Comedian Marc Maron has revealed that Joe Rogan criticized him only after he had signed off from his long-running podcast, suggesting the timing was less than courageous. During an appearance on The Dollop Podcast, Maron discussed the fallout from his commentary about fellow comedians that occurred near the end of his podcasting run.
“I did a round of them for a while and it started a massive amount of s**t everywhere that got all the way up to King Rogan who decided to criticize me for talking s**t about comics and then talk s**t about me for an hour,” Maron explained. The comedian noted the ironic timing of Rogan’s response, pointing out that it came after he no longer had his own platform to respond.
Maron’s co-hosts on The Dollop acknowledged they had been “gleefully watching the way you went out with a flamethrower,” referencing his honest assessments of the comedy world. However, they also noted the problematic timing: “But then once you were done then he started firing shots when you no longer had a cannon.”
The comedian confirmed this observation with notable sarcasm: “It’s very funny when they all start talking s**t after you’ve signed off. The day after was the day where he’s like you know what I’m actually going to be honest about Marc.”
What particularly bothered Maron wasn’t the personal criticism—Rogan called him “sad,” “selfish,” and “jealous”—but rather the accuracy of the research. “The funny thing was about that was that he did research, you know, he took some time to go through the history of me,” Maron said. “The only thing that upset me is like some of the research was off and it you know, which is indicative of people who do their own research in general, but like I got I got upset with some of the facts cuz they were not they were not real.”
The controversy stems from Maron’s comedy special “Panicked,” which included material about fellow comedian Theo Von that apparently sparked broader discussions about his relationships within the comedy community. Maron defended his approach as traditional ball-busting among comics: “But what happened to busting balls? It’s like what comics have always done. You bust someone’s balls.”
Despite finding himself surprisingly relaxed after ending his podcast, Maron expressed his frustration with what he sees as groupthink among certain comedy circles. He criticized “this large tribe the great monoculture of freethinkers” who claim to decide “what comedy was or what good comedy is,” calling their approach “at best boring.”
The comedian has no regrets about his honesty, even as it sparked significant controversy in comedy circles and drew fire from one of podcasting’s biggest voices.