Trevor Noah offered his thoughts on Joe Rogan’s ongoing controversy. Following the podcast host and Spotify’s responses to a video montage of Rogan saying the N-word dozens of times, Noah reacted to the situation on his “The Daily Show.”
“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,” the comedian said. “Then the worst thing they can do is take your statue down and move it into a museum.”
Noah went on to say that “as bad as it was to see Joe Rogan dropping the N-word like he bought it in bulk at Costco,” even worse was a story Rogan told about going to watch Planet of the Apes in a predominately Black neighborhood.
As reported by REVOLT, on his “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan said he “walked into Planet of the Apes,” referring to the movie theatre where he watched the film.
“We walked into Africa,” he said on his podcast. “We walked in the door and there was no white people.”
In an apology video he shared on Instagram, Rogan said he was trying to be “entertaining” and claimed it “wasn’t a racist story, but it sounded terrible.”
Noah referred to the story on “The Daily Show,” saying, “First of all, he said he would never say that Black people are apes, but he said that! That’s literally what he said.”
“It’s not just racist. That’s OG racism,” he continued. “That’s the original, old-school racism. That’s on the Mt. Rushmore of racism. ‘Black people are apes’ is right next to burning crosses and every Bugs Bunny cartoon from the 1940s.”
In his apology video, Rogan also claimed he’s not racist. Addressing this, Noah said he hopes Rogan has “learned his lesson,” but nevertheless, “Black people don’t have the time to sit down and sort out the racist who says the N-word 70 times with the non-racist who says the N-word 70 times.”
“‘No, no, look at how I was using it’… No, dude, no one’s got the time for that,” Noah continued. “Just stop saying it or just be racist — it’s easier for everyone that way.”
Earlier this week, India Arie, who first brought the video montage to fans’ attention, said she accepted Rogan’s apology.
Watch Noah’s segment about the controversy below.