous apprehension towards the coronavirus pandemic. He has buffooned face masks even while bragging that he has access to regular screening and as his friends get ill There’s a stoner enthusiasm to Rogan that lends itself to unreliability and overstatement, which’s shown in media coverage (e.g., the headline “Joe Rogan Almost Died While Video Gaming”).
His listeners are acutely conscious of this; they most likely take pleasure in disagreeing with and roasting him as much as his critics, if not more. Spreading accounts of his death is in some way a spirited reaction to his habit of distorting reality, not to mention his “edgy” brand of anything-goes funny. It’s also a method to prepare for or get ready for a loss that’s bound to be ravaging for the bros of this neighborhood
Moreover, the ongoing riffing produces a star conspiracy that runs counter to the regular kind. Rather of Elvis or Tupac remaining secretly alive and well, Rogan is inexplicably dead in midlife. All the same, he’s unforeseeable enough, and occupies such an odd, private tier of popularity, to lend the memes a hint of plausibility. For now, it’s usually simple to reject “Joe Rogan passed away” as idle spam, but one day he actually will die, and the years of crying wolf might trigger some hours of confusion. Which will, possibly, complete the gag– Rogan existing in a superimposition of life and death, no longer conscious but survived by his unaccountable impact.
I would not be amazed if his loyalists, or whatever’s left of them, start stating “Joe Rogan lives” after that. The most constant lesson of Rogan’s prolific output, and the psychedelic journey to the center of mind, is that truth bends to perception.
RIP, guy.
Miles Klee
Miles Klee is MEL’s resident tank-top dirtbag, shitposter and meme expert. He’s likewise the author of the novel ‘Ivyland’ and a story collection, ‘True False.’