Joe Rogan hit back at “The View” co-host Joy Behar who blasted the Spotify podcaster as an unreliable source of information who “believes in dragons.”
Rogan confronted the Behar comments head-on during a special podcast episode that was released on Thanksgiving.
The podcaster, who commands an audience that is estimated to exceed 11 million people, has been a hot topic of conversation during the recent election after he endorsed the eventual winner — President-elect Donald Trump.
Rogan has been critical of legacy media outlets for being out of touch with ordinary Americans.
“I had to read the thing about ‘The View’ because I just thought it was funny,” Rogan told guests and fellow comedians Mark Normand, Shane Gillis and Ari Shaffir on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
“Joy Behar was trying to say I believe in dragons! She said, ‘I checked it, I checked it!’ And then the lady goes, ‘Did you double check it,’ and she goes, ‘I checked it, he believes in dragons. They lived alongside people,’” Rogan said, laughing.
Rogan took aim at Behar over her claim that “The View” provided solid information because it was backed up by the resources of ABC News.
“This is the most important part. This is right after she was saying, ‘We are run by ABC News, you should trust us,’ not Joe Rogan who believes in dragons,’ so by saying we should trust them because they’re double checked by ABC News and then making the stupidest f–king statement — You didn’t listen to what I said, you didn’t listen to what the wildlife biologist said,” he said.
Rogan accused Behar of “frantic” behavior in light of dwindling television ratings that could eventually cost her her job.
“When you’re worried about losing your job and you’re worried about podcasts taking over and who is the source of news and, ‘We said Donald Trump is Hitler, but half the country disagreed with us and this is crazy and Joe Rogan believes in dragons!’ It’s just frantic,” Rogan said.
The podcaster added that he had “no hate for Joy Behar.”
“If I saw her, I’d give her a hug. I’d probably say the same thing about me if I was her,” he said.
Rogan went on to characterize the controversy as “no big deal…but it’s a silly thing saying it.”
“It undermines your own personal credibility if you say we’re so good because we’re supported by ABC News and then you Joe Rogan believes in dragons in the next sentence,” he said.
The Post has sought comment from Behar.
Rogan was reacting to a clip of Behar who told her “View” co-hosts last Thursday: “We went from Walter Cronkite, basically, to this guy Joe Rogan who believes in dragons. I checked it.”
Behar’s co-host on “The View,” Sara Haines, asked her: “Did you triple-source that?”
“Yes, I did,” Behar responded. “And he also thinks that dragon-like, I guess, dinosaur-y type of animals — roamed the Earth when people did.”
“So this is a type of really, really bad information that’s going out there. But it’s possible Donald Trump did roam the Earth when dinosaurs were here,” Behar said.
The comments were reported by Mediaite.
The segment that Behar appeared to be referencing was from an interview that Rogan conducted with Forrest Galante, a wildlife biologist.
Galante told Rogan about an “out there idea” according to which dragons may have been alive at one point. He cited as evidence the similarities across culture in drawings of dragons.
Rogan did not fully embrace the theory of the existence of dragons though he did argue that the depictions of dragons were likely traced back to large lizards.
“My position is it’s probably crocodiles or some big Komodo dragon or some big lizard that did kill people and so people fought them with swords and shit and they came back with a story and the artist drew it,” Rogan said this week.
