Every single minute, someone in the world decides to start a podcast. Okay, I just made up that fact. But as of March 2019, there were 700,000 podcasts available for listeners to choose from. That’s a stat for which I can actually cite a source to validate. Given the recent rise in the podcast market, the numbers will only continue to proliferate. However, from among this infinite sea of content for you to tune into on your commutes, the Joe Rogan Experience reigns supreme. 

Rogan has accumulated 7.38 million subscribers on YouTube, becoming the top-earning podcaster with a yearly salary of $30 million. In order to preserve these numbers, he’s gotta protect his content. During his recent conversation with comedian Jim Norton, Rogan revealed that he no longer livestreams his podcasts because other channels would steal his content and profit off it. “There were companies that were taking clips as we were live and uploading them immediately and building these huge channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers,” he explains at the beginning of the episode. “You could use that for anything and they were selling things. They had links to stuff. They’re basically building a business off of your clips. You can’t let that happen because you also don’t know what they’re gonna turn that channel into.”

Aside from the theft issues, Rogan avoids livestreaming because he needs to revise his episodes to ensure he doesn’t infringe upon any of YouTube’s guidelines. “YouTube is still a little bit of a wild west situation,” he continues. “Then there were are also copyright issues – like you get three copyright flags in a row and they take your whole channel down. And we had gotten a bunch of them. We’ve gotten them for clips that we show, we’ve gotten them for pictures… you gotta figure out what you’re allowed to do and what you’re not allowed to do.”

In this episode with Norton, Rogan also addressed the recent controversy over Ari Shaffir’s jokes about Kobe Bryant’s death. 

Joe Rogan hosts one of the most successful podcasts on the market, inviting a list of insightful and entertaining guests to his table to speak on some of the most pressing issues in pop culture, sports, and more. The comedian has a great handle on what people want to hear, integrating hot topics into his conversations and offering thought-provoking takes on the situation. The world of comedy was shook last week when Ari Shaffir made a tasteless “joke” about Kobe Bryant’s death, celebrating his passing in a video that he has since apologized for. It was all part of Shaffir’s regular shtick. The comedian often tears apart celebrities who have recently passed away but, this time, he crossed a line. Joe Rogan and his guest Jim Norton spoke about Shaffir, who is Rogan’s friend, and discussed the comments that were made on the new episode of JRE. 

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Beginning their talk about Ari Shaffir’s Kobe Bryant comments, Joe Rogan says that he needs to find a word better than “dumb” to describe the comedian’s actions. “It was so stupid, but it’s also what you said earlier, that you gotta keep ramping it up. When you do outrageous things to get people to be like “oh, look at Jimmy, he’s crazy,” you get caught in a trap and you keep doing it more and more outrageous,” said Joe. “With Ari, he’s always done this thing where, when people die, he would make the meanest comment […] but he just did it for shock value. You gotta keep upping that every time.”

Admitting that he doesn’t know how Shaffir will bounce back from this misstep, Rogan noted that he thinks it’s kind of a good thing this happened to him. He explains, “He needed to know that there are consequences for just saying ridiculous shit that you’re not supposed to say when people die.”

Joe Rogan even admitted that he feels the slightest bit responsible for Ari’s actions, noting that he convinced him to get an iPhone to stay connected to his fans on social media, now realizing that Shaffir should have stuck to a flip phone or a social media manager.

Watch their discussion below, beginning at the 42-minute mark.

Much of the appeal behind the latest episode of The Brilliant Idiots podcast with Charlamagne Tha God and Andrew Schulz was for Russ, who just released his brand new studio album Shake The Snow Globe. The self-produced rapper joined the conversation later in the show to speak about his new project but, before he arrived, the two hosts debated some hot topics in pop culture, including the jokes being made about the death of Kobe Bryant. Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant tragically passed away this weekend in a helicopter crash and fans have been remembering his legacy ever since. His loss has been hard to stomach, and the fact that his 13-year-old daughter and seven others lost their lives as well is just disheartening. Comedians Tony Hinchcliffe and Ari Shaffir have both tried to make light of the situation and, in the general public’s eyes, only one of them actually succeeded. Charlamagne and Andrew Schulz debated on why that is on the new episode of the podcast.

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“Kobe passing? Never…” was the joke that Tony Hinchcliffe told about the late sports hero who was notorious for hogging the basketball. While some would consider it “too soon” to be laughing about this situation, Schulz and Charlamagne argue that, because the laughs are embedded in Kobe’s legacy, this one is alright. “The joke is about legacy,” explains Schulz. “If the joke is about what we remember about Kobe, it’s not making light of his death.”

As for Ari Shaffir, Charla went on to pick him apart. “Your man is lame though,” he started, speaking to his co-host. “It wasn’t a fucking joke! You can’t hide behind the guise of a comedian when it wasn’t a joke. There was no joke. There was no set-up, there was no punchline. You got on motherfucking Instagram and you were like, ‘A fucking rapist died today,’ or some shit like that. There was no joke. You made a statement.”

Charlamagne suggested that Shaffir be “banished” from the comedy community for making such a statement, which Schulz initially disagreed with. However, he noted that there was literally no attempt at a joke in Shaffir’s video. 

Do you think it’s alright to try and laugh about tragedies like this one? Watch below at the 32:50 mark.

If you missed it, there’s a comedian named Ari Shaffir who made shockwaves throughout the internet this week after he publicly celebrated Kobe Bryan’s death. This sick guy tweeted out a selfie video, pretty much elated about Kobe’s death and saying it was deserved.

"Kobe Bryant died 23 years too late today. He got away with rape because all the Hollywood liberals who attack comedy enjoy rooting for the Lakers more than they dislike rape. Big ups to the hero who forgot to gas up his chopper. I hate the Lakers. What a great day!” the comedian wrote. Shaffir posted another video later and doubled down, saying Kobe's death was a "good story" because "the guy got away with rape." He eventually deleted the tweets, but the damage was already done.

Comedian Ari Shaffir is known by many as “the guy with that Netflix special” but, to his core fanbase, he’s the prankster who makes light of celebrity deaths. It’s sort of become his thing. Describing his brand as “niche comedy,” Shaffir has been intensely criticized for his comments regarding the passing of Kobe Bryant. This weekend, the Los Angeles Lakers legend passed away as part of a tragic helicopter crash, killing nine people including Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter. Following the wildly unfortunate event, Shaffir took to social media to tell his fans that he believed the crash should have happened 23 years earlier, referring to the year Bryant was accused of rape in Denver, Colorado. After a ton of online backlash was spewed his way forcing him to turn his account private, Shaffir is apologizing for his disgusting and insensitive remarks, explaining why he wrote them in the first place.

“Every time a beloved celebrity dies I post some horrible shit about them,” says the comedian. “I’ve been doing it for years now. I like destroying gods. And right when a famous person dies they’re at their most worshipped. So as a response to all the outpouring of sympathy on social media, I post something vile. It’s just a joke. I don’t really hate any of the people.”

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The lengthy post goes on to explain the context behind his original upload, noting that, at the time, details were not clear regarding the circumstances of Kobe’s death. He had not known that children were on board the helicopter and, in his words, he was just “looking to post some inappropriate jokes” for his fans. 

Shaffir says that he famously hated the Los Angeles Lakers, but it’s only because Kobe Bryant and his teammates would always “torch” his Charlotte Hornets. He realizes that his post was wildly incorrect though, apologizing later on.

“I’m not actually celebrating his death. I’m not actually celebrating any of their deaths. That’s just an act.”

Do you accept his apology or is he officially cancelled?

The tragic and sudden death of Kobe Bryant has elicited tons of sadness from the basketball community and the rest of the world. The Los Angeles Lakers legend was a hero to many, spreading wisdom and confidence with the entire globe. Kobe was a household name in every continent, which makes his death that much more difficult to process. Comedian Ari Shaffir struck a major nerve when he reacted to the tragic news, tweeting that the baller “died 23 years too late.” Of course, he was referring to the 2003 rape case in Denver, Colorado. The disgusting comments have been picked apart by several sources, including Bryan Callen and Brendan Schaub, who discussed the remarks on their podcast The Fighter and the Kid. 

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The actor and the former MMA fighter spoke at length about the comments Ari Shaffir made during a new episode of their show. Bryan Callen said that he is mildly associated with Shaffir through comedy and, after seeing his messages about Bryant, he reached out to the man to see why he would stoop so low. “I sent him a long text about how I just found it really offensive and I regretted sending the text — I even said to him, because we got into it a little, and I said ‘I don’t know you that well.’ What am I doing? Am I scolding Ari? It’s not my place to even say this to Ari but I didn’t wanna talk behind his back, I wanted to talk to him,” said Callen.

Brendan Schaub says that he’s just so confused about the intention behind the messages since, in his words, he can’t find the humor in what was posted. They then go on to speak about Shaffir’s character, which has always been on the friendlier side during their interactions. “If Ari was an asshole, I wouldn’t care,” adds Callen. “I don’t know Ari well but I know people who know Ari very well. My experience up until now with Ari has always been that he’s actually a very kind-hearted human being who means all the best.” Schaub agreed.

The two discuss Shaffir’s comments for over ten minutes, offering great insight into the situation, which begins at the 12-minute mark. 

This is the kind of thing you should really just keep to yourself. If you feel the need to celebrate somebody else's death, you're likely pretty screwed up and, in Ari Shaffir's case, he's receiving the backlash he rightfully deserves. Over the weekend, Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were named among the fatalities in a Calabasas helicopter crash. The entire world -- not just the basketball community -- has been mourning his tremendous loss, remembering all the incredible feats he achieved and sending love to Vanessa Bryant, Kobe's longtime partner. Comedian Ari Shaffir decided to take the opportunity to actually gloat about how happy he was that the legend passed away, tweeting that it should have happened during his rape trial in 2003. As you would expect, he's being cancelled as we speak.