Joe Rogan defends Woody Harrelson, says media is 'in unison' in defending pharmaceutical companies

Joe Rogan defended Woody Harrelson's monologue on "Saturday Night Live," while a string of outlets criticized Harrelson's jokes as "conspiracy theories" and anti-vaccine.

On episode 1948 of "The Joe Rogan Experience" with comedians Tony Hinchecliffe and Brian Redban, Rogan poked at the irony of Harrelson's monologue stating that "cartels" have bought media influence, only for media organizations to defend pharmaceutical companies "in unison."

"Woody Harrelson had that monologue on SNL where he's joking around about a drug company forcing you to take their drug," Rogan began.

"Right after it, the next day, there's all these hit pieces, like they were timed. ... They were calling him an anti-vaxxer and a stoner ... conspiracy theories," Rogan said as he described media reaction, adding that "for you guys to come out and say 'oh conspiracy theories,' no, it's jokes about a possible conspiracy theory, and the one that he's describing is not even a real one; he's making a joke about what the real one was like."

"The fact that that got this immediate response where all these people defend the pharmaceutical companies, they're all jumping in and defending them in unison, they're all 'anti-vaxxer' 'stoner,'" Rogan continued.

"There was probably a commercial for a medicine right after that," said comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.

Harrelson's monologue joked about the actor receiving a script that was so unbelievable that he didn't want to do the movie.

"The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes. And people can only come out if they take the cartel's drugs and keep taking them over and over," Harrelson said on the show a week before.

Rogan then drew parallels between Harrelson's jokes and the fact that the media seemingly acted in the way the actor joked about.

"When he makes that joke and he talks about them buying all the media, then all the media responds as if they've been bought and paid for, that's wild," Rogan said.

Hinchcliffe then pointed out that it is likely that the "Saturday Night Live" production would have had to approve Harrelson's monologue before it was read on the air.

"CNN had it, but CNN is owned by the same company that owns SNL, so it's tricky because they don't want to make them look bad. But they angled it like it was him, even though we know that these scripts are approved days in advance," Hinchcliffe explained.

The stand-up comedian and podcaster Hinchcliffe added that he didn't believe that Harrelson wrote a mock monologue to show producers, only to change it before going on camera, a method that Rogan says that Dave Chappelle used when launching into a diatribe about Kanye West on the same show.

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