drotahorror
Member
This video is fuckin amazing. Took me 2 or 3 days to watch it fully but it was worth it.
How Comedy Was Destroyed by an Anti-Reality Doomsday Cult | Austin TX Comedy Scene (rogan kill tony etc)
- Thread starter drotahorror
- Start date
rm082e
Member
I watched it while fast forwarding.
TL;DR: It's another example of what happens when people make so much money that they become "post economic". When the normal rules of society no longer apply to you and there are no real consequences for your actions, it's easy to make up your own story that's not in touch with reality anymore. Joe isn't any different than a lot of people who achieve huge success and wealth. It's just that he has this huge spotlight on him.
TL;DR: It's another example of what happens when people make so much money that they become "post economic". When the normal rules of society no longer apply to you and there are no real consequences for your actions, it's easy to make up your own story that's not in touch with reality anymore. Joe isn't any different than a lot of people who achieve huge success and wealth. It's just that he has this huge spotlight on him.
I work for a company that was started by a guy who came from a poor background. He made some really risky financial decisions when he was in his 20's and just plain got lucky that they panned out and he became a multi-ten-millionaire by the time he was 30. Over the next 30 years, he played it more safe and listened to decent advice from other mega-millionaires. By the time he was around 60, he was worth over 200m. Our company was just one of a dozen or so businesses he had his hand in.
All of us at this company watched him start to make speeches and presentations in our staff meetings that seemed more and more "out there". We were a small company of about 60 people making 20-ish million in revenue per year. We loved our job, loved our place in our industry, and felt life was good. But the owner decided we needed to 10x the company, then 10x it again, then sell to some mega-corp so he could get on the cover of Forbes and be one of those crazy business success stories. The money he had made over the last 40 years, the multiple homes he had bought, the family he had established, all the money he had donated to charity and local institutions, etc. wasn't enough. He needed something that was bigger than he had ever achieved to serve as his crowing achievement late in life.
He wound up putting his trust in some very dishonest professional people who came from one of the big management consulting firms. I didn't get it at the time, but my boss was part of the inner circle and she explained it to me: These people go to top universities and get an MBA, they get into these management consulting firms and work for them for about ten years to get established. Then they start looking for a businesses that contracts the firm who have an owner or CEO who looks up to these managers. They butter them up and convince them to hire the manager away from the firm and pay them outlandish salaries and benefits. The CEO of the small company thinks these professional managers are going to come in and take their company to 10x the size because they're the experts. Occasionally that does happen, but when it does, it's not because of any leadership from those managers. It's because the company was in the right place at the right time, and/or the existing employees were going to get there without those managers coming in. Most of the time though, they just act like a parasite sucking money out of the company and not doing much work for 1-3 years. When the CEO eventually figures out it's all a grift and fires them, they just go back to the management consulting firm and rinse/repeat for the rest of their career until they decide to retire early.
So that's basically what happened to our company. These grifters steered the business into a very risky direction, sold the owner on a bunch of bullshit that had no contact with reality, but sounded exactly like what he wanted to hear. It took my boss becoming very close with the CEO and risking her own career by showing him how out of touch their message was with the accounting numbers and feedback from our customers. We were just a few months away from bankruptcy before he finally came back to reality and pulled the plug on those guys. He had to fire half the company, go into severe cost-cutting mode, and put more of his own money into the company to give us enough runway to turn things around. Meanwhile these managers wiped all of us from their LinkedIn and had a really impressive sounding summary of their time at our company. Two went back to the consulting firm and the other went to work with another former consultant at a different company. Our owner disappeared and put my former boss as the new CEO. We didn't see or hear from him anymore.
About a year later when we were on the path to recovery, our owner hung himself. I wasn't close to him so I don't know this for sure, but the impression I have is that he couldn't handle the embarrassment and shame of being so utterly wrong and being one of the "losers" who took his big shot and missed. And that's within the context of being "post economic" wealthy with a big family, every material object he could want, multiple successful companies, etc.
It was a good lesson for me to stop looking into the future so much and not to build your identity around what you hope will happen in the future. It makes more sense to live in the moment and enjoy what you have by being self-aware. That's not to say I don't plan, but I'm not tying my sense of self worth to some future accomplishment that I may not actually achieve. I get that the value of doing that is you are trying to force yourself to manifest that reality and if you don't tie your idenity to it, you may not be sufficiently motivated to make it happen. But it's a Faustian bargain.
All of us at this company watched him start to make speeches and presentations in our staff meetings that seemed more and more "out there". We were a small company of about 60 people making 20-ish million in revenue per year. We loved our job, loved our place in our industry, and felt life was good. But the owner decided we needed to 10x the company, then 10x it again, then sell to some mega-corp so he could get on the cover of Forbes and be one of those crazy business success stories. The money he had made over the last 40 years, the multiple homes he had bought, the family he had established, all the money he had donated to charity and local institutions, etc. wasn't enough. He needed something that was bigger than he had ever achieved to serve as his crowing achievement late in life.
He wound up putting his trust in some very dishonest professional people who came from one of the big management consulting firms. I didn't get it at the time, but my boss was part of the inner circle and she explained it to me: These people go to top universities and get an MBA, they get into these management consulting firms and work for them for about ten years to get established. Then they start looking for a businesses that contracts the firm who have an owner or CEO who looks up to these managers. They butter them up and convince them to hire the manager away from the firm and pay them outlandish salaries and benefits. The CEO of the small company thinks these professional managers are going to come in and take their company to 10x the size because they're the experts. Occasionally that does happen, but when it does, it's not because of any leadership from those managers. It's because the company was in the right place at the right time, and/or the existing employees were going to get there without those managers coming in. Most of the time though, they just act like a parasite sucking money out of the company and not doing much work for 1-3 years. When the CEO eventually figures out it's all a grift and fires them, they just go back to the management consulting firm and rinse/repeat for the rest of their career until they decide to retire early.
So that's basically what happened to our company. These grifters steered the business into a very risky direction, sold the owner on a bunch of bullshit that had no contact with reality, but sounded exactly like what he wanted to hear. It took my boss becoming very close with the CEO and risking her own career by showing him how out of touch their message was with the accounting numbers and feedback from our customers. We were just a few months away from bankruptcy before he finally came back to reality and pulled the plug on those guys. He had to fire half the company, go into severe cost-cutting mode, and put more of his own money into the company to give us enough runway to turn things around. Meanwhile these managers wiped all of us from their LinkedIn and had a really impressive sounding summary of their time at our company. Two went back to the consulting firm and the other went to work with another former consultant at a different company. Our owner disappeared and put my former boss as the new CEO. We didn't see or hear from him anymore.
About a year later when we were on the path to recovery, our owner hung himself. I wasn't close to him so I don't know this for sure, but the impression I have is that he couldn't handle the embarrassment and shame of being so utterly wrong and being one of the "losers" who took his big shot and missed. And that's within the context of being "post economic" wealthy with a big family, every material object he could want, multiple successful companies, etc.
It was a good lesson for me to stop looking into the future so much and not to build your identity around what you hope will happen in the future. It makes more sense to live in the moment and enjoy what you have by being self-aware. That's not to say I don't plan, but I'm not tying my sense of self worth to some future accomplishment that I may not actually achieve. I get that the value of doing that is you are trying to force yourself to manifest that reality and if you don't tie your idenity to it, you may not be sufficiently motivated to make it happen. But it's a Faustian bargain.
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diffusionx
Gold Member
it was definitely wounded by the cultural forces of the mid to late 2010s but seems to be making a comeback of sorts. Think of what happened when Dave Chappelle, by far the most famous and influential comedian, released a special that made fun of a special class.
I didn't watch the video.
DKehoe
Member
Wasn't it really popular and hugely financially lucrative for him?
diffusionx
Gold Member
yes because people sided with him instead of the people going after him. But that's because he is Dave Chappelle. He has the clout, power, and fanbase to deal with that. Nobody else was allowed to joke about it. That's my point.
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Wildebeest
Member
Don't worry Bob Mortimer saved comedy.
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
Wildebeest
Member
A dedication the art you rarely find in Texas or New Mexico.
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
I do agree to a certain extent but I'm not going to be the one to harp or knock Joe Rogan as he has been a pivotal figure. I think he is in it for the right reasons and he just loves talking to his friends and things like that and it is true that some comedians like Bert kreischer have definitely benefited from being his friend.
I don't think Joe would have moved out of California to Texas and started the comedy club with bad intentions. I don't think comedy is the right place for California at this time just like certain other places but that seems to be changing for the better and I definitely don't think comedy is that. As a matter of fact I've been following podcast and things like this for 15 years and it's definitely Rose the tide and unfortunately some of the boats don't deserve to be raised by that tide.
I don't think Joe would have moved out of California to Texas and started the comedy club with bad intentions. I don't think comedy is the right place for California at this time just like certain other places but that seems to be changing for the better and I definitely don't think comedy is that. As a matter of fact I've been following podcast and things like this for 15 years and it's definitely Rose the tide and unfortunately some of the boats don't deserve to be raised by that tide.
This story reminds me of the study that found (at the time) that ~$75K was the 'ideal' amount of money to make. It covered your basic needs, gave you some spending money, but kept you from stuff that really just adds stress. I kinda believe it. I'm making exponentially more now that I was 20 years ago but am I exponentially happier? Is drinking more expensive scotch, banging hotter hookers, and driving faster cars really making me more happy?
12Goblins
Lil’ Gobbie
All the best things in life (existentially fulfilling) are free--ie connection, relationships, purpose, health, contribution, growth, presence, etc. Money drives us away from these values.This story reminds me of the study that found (at the time) that ~$75K was the 'ideal' amount of money to make. It covered your basic needs, gave you some spending money, but kept you from stuff that really just adds stress. I kinda believe it. I'm making exponentially more now that I was 20 years ago but am I exponentially happier? Is drinking more expensive scotch, banging hotter hookers, and driving faster cars really making me more happy?
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BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
The real problem with this group is they fucking stink.
The Opie and Anthony/ NYC cellar crew was a million times funnier. Patrice. Louis CK. Bill Burr. Jim Norton. Jim Florentine. Dave Attell. Collin Quinn. Vos. Etc.
The Opie and Anthony/ NYC cellar crew was a million times funnier. Patrice. Louis CK. Bill Burr. Jim Norton. Jim Florentine. Dave Attell. Collin Quinn. Vos. Etc.
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Punished Miku
Gaslighter Pro: 16.7 Fireflops
It's a brilliant video, truly. I watched it a couple days ago. Really well done, thoughtful and also fucking hilarious. Recommend all the Rogan videos from this guy's channel before you get to this one as this is his Magnum Opus. He also has a good one shitting on Seinfeld that is a must watch.
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Wilhelm_85
Gold Member
30 minutes in and enjoying it for what it is, but almost everyone makes up their own story (interpretation of reality) and tries to will it into our shared reality. This dude just seems a little bitter because he doesn't like the story that the people with money and power are currently trying to will into reality.
Honestly, I don't think big C "Comedy" has ever been that special. Like most media, most people probably just gravitate to whatever they enjoyed in their formative years.
Honestly, I don't think big C "Comedy" has ever been that special. Like most media, most people probably just gravitate to whatever they enjoyed in their formative years.
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diffusionx
Gold Member
Thing is, around that time, practically every comedian had a podcast. Marc Maron started doing it first I believe and his was huge and got huge guests (Obama was on it). All of them were relatively similar in that they were comedians bringing on other comedians to talk about their life and work and stuff. How did Joe Rogan's become the dominant one?
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Rogan just hit on cool guests, I think. Plus it was long form and he was prolific. And the ones with him and his friends were pretty damned funny, so when mixed in with nutrition, physics, and alien theorists it all kinda worked. The very raw, improvised nature (real or manufactured) of it helped. Compare a rogan show to the overly produced, vocal fry laden NPR type thing or the zany 'morning zoo' style and it just feels more welcoming.
diffusionx
Gold Member
But NPR vocal fry or morning zoo weren't the only options besides Joe Rogan, there were literally dozens of these and I do think most of them were pretty good.
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Maybe. Folks also forget that Rogan had a bit of fame, from TV and the UFC. I certainly knew him far more than most comedians working at the time. Nowadays with all the instagram clips I'm familiar with a lot more comedians but in 2005-2010ish if you weren't on a TV show or fronting a lot of talk shows/SNL, it was hard to have visibility.
IlGialloMondadori
Member
That's it. These people are not funny, and his other folks like Fridman are boring as fuck. Rogan is a terrible comedian.
Part of it is Rogan filled a space. There weren't a ton of male role models seeking to fill male role model roles. We ended up with hack Rogan and his dumb ass crew, or adjacent dipshits like Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson.
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Wilhelm_85
Gold Member
Because he talked with interesting people and usually just let them talk without a filter. He asked a lot of dumb questions, too, which is good when you don't know a lot about a topic. Basically, it felt authentic.
This was not acceptable to the freaks and lunatics out there who felt that was irresponsible and a source of mIsInFoRmAtIoN or that he was "platforming" people who were supposed to be banned by the dominant polite society.
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Grildon Tundy
Gold Member
That headline implies whoever wrote it is able to decipher the inscrutable nature of our existence to determine the true reality. Good for them! I'm still working on it, personally.
I listen to Rogan frequently. Funny is something he rarely is. Of his comedian crew, the ones that consistently make me laugh are Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliff. The rest kind of suck. And Tony is funny in how clever he is off the cuff on Kill Tony--haven't seen his standup.
Also: no matter how much they claim otherwise, Kill Tony's entire concept is not done in good faith, and I kind of feel like garbage after I watch it.
I listen to Rogan frequently. Funny is something he rarely is. Of his comedian crew, the ones that consistently make me laugh are Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliff. The rest kind of suck. And Tony is funny in how clever he is off the cuff on Kill Tony--haven't seen his standup.
Also: no matter how much they claim otherwise, Kill Tony's entire concept is not done in good faith, and I kind of feel like garbage after I watch it.
I've only seen the Trump/Biden ep, which was good because of Shane Gillis and the guy playing Biden. Any other bits, it's always just purely mean-spirited for the sake of it toward vulnerable people up on stage, never saw the appeal.
Dirk Benedict
Member
They're all hilarious, but they can't hold a candle to the prophetic, George Carlin. The Man was ahead of his damned time and he should have lasted until 200.
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