The Joe Rogan Experience: Bridget Phetasy on the crazymaking middle

“I always say to comedians, don’t die on the content of the joke, die on the right to be hyperbolic, because that’s what they are coming after,” Bridget Phetasy, a writer and standup comic told Joe Rogan on the September 24 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.

“The world has become a floor of egg shells … because many people are dealing with mental illness,” she says.

There’s a lot of comics complaining that it’s become very hard to be funny because there’s a lot of very unfunny people who don’t even particularly like comedy trying to cancel them for making jokes.

Context used to matter. The culture used to give more leeway based on context, and it still should.

There’s a lot of goods stuff in this episode. Phetasy is apparently a pretty frequent guest on the show and I can see why. She’s kind of a lady Rogan. The part where she talks about basically teaching herself not to be a serious hypochondriac any more is especially powerful.

But all that aside I like her advice to funny people: don’t defend the joke, defend joking.

“We have to be ridiculous. We are fucking clowns,” she said.