Podcaster Joe Rogan has labelled Australia’s government “super f***ed up” and “oppressive” in a wild aside, moments after heaping praise on the country.
In the latest episode of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan interviewed the singer and songwriter Ryan Bingham.
They spent a great deal of the two-and-a-half hours chatting about Mr Bingham’s experiences, particularly with the outdoors, and eventually Australia came up.
“My buddy Adam, he’s from Australia – he’s moving to America, but when he lived in Australia, he said they would encounter these scrub bulls. Like, wild domestic bulls that got out, bred, and now many generations later they’re completely wild,” Rogan said.
“And they will run after you.”
“I knew these three guys from Australia, several Australians that came over (to the United States),” Bingham said.
“They were from up there in North Queensland, somewhere. And one summer he went back, to work, and when he came back he’d tell me about where he was from all the time.
“I was always fascinated. I was like, ‘Wow, you’re from Australia? I’ve only seen the movies. But I was fascinated with Australia.
“And so he went home, and he had videotaped a VHS – you know, we didn’t have phones back then, it was that VHS tape recorder – and he had duct-taped it to his body while he was walking around the ranch.
“And he’d have his four-wheeler, and they’d be chasing these wild cattle, rounding them up, him and his brothers.
“To be able to see that footage, and have him tell me how they were doing it, I was like oh, that’s the coolest thing in the world. When can I go?”
(As an aside, it is always, without fail, charming to see someone get enthusiastic about a subject you yourself would probably never find all that interesting. And Bingham’s enthusiasm during that anecdote was palpable.)
“Australia’s such a crazy place, man. I mean it’s bigger than the United States, or the size of the United States, roughly. And it has less people than Los Angeles,” said Rogan.
“And everything there will kill you,” Binham interjected.
“Everything will kill you! Bugs, every snake, crocodiles! They have saltwater crocodiles, and giant f***ing great white sharks. Hooo!” said Rogan.
“And hardy people, man. Hardy motherf***ers come from that place.”
Bingham suggested Australians were “kindred spirits” with people from Texas.
“Yes, I think so too,” said Rogan, before talking about his guest from the previous episode, the “very talented” Australian comic James McCann.
“Man, he f***ing misses (Australia). He was like, ‘Mate I miss it so much. I miss it so much!’” Rogan recalled, doing what I think was supposed to be an Aussie accent.
“I don’t think there’s anywhere like (Texas). But Australia, it’s the same kind of place, it’s a rugged place,” he added.
“And the kind of people that live there, they’re fun. They’re fun.”
It was at that point that things almost took a wild left turn.
“You got a super f***ed up, oppressive government, unfortunately,” Rogan said, and seemed as though he was about to elaborate.
But Bingham jumped in at just that moment and steered the conversation in an entirely different direction.
Rogan has criticised Australia pretty frequently in the past; he seems to have developed this impression that we’re under the boot of an oppressive government during Covid.
The podcaster, who for all his charms is a little credulous when it comes to misinformation, downplayed the severity of Covid throughout the pandemic (it ultimately killed more than 1.2 million Americans), and opposed government-imposed mandates and lockdowns.
