#1857 - Seth Dillon

Joe Rogan (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Seth Dillon (0:13)

Hey, Joe.

Joe Rogan (0:14)

Nice to meet you.

Seth Dillon (0:14)

Nice to meet you in person, finally.

Joe Rogan (0:17)

Yeah, man, it's...

What has this been like for you? The Babylon Bee rise and attack and all the chaos. When did you guys start?

Seth Dillon (0:28)

2016

Joe Rogan (0:29)

What was the impetus?

Seth Dillon (0:32)

The impetus was nobody was doing it, you know? There's nobody that's doing satirical comedy from a conservative perspective, I guess.

Adam Ford's the guy that founded it, and it just... I mean, I don't know, there was a void there. Nobody was filling that void. So he's like... He publishes this site using a WordPress template and puts out some articles and they go viral so quick. Within two months, he's getting millions of visits. So, I don't know, he just had a sense that somebody... There's so much comedy, like the left dominated comedy. They were just dominating it.

Nobody...

Joe Rogan (1:09)

There was no answer to that.

Seth Dillon (1:09)

Why do you think that is? That's a good question. I mean...

So everything, all of these institutions, like the media, education institutions, corporations, all of these things, they're all dominated by the left. So comedians, though, I mean, as you know, there's been this opportunity, this big opportunity to kind of like step in and provide comedy that makes jokes that the left isn't willing to make. And so they were dominating for a while, but now I think things have shifted because you've got all these rules about what you can and can't joke about. And the people who are willing to make jokes that kind of like sidestep those rules, they're meeting a demand.

Joe Rogan (1:53)

Yeah, the meme space, though, has always been very right-wing in a lot of ways because it's like the thing to make fun of because since the media has been so dominated by the left, whenever there's like a narrative that just gets pushed like that sort of ignores logic and ignores reality, there's like a thing that happens where someone goes, yeah, but what about this?

And like that has been like the meme space. Like memes have always been like very funny. Like some of the really funny Trump memes and some of the very funny anti-Biden memes and COVID memes, they were kind of like on that vein.

Seth Dillon (2:32)

Yeah. Well, you know, yeah, when you've got a narrative that's being advanced and it's being pushed on everybody, you know, like, I don't know. I feel my personal take on it is that comedian's job is to like poke holes in it, you know?

Joe Rogan (2:46)

Yeah.

Seth Dillon (2:46)

Try to like find its weak spots, try to find like the hypocrisy, try to expose whatever absurdity is there. Like the narrative, you can't just buy the narrative as it is. You gotta challenge it some way. Comedy is a great way to do that.

So I don't know. I think comedy that challenges the narrative is key. And it's like, that's what people are gonna find funny because it's like you're trying to hold people in positions of power accountable. That's like, that is punching up, right? That's what comedy is supposed to do. We're told, allegedly.

Joe Rogan (3:11)

Comedy is supposed to be funny. This whole punching up, you know, when people, cheers, by the way. Cheers.

Seth Dillon (3:16)

Cheers, dude. My favorite far-right extremist.

Joe Rogan (3:20)

Who's never voted Republican?

This, that, it's like, this whole idea of punching up or punching down, things are just supposed to be funny. One of the best bits of all time is Sam Kenison's bit about starving people in Africa. And it's the most punching down bit in the history of comedy. I mean, he's literally talking about starving children.

About him sitting at home, trying to eat and enjoy his dinner, and Sally Fields is on TV, asking him to donate money to starving kids. And he's like, why don't you? You're right there. You know, like, this is the whole bit. Why don't you send someone like me, who says, hey, we just came 5,000 miles with your food, it would occur to us, there wouldn't be world hunger if you people would live where the food is. You live in a fucking desert.

Seth Dillon (4:06)

Right.

Joe Rogan (4:06)

I mean, it's a great bit, and it's totally punching down.

Seth Dillon (4:10)

Well, I mean, so, when I said that, when I said we're supposed to be punching up, I'm saying that's what they say. I'm not saying I agree with that.