Joe Rogan Experience #1148 - Andrew Santino
Joe Rogan (host), Andrew Santino (guest), Jamie Vernon (guest), Andrew Santino (in-character/bit) (guest), Andrew Santino (in-character/bit) (guest), Andrew Santino (in-character/bit) (guest), Andrew Santino (in-character/bit) (guest), Andrew Santino (very short interjection/bit) (guest), Andrew Santino (very short interjection/bit) (guest), Jamie Vernon (guest), Andrew Santino (in-character/bit) (guest), Andrew Santino (in-character/bit) (guest), Andrew Santino (in-character/bit) (guest), Andrew Santino (in-character/bit) (guest), Andrew Santino (very short interjection/bit) (guest)
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Joe Rogan and Andrew Santino, Joe Rogan Experience #1148 - Andrew Santino explores joe Rogan and Andrew Santino riff on fame, sports, and insanity Joe Rogan and Andrew Santino spend a long, free‑form conversation bouncing between comedy, pop culture, sports, technology, and the absurdities of modern life. They reminisce about cultural icons like Bruce Lee, Shaq, Liberace, and Sarah Palin while skewering everything from aging athletes and video‑game culture to fat‑shaming debates and airline behavior. Mixed in are behind‑the‑scenes stories about stand‑up, hidden‑camera shows, Just for Laughs, Netflix, and how TV work can dull a comic’s edge. The episode is essentially two comics pressure‑testing ideas in real time, blending sharp social observation with deliberately outrageous, taboo‑poking humor.
Joe Rogan and Andrew Santino riff on fame, sports, and insanity
Joe Rogan and Andrew Santino spend a long, free‑form conversation bouncing between comedy, pop culture, sports, technology, and the absurdities of modern life. They reminisce about cultural icons like Bruce Lee, Shaq, Liberace, and Sarah Palin while skewering everything from aging athletes and video‑game culture to fat‑shaming debates and airline behavior. Mixed in are behind‑the‑scenes stories about stand‑up, hidden‑camera shows, Just for Laughs, Netflix, and how TV work can dull a comic’s edge. The episode is essentially two comics pressure‑testing ideas in real time, blending sharp social observation with deliberately outrageous, taboo‑poking humor.
Key Takeaways
Cultural impact isn’t tied to lifespan.
They note how Bruce Lee, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison died young yet remain more influential than most people who live full lives, highlighting how intensity and originality matter more than years lived.
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Aging in performance fields is brutal and highly visible.
Watching retired NBA players struggle in The Big Three or fighters taking damage late in their careers shows how sports built on youth and explosiveness turn sad quickly when athletes stay too long for money or identity.
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Esports and streaming overturned old ideas about ‘wasting time’ on games.
Where parents once dismissed video games, Rogan and Santino point out that top players and streamers now earn serious money, buy their parents houses, and build full careers sitting at a PC instead of on a tennis court.
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Shame is largely cultural, not inherent.
They argue that many sexual or personal behaviors people feel ashamed of are only ‘wrong’ because of upbringing or religious norms; in a different household the same acts would feel normal and unremarkable.
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Over‑policing comedy risks gutting what makes it work.
A Just for Laughs ‘code of conduct’ document banning anything vexatious or inappropriate is mocked as fundamentally at odds with stand‑up, which relies on talking shit, pushing boundaries, and inhabiting uncomfortable truths.
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Tech is about to change how we experience live events.
They discuss VR stadiums, World Cup watch‑rooms, and the idea of UFC or stand‑up shows in virtual reality—suggesting a near future where you can ‘sit’ cage‑side or in The Comedy Store from your couch.
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Too much TV and film work can quietly erode a comic’s sharpness.
Rogan explains that long days on set and not writing or performing new jokes leads to stale acts and disconnection from material; he and Santino insist that to be truly great at stand‑up, it must be the main focus.
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Notable Quotes
“Isn’t it humbling when someone dies really young and they did way more in their life than you ever will?”
— Joe Rogan
“Parents used to tell their kids not to play video games — now the kid playing Fortnite is buying the house.”
— Andrew Santino
“You need fucked up people to make rock and roll and comedy and rap music.”
— Joe Rogan
“In order to do comedy, to really do it, you can’t do anything else.”
— Joe Rogan, paraphrasing Louis C.K.
“This is harassing in its own way — a list of all the things you can’t do to people who weren’t going to do them anyway.”
— Andrew Santino on the Just for Laughs code of conduct
Questions Answered in This Episode
How much should fans expect aging athletes or fighters to protect their legacy versus continuing for love or money?
Joe Rogan and Andrew Santino spend a long, free‑form conversation bouncing between comedy, pop culture, sports, technology, and the absurdities of modern life. ...
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At what point does safety and HR policy in comedy festivals legitimately protect people versus stifling the art form?
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How will VR and holographic displays change what ‘live’ stand‑up and sports fandom even mean in the next decade?
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Is the explosion of esports and streaming a healthy shift in what we value as ‘real work,’ or will it create new problems?
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Where should we draw the line between provocative, boundary‑pushing comedy and genuinely harmful speech or stereotypes?
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Transcript Preview
Oh, we're live.
Ah.
Uh, what are you guys betting on?
Look, look around real quick. Do you know... What's new?
Hmm.
Easy. It's easier than you think.
Hmm. Bruce Lee?
Bruce Lee. Yeah, but still-
I saw that.
Yeah, I saw that too.
But still though, he didn't say it. He goes, "I wonder if he'll say it right as he gets on." I said, "No, I should have bet you money."
Well, I was gonna say it, but I mean, it's-
If you had looked this way, you'd have seen it right away.
No, I saw it immediately.
Bruce.
He's pretty dope.
It is dope.
Yeah.
Yeah, they just sent those in.
This guy's a bad motherfucker, Plastic Cell.
Yep.
... does some shit.
There's a great, there's a great hip hop album I used to listen to in high school, and they used one of his quotes, one of my favorites. He says, "Honestly expressing oneself is really hard to do. I can use, I can use really fancy movements and show you really crazy things, but to honestly express myself, that is really hard to do." It's a gr- it's like a beautiful little sound clip before they start the song, but it's like just him talking to someone.
Isn't it humbling when someone dies really young like he does and they did way more in their life than you ever will? (laughs)
Makes me sad. (laughs) Like, what am I gonna do?
You stop and think about it, like, who the fuck else has had that kind of an impact and... You know, he died in, what, 1970 something?
In the '70s, yeah.
Yeah.
And he was young.
Yeah. P- I think he was like 30 or 31 or 32 or something like that. Find out how old Bruce Lee was when he died. It's not like... I was listening to Hendrix last night on the way to the studio, or on the way to the, uh, Comedy Store.
Yep.
He was 33.
One of my... 33?
Yeah.
And I was thinking, he died when he was 27. Um, how much Hendrix music is there out there and he died when he was 27?
Yeah, but then you think... Do you think he'd be happy with what's going on t- Like, I always find that, like, what would they be doing today?
Who knows?
That, that trips me up.
Yeah. Well, you can't do that.
No, I know but that o- that's like, oh, they had such like a... Because, right, there's guys that lasted a long time and they either like are making garbage-
Yeah.
... or they're slowly still making cool shit here and there whenever they want to.
Yeah, there's the, the v- the variety so... And then there's people that just, nobody wants to hear their new shit, right?
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