Trevor Noah recently couldn’t believe that he found Joe Rogan’s Covid-misinformation apology (in response to Spotify’s decision to add a “content advisory” warning to his podcast) to be “pretty dope” and “refreshing.” In the process, The Daily Show host stressed that this wasn’t a defense of Rogan’s habit of dropping misinformation, only that he appreciated the thoughtful pledge to do better. However, Noah certainly didn’t climb onboard with Rogan’s subsequent apology, which followed Page Six‘s reporting on a viral compilation of Rogan using the N-word, uh, a lot.
In a video statement, Rogan expressed his regret and shame over the video and admitted that this “looks f*cking horrible, even to me,” but he insisted that that compilation was gathered “out of context” from 12 years of his content. At around the 2:00 min mark above, though, Noah confirmed that he’s not buying that train of thought, especially since the use of the N-word by Rogan was so voluminous. The Joe Rogan Experience host was “dropping the N-word like he bought it in bulk at Costco,” as Noah described things, and he continued:
“If there’s ever a video of you saying the ‘N’ word that many times, you better pray one of two things: Either, you’re a Black person or you’re a dead man from history. Because then the worst thing they can do is take your statue down… and move it into a museum.”
Noah also took a moment to point out a part of video compilation where Rogan discussed going to see Planet of the Apes, and boy, that discussion took a turn. As Rogan discussed the neighborhood where he saw the film, the host proclaimed, “We walked into… Planet of the Apes. We walked into Africa. We walked into the film, and there was no white people.” And in response, Noah declared, “That’s O.G. racism… That’s on the Mount Rushmore of racism. ‘Black people are apes’ is right next to burning crosses and every Bugs Bunny cartoon from the 1940s.”
Watch the full Noah response above.