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June 2, 2016 - The Joe Rogan Experience
01:40:49
Joe Rogan Experience #805 - Steve Hofstetter
Participants
Main voices
j
joe rogan
51:29
s
steve hofstetter
46:17
Appearances
j
jamie vernon
01:16
Clips
j
josh olin
00:02
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Speaker Time Text
steve hofstetter
I was thinking of, you know, just being on Tinder the whole time.
joe rogan
We're live.
We're live.
You can't talk about Tinder, dude.
steve hofstetter
I'm kidding.
joe rogan
Shut it off!
Don't swipe right!
Steve Hofstadter, ladies and gentlemen.
unidentified
How are ya?
steve hofstetter
That was at the same time.
I'm good.
I'm excited to be here.
joe rogan
I'm excited to have you, man.
I love the video.
There's a video I found out about Steve because it's a video of some fucking hecklers.
Why do they still exist?
Do people out there, do you not know that when you come to a comedy show, it's like going to the movies?
unidentified
Ego and alcohol.
joe rogan
You shouldn't try to change the content.
Ego and alcohol.
You're right.
That's the answer.
I asked a rhetorical question.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And I got a definitive answer.
It's a fucking great video though because you handled it so well.
Thank you.
I don't even remember the subject.
What was she heckling about?
steve hofstetter
I was talking about how parents think they're special and they're not.
And then she yelled out bullshit and then walked into two minutes of material that I already had written about the subject.
If I had written what she was supposed to say, it wouldn't have been as good as what she actually said.
joe rogan
Yeah, it was like a setup and sometimes those things happen and people accuse people of doing plants.
I've never heard of anybody actually doing a plant though, have you?
steve hofstetter
Other than Andy Kaufman, no.
Like not even, not one time.
But people, sometimes people look at the world and they go, well this is too good, it can't be real.
We'll allow for some magic to happen sometimes.
joe rogan
A little comedy magic.
Yeah, I mean, there's so many videos of hecklers you would think that they would learn.
Like, is there ever a video of a heckler winning?
steve hofstetter
I mean, there are definitely videos of people who are like, I own this heckler, and you're like, nah, did ya?
unidentified
Did you?
steve hofstetter
It looks kind of...
No, not really.
joe rogan
Sometimes, yeah.
steve hofstetter
But that's not the heckler winning.
That's the comedian losing.
joe rogan
Right.
steve hofstetter
There's a difference.
And there are times, I think, when there are comedians...
You know this.
There are comedians who can't ad-lib, who are brilliant at material, but are just not ad-libbers.
joe rogan
That's weird, isn't it?
The people that only want to do monologues, and if anything goes off the line, they ignore it, and they just keep going, and they hope that the...
Someone takes care of it.
steve hofstetter
Well, I don't understand that.
Like, that's part of...
People sometimes will be like, why do you have so many Heckler videos?
It's like, because most of them start with me going, what'd you say?
Because I don't let it go, because I don't want to lose control of the crowd.
I don't want other people to be like, oh, well, he talked, I can talk.
And also, you know, I just...
I can't concentrate on this, you know, bit I've done a thousand times if, in the back of my head, I was like, wait, what's happening right now in the back of the room?
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, sometimes people just start commenting.
They'll be right in front of you, too, which is crazy.
In the front row, going, that's not true.
No.
You can't say that.
Don't say that.
steve hofstetter
Or they even go, yes, that's true.
Even when they agree with you, it still sucks.
joe rogan
But what about...
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
And they want to put their own spin on it like it's a conversation.
It's confusing.
steve hofstetter
Sometimes, like, I try to tell people, I'm just like, look, comedy's evocative.
You're gonna have a lot of thoughts, and that's okay.
Have the thoughts.
Yeah.
Hold on to those thoughts.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
Later, after the show, release the thoughts in the wild.
But for now...
It's okay to think of stuff.
joe rogan
And even if you see me out in the lobby, and you got a question about some of the material, let's talk.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's a time to talk.
steve hofstetter
Absolutely.
joe rogan
Not why you're halfway into this setup.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, it's such...
I mean, part of why I say it's ego is because if there's hundreds of people at this show, and they're all quiet, and then one person thinks they're all doing it wrong...
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
Like, they're just sitting there being like, wait, no, all these people are wrong.
We should be interacting.
I need to show them.
joe rogan
It is kind of funny that alcohol is what they serve at comedy clubs.
Because for, I guess for most people, it's a good thing.
For most people, alcohol is a social lubricant.
It relaxes you.
You start laughing a little bit more.
But for some people, the fucking, the wheels come off.
And they just want to chime in and yell out.
steve hofstetter
Well, if you're an asshole, alcohol just makes you more of an asshole.
joe rogan
Yeah, absolutely.
steve hofstetter
So I think...
I've had this theory for a long time that a lot of people will blame being drunk.
Oh, I was so wasted.
But that's you.
You were still in there.
There isn't some magical, like, you know, Jekyll and Hyde thing that's going on.
You peed on someone's truck because you wanted to pee on someone's truck.
joe rogan
Right.
steve hofstetter
Alcohol just gave you the excuse.
joe rogan
Right.
There are people that are alcoholics, though, where a switch goes off.
Do you know anybody like that?
steve hofstetter
I don't.
You know what?
joe rogan
I can introduce you to a few people.
unidentified
Fair.
steve hofstetter
I was like, I have a feeling.
I know some of the people you hang with.
I guess I don't hang out at the store enough.
joe rogan
The store is the grand old Opry for hecklers.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, it really is.
There's something about that place because there's no real doorman.
Everybody's a comic.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's comics working the door, comics working the cover booth, comics working the room.
It's only comics.
Comics work in the back parking lot.
It's all comedians.
So when you're there, you're under the hands of people who really don't want to be doing what they're doing.
They don't really pay attention, so you have to learn how to...
Deal with hecklers.
Plus, it's a hangout.
So there's people packed in that place from 8 p.m.
till 2 a.m.
And everybody's hanging around drinking.
And so there's a lot of alcoholics.
And so you just get used to those dudes that have shark eyes.
Their eyes glass over and they're gone.
You look in there, you're like, oh, Bobby's not here anymore.
There's no Bobby.
steve hofstetter
It's just...
joe rogan
I didn't meet people like that until I was like 30. When I was 30, I started to meet like real alcoholics where they'd have one drink...
And then they were gone.
They were just off to the races.
steve hofstetter
So do you think that they are a completely different person, or do you think that the alcohol just allows who they are to come out?
joe rogan
Completely speculative.
Because I don't have that gene, whatever that wacky gene is, where you have a couple of drinks and you just...
Go off the rails.
I don't have that.
I'm a happy drunk.
Like when I get drunk, I like to laugh and hug people.
I don't understand the go blank, make a Molotov cocktail, throw it at the cops, wake up in jail.
What the fuck?
What happened?
steve hofstetter
I did what?
The weirdest drunk to me is the crying drunk.
Like, the drunk that gets super upset, because then it's like, why would you give yourself the ingredient that you need to cry in the corner?
joe rogan
Right.
steve hofstetter
Like, if you know, if it's the first time it ever happened, I get it, okay?
But if you're someone like, I have a friend who, every time he gets drunk, he gets, like, super sad.
And I'm just like, stop drinking!
Like, why are you drinking if you're this upset?
joe rogan
I feel like with people like that, there's like patterns that are deeply carved into their psyche from childhood.
Like maybe their mom cried a lot or their dad cried a lot and they got used to it and it became a comforting pattern.
But yeah, those things are, I mean, people say, oh, what are you going to do, man?
The guy's sad.
How the fuck did he get sad?
He's living in America.
steve hofstetter
He's got two feet.
joe rogan
He doesn't have cancer.
What the fuck is he whining about?
There could be a hundred things wrong.
You're a young white person in America.
Will you shut up?
steve hofstetter
I actually don't drink anymore.
I've been sober 12 years.
joe rogan
Damn.
steve hofstetter
And it was because it was really my first year on the road when I realized how much of a problem it could be.
joe rogan
Oh, so you did it as a preventative measure.
steve hofstetter
I did it, yeah.
It was something where I didn't go through a program.
And I found, by the way, that people who have gone through the program are like, you're not really sober.
joe rogan
That's hilarious.
steve hofstetter
And to me, I'm just like, you needed a program.
You have no willpower.
Yeah.
A bit of a dichotomy there.
joe rogan
But the idea that someone could tell you after 12 years of sobriety that you're not really...
This isn't even consistent!
steve hofstetter
Yeah, you just choose not to drink.
Like, yeah, I do choose not to drink.
joe rogan
That's hilarious!
steve hofstetter
Yeah, I haven't had a drink in 12 years.
It was one of these things where, I mean, you know this, it's free on the road.
joe rogan
Mm-hmm.
steve hofstetter
You know, and everybody wants, everybody goes, oh, let me take a shot with you afterward.
And you'd be like, there are 30 of you.
I'm gonna die.
joe rogan
Right.
steve hofstetter
You just do the math on that, and you're like, I'm gonna die.
And I started realizing, you know what?
I don't have inhibition that alcohol changes.
Like, that same year, I had done some show in Bloomington, Indiana, and we went to a bar afterward, and there were a bunch of hot girls dancing on the bar, and I went up and I danced on the bar with them, and I wasn't drunk.
I just wanted to dance with the hot girls.
unidentified
And there were all these, like, there were all these drunk...
steve hofstetter
People, you know, below the bar, like all these loser guys just kind of like nursing their beer and looking up, be like, I wish I could do that.
And be like, well, then get the fuck up on the bar.
Why?
If you want to do it, do it.
joe rogan
Can anybody just dance on a bar?
Because that makes me reconsider all the times I've like touched the bar and then touched food and then put my phone up there and touched that and then touched food.
steve hofstetter
The bottom of my shoes are not clean, Joe.
joe rogan
Nobody's shoes are clean.
How are you just allowed to?
That's got to violate health codes, right?
steve hofstetter
It was, I just figure there were enough hot girls that it was okay that I was there too.
joe rogan
That's a good call.
steve hofstetter
Like the ratio has to be, there have to still be enough hot girls.
joe rogan
Now, did you hook up with one of those girls afterwards?
steve hofstetter
Oh no, I was a pathetic, sad loser.
But the point is that I didn't need the alcohol to at least start the process of getting rejected.
joe rogan
That's you.
You have the unique personality trait that allows you to get crazy and dance on bars.
That is a strange thing, though, about the people that are in those 12-step programs, because they really do get super attached to the idea that that's the only way to be sober.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, and it is a way, and if you need that, okay.
More power to you, and I don't want to take that away from anybody, but we're all different.
And everybody's, you know, nerve endings connect differently, whatever the hell the biology is of it.
And I didn't need a program, especially because I would freak out if they were like, and this is about Jesus!
And I would be like, go fuck yourself, give me a beer.
So, you know, I wouldn't be able to be comfortable there.
joe rogan
Did you ever do a program thing?
Did you, like, go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, or did you just stop?
steve hofstetter
No, I had...
So, I had...
There were a couple times where I was like, alright, I need to quit, I need to quit, and that never works.
And then there was one night where...
So, it's the first real time I'm on the road.
I was terrible with women in high school and college.
And then suddenly I hit the road as a comic, and they're everywhere, and they're interested, and life is different.
And so there was a show, I was doing a show for a sorority, and usually the sororities that sponsor comedy shows are like the philanthropy sorority, and they're all terrible.
No, these girls were all hot.
Just dimes.
The whole chapter, just full.
They had like one ugly friend as the charity, but they had just gorgeous girls.
And my opener goes up and bombs.
And then I go up to a standing room only crowd and crush.
And so now, it's afterward, we're hanging out, there's like this after-party thing that they put together for just them and the two of us, one of which they hated because he bombed.
And, like, there are just these eight hot girls surrounding me, one shouldered another one out of the way to sit next to me.
I was like, this is, this is, like, nothing I've ever experienced.
And then they took us to another party.
And I'm pretty sure someone put something in my drink.
Not in the way of, like, I want to fuck this guy.
In the way of, like, this is a guy getting all the attention away from the other guys.
And I think one of the other guys fucked with my drink.
unidentified
Really?
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
Because I got super violently ill very quickly.
Like, very, very quickly.
And I spent the whole night...
I was supposed to stay at the sorority house...
Like, the plan was I was going to stay in the guest room, so I didn't even have to do the whole excuse of like, hey, can I use your bathroom?
Can I come in for, like, I just, I was supposed to go back there with them, and I spent the entire night just vomiting.
It was terrible.
joe rogan
Wow, somebody spiked your drink.
steve hofstetter
And then I lost a gig the next day.
And at the time, it's my first year on the road, I lost a $1,500 gig the next day.
joe rogan
Because you were so sick?
steve hofstetter
I couldn't do it.
I was, we were driving, it was the middle of winter, but I was wearing like two pairs of pants, like two sweatshirts, and in a sleeping bag in the car with the heat on full blast, and I was shivering the whole way.
Like, I was fucked up.
joe rogan
Wow.
Are you sure you didn't have like the flu or something?
That sounds like the flu.
steve hofstetter
It went away like six hours later.
So it could have been a very temporary flu, a well-timed flu, I don't know.
But that was the night where I was just like, I can't keep doing this.
joe rogan
Have you ever heard of a drug that does that?
Like a drug that makes you have the chills?
Me, there probably is one out there.
steve hofstetter
I might just be wussy.
joe rogan
No, it doesn't sound like it.
That sounds like you got something happened.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, it was just very, very bad.
And so I realized that it was not only a chance at like a three, it was a chance at like a ninesome.
joe rogan
So you're like, alright, I got it.
steve hofstetter
No more drinking.
Yeah, none of that.
joe rogan
Wow, that's a wake-up call.
That's a wake-up call.
The world hands you four aces and you just throw up on them.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
What a hand of cock!
You ever heard of the term dry drunk?
steve hofstetter
Now, what's that?
joe rogan
Dry drunk is what people like to say people who are alcoholics who aren't drinking but aren't in a program are.
They're dry drunks.
And so you still have all the mental issues that a drunk has.
You're just waiting to go off.
You don't really have the stability that a 12-step program provides.
steve hofstetter
That sounds right.
joe rogan
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, for some people, for sure.
But a 12-step program is weird because doesn't it require belief in a higher power?
steve hofstetter
It does.
There's a lot of God stuff in there.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
And, like, I believe that there's something, but that something could be a life force, it could be an energy, I don't know what.
joe rogan
I believe it's very possible there's something.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, I don't believe that there's a bearded man and wings and all that bullshit.
joe rogan
It'd be dope if there was, though.
Imagine that if you got up to heaven and you realized that it was all true.
steve hofstetter
That'd be amazing.
joe rogan
That's so crazy.
unidentified
How is it possible?
steve hofstetter
I thought this was just a marketing thing.
unidentified
I had no idea.
jamie vernon
I just listened to Radiolab the other day about addiction, and they said that 95, or sorry, I'm going to start that over.
Of 100 people, if they started at AA on January 1st, as of December 31st of that year, only 5 would still be in the program.
Basically saying it doesn't work, but there's a lot of factors that could mean that or why that could happen because some people could start a different program, they could go to the meeting next door, but they're saying only 5% of people will stay in the program through some certain statistics.
steve hofstetter
That's a shit retention rate.
unidentified
Yeah.
jamie vernon
But that radio lab goes into this pill that can cure addiction, I think.
joe rogan
Well, they've had ibogaine forever.
Ibogaine is a drug that is from the aboga plant, and it's supposed to be fantastic for people that have heroin addiction, alcohol addiction, even addictive personality disorders, gambling problems, things along those lines.
It's supposed to be this ruthlessly introspective psychedelic experience that brutally breaks down Your pathways, your thinking pathways, and shows you why you keep going into this self-sabotage mode.
And it's apparently unbelievably uncomfortable to go through.
Psychologically, physically, it doesn't feel good.
But when it's over, the rate of retention, the retention of sobriety, the rate of sobriety that people retain afterwards is staggering.
It's like in the 80s, the high 80%.
It's better than anything.
steve hofstetter
Ruthlessly introspective, it sounds like a great name of a comedy album.
joe rogan
It does, right?
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
There's a treatment center on the 101. Because I passed by, and it looked like a college campus almost, and I was like, what the hell is that?
And I looked it up, and it's like a treatment center, like an inpatient, and you cut out everyone in your life kind of thing.
It's one of those, yeah, it's one of those, you're not allowed to talk to people for six months.
But when I looked it up, I found it on Google, and there were reviews.
And one of the reviews was of someone who was about to go into the treatment center, and he gave it one star.
Like, he was reviewing his own life.
Like, he was that messed up.
But he, like, reviewed, he's like, well, I'm about to take the journey, the first step to the journey of sobriety, and it was one star.
And I was like, I think you may have misunderstood how this rating system works, buddy.
joe rogan
You might be a dick.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
How can you give something one star if you haven't even tried it?
steve hofstetter
I love when...
You ever just read Yelp reviews?
joe rogan
Yeah, I do, unfortunately.
steve hofstetter
I love...
joe rogan
I get mad at myself.
steve hofstetter
No, but I love when you learn more about the person than the restaurant.
joe rogan
Yeah, of course, yeah.
steve hofstetter
Like, there was one I saw in New York where this girl, like, she opens the review.
Like, so, I'm back dating again.
I'm like, that's not...
Tell me how the pasta is.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
Like, I don't need to know, but she, like, uses it as her own blog.
It was fascinating.
joe rogan
That's good, though, because then you get to know, should I listen to this moron?
Let me see what they have to say about dating.
Why is it that men these days don't want to open up a car door, don't want to open up a door for a lady, get upset when you're expected to pay and don't understand that you do want your own career?
steve hofstetter
And as it turns out, the gnocchi was fantastic.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
You're just annoying.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
There's a lot of those.
joe rogan
I always go to someone's bad review, I always go to their page and see what they think about other stuff.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, just so you can figure out.
It's also tough, like, using Yelp sometimes in the middle of nowhere, that's really tough, because then you're like, these motherfuckers don't know sushi.
What do they know?
joe rogan
Sushi in South Dakota.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, exactly.
joe rogan
Where are you getting your fish, man?
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Yelp is tricky.
It's like YouTube reviews and a lot of other things.
You're relying on random people.
If I call you up and I go, hey, Steve, what do you think about this?
Well, I know Steve's an intelligent guy.
He's going to give me a really nuanced, thought-out opinion of whatever we're discussing.
But if you don't know a person, you're just reading their type, their type could be, I mean, when they write things down, the printed word could be just as valid as some fucking psychopath's printed word.
I mean, you really don't know.
You gotta go deep, deep, deep into their paragraphs, and you gotta really try to...
Decipher like how fucking nuts is this person?
steve hofstetter
I have a theory I have a theory that the way we make online tolerable The way we make like you know online not be this you know just I guess Bastion for angry thought is everyone's not name, but everyone's job should bring parentheses So we know what people do for a living.
joe rogan
That would help.
And, like, how many stars your co-workers give you.
steve hofstetter
You should get your own Yelp review.
joe rogan
You get Yelped before you're allowed to Yelp.
You know, that guy with one star, I bet he gives out a half a star.
I bet all the people that work with him, they give him a half a star.
And he puts one star in for the drug review place and one star for his mom.
You fucked up, mom.
steve hofstetter
There was an app that came out that was like a Yelp for people.
And everyone got really upset.
joe rogan
Well, it was a Yelp for dating.
steve hofstetter
It was, oh, so it wasn't just, okay, because...
joe rogan
It was people you've dated.
steve hofstetter
Because I thought, I thought the idea, because there was, you know, the reviews of people and people getting upset, and I was like, the only people who would get upset at that are the people who know they're going to get two stars.
joe rogan
Well, it's people can just stalk you.
Someone who's like a shitty co-worker, who has it against you, can write a bunch of mean shit about you, and then every time you pull up your name...
You see this mean shit written against you.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, you need to I think for the way that to work for the way for that to work is you can only review someone if you both agree to review each other.
joe rogan
I was reading this thing about this guy who's getting stalked online by this other guy and they found the person and it was a 17 year old kid that was the son of one of his friends.
Just for the fun of it because he knew he could fuck with the guy and scare him and he did all this Holocaust juice stuff and all this anti-semitic stuff is Really really crazy stuff like sent ashes to their house and left ashes at their front door Just a total psychopath.
A kid.
A 17-year-old kid.
And it apparently had haunted this guy for a long time.
And he was trying to figure out who it was.
Then he hired someone.
It's pretty easy to find people once you hire someone who's an expert.
They found the kid, like, instantly.
And they realized it was this...
Fucking high school kid that was the son of one of his friends and they all had a sit down and they printed up all the stuff this kid had written for like a fucking year and handed it to him.
And the kids started crying and I don't know why I did it.
I got addicted to it.
I couldn't stop.
steve hofstetter
Addicted to it?
joe rogan
Well, you're playing a game.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know, and if you're not there when the person is reacting, especially when you're 17 and your emotions, maybe they're not so complex or they're not so rather formed, they're not mature.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
You're not maybe completely aware that every action has a reaction on the other end, whether you see it or not.
steve hofstetter
There's a...
You know that movie, The Button, or whatever it was, where, like, someone would, like, press a button and someone would die in the world?
joe rogan
I heard about that.
I never saw it.
steve hofstetter
I didn't either, but there was, I think it was an SNL sketch about it where they were, like, they explained the whole premise, or, like, you press this button and somewhere, someone in the world died, and the guy just hits the button.
And they're like, you didn't let us finish.
Like, we would give you a million dollars, and then he just hits it again.
Because we're that, like, inhuman and impersonal.
Like, if you just tell me that someone somewhere else in the world died, like, that doesn't really affect you.
joe rogan
Yeah, there's too many people anyway.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
unidentified
Hit the button, let's clear up the 405. Yeah, I guess it just depends on who.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a...
If you don't feel it, it's like, that's the problem with drones, right?
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, they say that drone pilots...
What is this?
steve hofstetter
Oh, is that the...
joe rogan
They say that drone pilots suffer through a lot of, like, severe anxiety when they're done, and, like, it's apparently incredibly psychologically stressful because you're doing this weird thing where you're sort of sending this robot, and they're doing it from Nevada, right?
And so the robots are in Afghanistan or Pakistan or...
Yemen or wherever the hell they are and they're launching missiles from these sky robots and It just feels so detached and creepy to the people that are doing it Well, it's the same I guess the same psychology of like why you're able to get into such credit card debt,
steve hofstetter
but you wouldn't do that with cash Because like you were you you see it as just some mythical thing right and then afterward you realize oh this is real and Would you be able to kill someone if you knew that they were a bad guy?
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
And would you feel bad about it?
joe rogan
No.
steve hofstetter
That's what I think, too.
joe rogan
Yeah, I don't think I would.
I mean, if some, like, Hitler character?
Yeah, I don't think I have a problem.
steve hofstetter
It doesn't necessarily have to be, you know, quite that bad.
unidentified
Some murderer?
joe rogan
Some rapist?
steve hofstetter
I mean, you really went to the end of the scale immediately.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's how I like to go.
I'm an extremist.
steve hofstetter
I was going for, like, you know, just the idea of, like, someone is gonna kill someone that you care about.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
And you kill that person.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
Because there are all these, like, there's this trope in movies and TV about, you know, like, a cop shot someone that they had to shoot in the line of duty.
It wasn't, you know, like, just killing some kid.
It was, you know, shooting a bad guy, and then they have to go to therapy over it.
I feel like, yeah.
joe rogan
No.
Have you ever talked to, uh, soldiers about that?
steve hofstetter
I haven't.
joe rogan
The real PTSD with soldiers is things they can't control.
That's what really fucks with them.
Like worried about being attacked, worried about being blown up, worried about driving over an IED. The soldiers that are proactive, like Rangers, Navy SEALs, guys who go in and hunt people down, they don't have that much PTSD. They're different types of people.
I mean some of them have just been through crazy firefights, and they wake up with horrible nightmares, but a shocking amount of them realize they're doing the right thing, they have to do this, this needs to be done, and they're the man to do it.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
And they're trained for it, this is their job, and they're all together, and they're like a family.
steve hofstetter
And they feel more superhero-esque.
joe rogan
Yeah.
So when you see like a guy, a cop in a movie that feels bad that he had to shoot a bad guy, that's like the writer.
That's the writer if the writer was a cop.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know, or maybe a cop that maybe shouldn't be a cop, which there's definitely some of those out there.
steve hofstetter
Or a writer who shouldn't be a writer.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, you know, I mean, those movies, like, how many of these movies have, like, these, like, we're talking about the grooves that are carved in that some people have that get depressed very easily or behave really...
Like, really sad, really easily.
Like, those grooves, those psychic grooves that they think that they're supposed to behave like that, those are carved into tropes and storylines and plots, and there's so many plots, there's so many movies you watch, like, you didn't even write this, okay?
You knew what has already been written about these subjects, and you just sort of repeated it with different words.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like, this isn't really a story you wrote, because this story has happened a fucking million times in movies.
steve hofstetter
Well, and it causes, those stories existing then cause people to act like that.
joe rogan
Yes!
Oh yeah!
steve hofstetter
One of the most fascinating interviews I ever saw was, you know, they interviewed the guy who was, you know, all the gangster movies in the 40s, the same, huh, same, like all that.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
And they said, how did you get the accent so perfect?
And he said, I made that accent up.
And then all the gangsters wanted to be like the gangsters in the movies.
And so then all the gangsters started talking like that.
Because of that.
Because of those movies.
joe rogan
Like James Cagney?
unidentified
Yeah.
Wow.
steve hofstetter
Like that was, they just told the act, like, they just started doing it.
joe rogan
Life imitates art, right?
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
And then it's, you know, it's, uh, and then people feel like, oh, well, this is normal.
Because that's what we're shown on television.
joe rogan
Well, that was the argument against gangster rap.
The argument was that they were forcing kids by, you know, making this music really popular.
They're forcing kids to accept this type of behavior as being normal and even exemplary.
Like, exemplary of a bad motherfucker.
You're shooting people and...
You ever go back and, like, listen to, like, the old N.W.A.? Oh, yeah.
steve hofstetter
I actually grew up...
So, I grew up in Queens, New York, and I was a big fan of old-school hip-hop.
Now, I didn't...
Like, I was never big into the NWA stuff.
I preferred, you know, the...
I preferred the lyrics about how great we are at rapping, not how many bitches we've killed.
Like, that was the...
That's kind of the line in the sand.
joe rogan
Who are your people?
Who'd you like?
steve hofstetter
Tribe Called Quest.
I was so sad when Fife died.
Yeah, that sucked.
unidentified
Tribe.
joe rogan
Those guys are awesome.
steve hofstetter
Black Sheep.
Um...
I loved Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth.
joe rogan
Were you a De La Soul guy, too?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, De La Soul was great.
I got to meet, when I was 21, I think, I covered, I was in college during the Seinfeld send-off party, and the place where, like the Tom's Diner, where Monk's was based, the exterior shot, was like a block off my campus.
So I made up a fake press pass, and I went and I covered the party.
And I got to meet De La Soul was there, and it was like, it was so great.
joe rogan
That's nice.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know what was a sad time for me, man?
When MC Search got his own daytime talk show.
steve hofstetter
Oh my god.
joe rogan
Third base.
I used to love third base.
steve hofstetter
That's the end of...
joe rogan
Pop goes the weasel, cause the weasel goes pop!
steve hofstetter
Mr. Grassl, my eye!
Someone hit my eye!
joe rogan
But if you watch the MC Search daytime talk show, you're like, this can't be real.
He's punking us.
This is a character he's playing.
He's doing that Joaquin Phoenix thing that Joaquin Phoenix did for a year.
steve hofstetter
It's that same sort of thing when all of a sudden all the adults were talking about the Facebook, and I'm like, well, Facebook's done now.
unidentified
Right.
steve hofstetter
This isn't going to be fun anymore.
joe rogan
Well, MC Search is done, because he had the most preposterous daytime talk show.
Did you ever watch it?
steve hofstetter
I know.
I knew about it, but I never watched it.
unidentified
Oh.
joe rogan
Oh.
steve hofstetter
Look at it.
joe rogan
Search!
And, you know, I mean, he's like, I'm a dad now.
But it's like, play the beginning of it, because the beginning of the show, see if you can find it, because the beginning of it is so fucking preposterous when he explains how we're going to keep it real.
We're keeping it real!
steve hofstetter
There's no such thing as that.
Like when people say we're keeping it real, that means they have no other words that they can think of.
joe rogan
It's madness.
It's a dangerous way of talking.
steve hofstetter
I did a bunch of extra work when I started out, which that's so much fun.
Oh my god, extra work is the best because you get to see just the worst in humanity right in front of you.
joe rogan
With extras?
A lot of them are crazy!
steve hofstetter
They're absolute just batshit.
Open mics too, right?
joe rogan
Extras between going back and forth from extra work to open mics?
steve hofstetter
That was my day.
I would just watch people desperately need attention and do nothing of quality to get it.
So there was this one woman, they put out the craft services, and this one woman goes up and she loads up like two plates and then is putting stuff in her purse also.
And she catches me looking at her.
And she just goes, I'm just keeping it real!
And I go, well, if you want to know what's real, they're going to refill this table later.
So you can just come get seconds.
joe rogan
She probably wanted food to take home, though.
steve hofstetter
Well, in the purse, I understand.
But it was like the start of a 14-hour day.
I was just keeping it real.
I'm like, that's not keeping it real.
Just say like, hey, I'm really poor and I'm hungry right now.
Like, but keeping it real.
joe rogan
Hey, stop staring at me, dude.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, also that.
But, you know, it was something to stare at.
It was very weird.
joe rogan
That's a minor infraction when you think about the world of extras and open micers.
steve hofstetter
In the paid furniture world.
joe rogan
That's one of the keeping it real things about the comedy store.
You're constantly around...
Crazy people.
Open micers, especially.
They're always hanging around, you know, because it's kind of like a hangout on top of being a club.
steve hofstetter
What's the craziest open mic shit you've seen?
joe rogan
Oh, God.
I mean, open mics are madness.
I mean, there's...
Because anybody can get on stage, and a lot of times...
One of the things about stand-up is that a lot of people don't see themselves the way other people see them.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
And that gets exposed when you get on stage because you realize, oh, this is how people see me.
People see me as being an obnoxious, really annoying person that thinks they're funny.
I see myself as being this really funny person.
And then they have to work that out.
I mean, it's almost like...
A self-improvement course on communication skills.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Because you're brutally reminded of how poor your communication skills are when you don't get the laughs.
And you're like, God, what is wrong with my thoughts?
How come my friends think it's funny?
steve hofstetter
What is it that I... That's only someone who knows what's going on.
unidentified
Right.
steve hofstetter
The crazy people are the ones that go, this crowd doesn't get me.
joe rogan
This crowd sucks.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
This crowd's bullshit.
I mean, how many times have I heard that?
steve hofstetter
Just like every crowd I've ever played to.
They all suck.
None of them understand me.
joe rogan
This crowd's a bullshit, bro.
The worst thing we can have to one of those people is one day they'll just catch that magic wave where, you know, there's this one crowd where almost anyone can do well.
steve hofstetter
Yes.
joe rogan
There's these weird crowds that are just so good and so hyped up that someone with like really shitty skills can get up there and just make it happen.
steve hofstetter
And then they chase the ghosts of that performance forever.
joe rogan
Here's a great story that I've told before, unfortunately people have heard it, but Joey Diaz was The early days of the comedy show, there was this one woman who was insane.
I mean, completely insane.
There was nothing remotely funny about anything she ever had to say.
She was brutal.
And she would go up, and every time she would go up, everybody would have to get out of the room.
It was just like, what?
What is happening here?
How does she even get spots?
It was during the 90s.
When it was easier to get spots.
And so Joey Diaz goes backstage behind the OR. There's a curtain.
And he goes backstage and takes his pants off.
And every time she hits a punchline, he opens up the curtain and shows the crowd as balls.
He's got no pants on.
So every time she hits the punchlines, he's doing this.
And she's killing.
I mean, killing.
And you see the confident look in her face.
She has no idea what's going on behind her.
And the stride and her swagger.
And she hits those same punchlines!
And all of a sudden, Joey comes out with his balls and everybody's crying, laughing.
And she never knew.
She never knew.
She had no idea.
steve hofstetter
No one ever told her?
joe rogan
I don't think so.
If they did, she would have never believed it.
unidentified
Bullshit!
joe rogan
I was killing!
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like, she was just insane.
steve hofstetter
I tell Young Comics that you don't exist in the world how you see yourself.
You exist in the world as the sum total of how everyone else sees you.
That's who you are.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
And that's true on stage also.
You exist on that stage as the sum total of how the crowd sees you.
joe rogan
Right.
steve hofstetter
Your actions, what you wear, how you stand, how you speak, those can all determine that.
But your thoughts of how you want to be seen, the difference of how you see yourself and how everyone else sees you, that chasm is delusion.
And so the shorter that chasm, the more self-aware you're going to be, the funnier you can be.
The bigger that chasm, the more likely you're going to flip a table on a reality show.
joe rogan
Yes.
steve hofstetter
And that's the difference.
joe rogan
That's a very good point.
It's a very good way of putting it.
And it goes back to what we were talking about earlier, that stand-up in a lot of ways is almost like a vehicle for introspective observation.
You're almost forced to examine yourself in a way that very few people do, because people like...
To put up blinders, and that's why people like to drink.
You just kind of push it all away and ignore all the faults and press on.
And when you're doing stand-up, I mean, you really, you can't do that.
Because bombing is so unbelievably, brutally painful that you go, okay, that can't happen again.
steve hofstetter
If you know you bomb, though.
That's right.
So, when I was first living out here, I would hang out at, there were shows at Westwood Brew Co.
all the time.
I don't know if you ever did those Adam Hunter shows.
joe rogan
No, but I know Adam very well.
steve hofstetter
So I would hang out there all the time, and there was one night where a bunch of comics had done a show in Long Beach on the Queen Mary.
And one by one, they were all getting to Westwood, and every one of them, man, that show is terrible.
joe rogan
The Queen Mary's a boat, by the way.
steve hofstetter
Oh, yeah, not an actual queen.
joe rogan
Comedy on a giant boat.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, I guess if people are unfamiliar be like they all performed on this one lady and she's a queen?
What's she a queen of?
joe rogan
Well, it's on the it's not even like in a bar called the Queen Mary It's on the Queen Mary.
What are they talking about?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, they just standing on this lady named Mary and so one by one they would all show up and they'd be like there were like 12 people there and it was a nightmare and Everyone is talking about how shitty it was and how everybody bombed and the night was terrible Then one comic gets there and doesn't know that everyone had already done that and the first thing he does he Yeah, I just got back from Long Beach, man.
I crushed that.
That was such a great show.
Everybody was going nuts and just going on and on about how great it was.
And the rest of us are just being like, oh, you've never killed.
Because if you think that that was killing, you've never killed.
You've never had a good show if you don't understand what that feels like.
Or you just lie and tell everybody all the time you have good shows.
But it's terrible delusion.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, maybe he just doesn't understand himself.
You know, I mean, how many guys have you met like that, that, like, are that around girls?
Or around a job opportunity?
That's true.
They think that they're way more qualified for something than they are.
Like, I'm gonna go get this vice president job, bro.
I'm gonna go get it, I'm gonna run.
There's a lot of people who are just completely crazy.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
Well, there's the...
I like to tell people, you know, follow your dreams unless your dreams are stupid.
joe rogan
Yeah.
That's good advice.
steve hofstetter
Because if you...
Like, if you quit your job to work at American...
Like, to audition for American Idol, and you've never, ever been paid to sing anywhere, you're a fucking idiot.
joe rogan
Well, American Idol's a really good example.
Because if you watch that show, the best part about that show is the beginning, where you're just watching mental illness.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
They should call it mental illness slash shreds of talent.
steve hofstetter
American illness?
joe rogan
Yeah, for every one person that you get that gets through the entire...
Who's the big name stars that have gone through American Isles?
steve hofstetter
Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood.
joe rogan
Those two are huge.
And there's the guy who went a little crazy, the young country music gay guy.
steve hofstetter
Clay Aiken?
joe rogan
Yeah.
What happened to him?
steve hofstetter
I was actually in his True Hollywood Story.
joe rogan
I'm glad you said True Hollywood Story, because if you said House the other night...
steve hofstetter
No, I was just...
joe rogan
And he was the guy who got me Violently Heal!
Clay Aiken drugged me.
steve hofstetter
I was making fun of him to a producer on the show.
joe rogan
Oh boy.
steve hofstetter
Like, she just told me that she was working on that show.
joe rogan
Right.
steve hofstetter
And I was just like, it was a friend of mine, I was like, what are you up to?
She's telling me she's working on the show, and she goes, yeah, you know, we're doing research on, he used to be a choir boy.
And I just go, oh, so he started out with hymns and never quite made it to hers?
And then she just goes, you want to be on the show?
I was like, what?
That line actually got cut by the lawyers.
unidentified
What?!
steve hofstetter
Yeah, I had five jokes that were in the script, and three of the five of them got cut by the lawyers.
joe rogan
Fucking lawyers, man.
That's why lawyers, you can't have podcasts.
No, you can't.
You're not allowed, you fucks.
steve hofstetter
Like a lawyer podcast?
joe rogan
They can't come on them.
You can't have a lawyer telling you what you can and can't say about podcasts.
You're just not allowed.
Because this is the last place.
This is the last bastion of free speech.
And as far as just expressing yourself in conversation, there's the only one left.
steve hofstetter
They're easily tricked, though.
I used to be a segment producer on a show, and we would always put in stuff we didn't want to use, so that they could come in the room and be like, no, no, no, you have to take that out, you have to take that out, and then leave in the thing that we thought they would take out.
joe rogan
Well, I'm sure you've seen the scene in Team America World Police, where the sex scene between the two puppets, they made, like, ten minutes longer than they wanted it to be, where he shits on her chest, or she shits on his chest, they pee on each other.
steve hofstetter
Why not both?
joe rogan
They went nuts.
And the reason why they did it was because they could cut some of it and it would still be preposterous, which it wound up being.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
But that's a common strategy.
We did that in the 90s with news radio.
We had an episode of news radio where Phil Hartman said penis on the air on the radio show.
And then through the episode, he said penis like 20 times.
And they were like, you can't say penis more than eight times.
And they were like, eight times?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, who makes that?
joe rogan
Yeah, it's fucking assholes.
Assholes.
Assholes who decide what America is willing or not willing to tolerate.
steve hofstetter
You just said assholes four times.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm crazy.
steve hofstetter
I'm a rebel, bro.
I think it was four times.
joe rogan
But they didn't air it.
So it didn't air.
steve hofstetter
They didn't air the episode at all.
joe rogan
No, it had to air in like season two or three.
Like whatever season it was.
Maybe it was season two.
I don't remember what season it was.
But it had to air like the next season or the season later.
And like we were told, hey, the penis episode's airing tonight.
And we were all like, what?
unidentified
What?
joe rogan
That never aired.
steve hofstetter
I love so much that there's something called the penis episode.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
By the way, good bad name.
The penis episode?
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a good bad name.
steve hofstetter
That would totally play at the whiskey.
joe rogan
Yeah, like a fucking punk band?
The penis episode?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, the penis episode.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It's part of the patriarchy.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, I think that...
I used to call it March of the Penguins, because all the suits would come down the hallway and try to ruin our art.
But the idea that someone goes...
Well, it says specifically, eight times you can say penis.
It's so arbitrary.
joe rogan
It's totally arbitrary, and there's no rules anywhere.
steve hofstetter
What happens on the ninth time?
Like, Beetlejuice comes out?
joe rogan
Yeah, everybody dies.
steve hofstetter
Penis juice comes out?
joe rogan
Satan comes through the floor.
There's a way to do art, and it's definitely not by having a bunch of people that have money invested in it, looking around it, going, okay, how can we maximize this?
How can we make this as sellable as possible?
That's just the opposite of the kind of mentality that you need to make something good.
And just like you were talking about with...
Comedy where people don't see themselves if you don't see yourself how other people see you It's not gonna work and it won't be funny.
Well, that's kind of the same thing with art if you produce a television show or whatever it is and People don't enjoy it.
Well, it won't go anywhere.
It'll fall off and then it's not good anymore But to have someone come in and say oh You got to do this and you got to do that because we know better because we're the ones with the money that never works But every time every time I think that I remember that According to Jim had over a hundred episodes.
steve hofstetter
Over 100 episodes.
joe rogan
But there's a style of comedy.
steve hofstetter
Jag had over 100 episodes?
joe rogan
I remember Jag.
Jag was on while I was on news radio.
We were always like, what in the fuck is going on?
How is that a real show?
If you ever watched that show, nobody watched that show.
And the people that did watch that show, it's like they were sedated.
It's like it's a hum under which subliminal messages were played in the background about Bush being a great president or something.
It didn't make any fucking sense.
It didn't make any sense that it stayed on the air.
steve hofstetter
Do you watch any of the CSIs or any of those?
joe rogan
No!
steve hofstetter
Oh, you know what?
The one I'm thinking of?
NCIS. No!
So, I saw an episode the other day.
I get transfixed with bad television.
Like, I never put it on purpose, but if, like, someone, if I'm, like, in a hotel room or something, I flip it on or whatever it is, like, it takes me a little to just shake it off because I just want to be like, how is this made?
How is this possible, you know?
And so, I was watching it and I was thinking, like, the comedy in it was so bad.
Like, the jokes were so terrible that I almost wondered, you know how they hire people for punch-up?
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
Do they hire people for punch-down?
Like, do they hire people to be like, water down these good jokes?
joe rogan
Well, that's that Chuck Lorre guy.
He knows how to do them.
He knows how to do that drone.
unidentified
That...
joe rogan
That one style of comedy, like Two and a Half Men.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
He did a bunch of those.
steve hofstetter
The white noise machine.
joe rogan
He just does those things like...
For people that are all just exhausted from eating carbs and sugar all day, and they're just sitting in the couch just melting.
And then the dumbest fucking humor plays out in front of them, and it's just enough to keep them paying attention so they watch those Toyota commercials.
steve hofstetter
I was, you know, very often I wonder about like, how does this get made?
How is this?
Why does anybody like this?
Etc.
And I was at like some truck stop in the middle of nowhere, just getting gas and getting food.
And there's a TV playing.
There's like a little lunch counter.
There's a TV playing and there's a commercial.
And there's this guy running around.
It's for blinds.
But this guy is running around.
He, like, tries to open his blinds.
It kind of has nothing to do with it.
And then he runs outside, and he gets stung by a bunch of bees, and he's, like, fighting them off.
And I'm sitting there thinking, like, oh, what the fuck?
Who the fuck would do...
I can write commercials.
Like, who would do the...
And there's a dude sitting next to me, just going, he's...
he can't get away from the bees!
Like, just out loud to no one.
To no one!
Just be like, there are the bees all over him!
The bees are all over him!
And I'm just like, this is who it's for.
joe rogan
I was at my friend's house once.
And her friend and her mom was over, and they were watching some Spider-Man movie, and Spider-Man got bit by a spider, and she just goes, he got bit by a spider.
I'll never forget that.
unidentified
I just never forget her going, he got bit by a spider.
joe rogan
I gotta get out of here.
steve hofstetter
Do you think the rest of us didn't see that?
joe rogan
Just like you can buy a Prius, or you can buy a Shelby GT500. One has 100 horsepower, one has 500 horsepower.
Brains are like that too.
They just have to be.
There's just no doubt about it.
And there's a lot of those little Prius brains out there, man.
And if you put on a show for Prius brains, you will attract them like metal to a magnet.
Just...
They find it.
The Duck Dynasty shows.
You ever watch Duck Dynasty?
steve hofstetter
I have thankfully not even seen a clip.
joe rogan
You should fucking watch it for sure.
Just to understand that there's people like that out there that look forward to it.
I got the DVR set.
You know, I heard what today they're gonna do shoot some ducks.
You wanna shoot some ducks?
There's a duck show!
There's a duck, and they shoot...
They don't even shoot...
They hardly shoot ducks.
The show is more about, like, horrible people hanging out, doing really boring shit.
And they'd be, oh, they're all down home.
They're down home.
They're country.
steve hofstetter
Well, that's why the people who...
Like, when the people say, like, oh, you know, I voted for Bush, because I can...
You know, he reminded me of me, and I was like, well, then you're a fucking asshole also.
Like, you're also...
joe rogan
They like to think he reminded them of them.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, was your dad a multi-millionaire?
Did you grow up in Maine and pretend you're from Texas?
Like, what about him?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
What about it?
The fact your dad...
Was your dad in the CIA, too?
steve hofstetter
Well, you see that with Trump now, where people are like, oh, he reminds me of me, and I'm just like, he's the furthest thing from you.
He's the...
I grew up in New York City, and so, like, I remember...
I was a kid when it happened, but I remember the Center Park Jogger when Trump took out four full-page ads in different newspapers calling for the death penalty for these black kids who didn't even do it.
And he was just inciting a riot, basically.
He was just trying to race bait and get attention.
And, like, that's the guy I remember.
I don't relate to that guy.
joe rogan
Yeah, he's a real tough guy to relate to.
I don't think people really do relate to him.
I think what they relate to is the possibility that he may win, and they like to be on the camp of a winner.
So, like a football team that they can get behind, they don't really give a shit about the players, they just decide, we're gonna win.
We're fucking winning.
We're winning.
We're Trump.
Trump's winning.
I'm Trump.
I'm winning.
All those dickheads.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, but they also say the things like, you know, like he speaks like I do.
I'm like, that's, I don't want a president who speaks like I do.
I'm a fairly intelligent guy.
I want my president to be way smarter than me.
joe rogan
I would like a really articulate Obama type guy, but that didn't work out.
The Obama-type guy was what we were hoping for.
When Bush was in office, Obama was like, the fucking recipe, man.
We want a black guy who's super articulate, really intelligent, and we're going to relax everybody with all this race bullshit.
Clearly, it has nothing to do with race.
It's about culture and circumstances and where you're growing up.
Look at this guy.
He's black.
Jackie's smarter than all of us.
We're good.
He's gonna fix everything.
He's gonna relax everybody.
He doesn't want Guantanamo Bay.
He wants to get us out of Iraq.
We made it through this Bush thing.
Civilization didn't collapse.
And then he's in office and it's kind of the same shit.
He talks better, but it's kind of the same shit is going on.
steve hofstetter
I think the biggest problem is that he's too reasonable.
Like, he's too reasonable, and the people who disagree with him are being completely unreasonable.
And you can't just be like, well, let's look at both sides.
If one side is being a dick, you don't look at both.
It's like CNN will do that, where they're like, well, let's present both sides of this argument.
Here's one person against pedophilia, so let's talk to someone who's for pedophilia.
And it's like, no!
Don't give that guy airtime!
Don't ever talk to that guy!
So the people who want to take rights away, and who want to convince poor people to vote against their own best interests...
Like, don't give them equal time, but they do.
joe rogan
Well, the problem is you're dealing with right and left.
And then, again, people get really tribal.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
When they're on a team, they get super tribal.
Like, I've told this before, but it always struck me as being really bizarre.
I was with a buddy of mine who's a writer, and he was talking about the election.
He's like, we have to win in Idaho.
If we win in Idaho or Iowa, if we win in Iowa, we've got it wrapped up.
I was like, what is this we?
What is this we shit?
It's like the Democrats.
I'm like, okay, you're on a team, right?
You're on a team.
This is the Mariners.
This is the Mariners versus the Raiders.
You got this weird team mentality.
And I think that's entirely one of the things that is real comfortable for people to fall into when it comes to elections.
And it's one of the reasons why I think we need way more parties.
At least that way we'll have more teams.
Because this two-team option is like, if every fucking year it was the Celtics versus the Lakers in the NBA Finals, wouldn't you be tired of that after a while?
Well, that's, I think, how America feels about the election.
That's why the ratings are down.
That's why people aren't really paying attention that much.
That's why people are so frustrated by the choices.
You can't have just two choices.
steve hofstetter
Well, I used to be, you know, I'm very politically minded and active, and I used to do a lot of, like, everybody should go out and vote.
And then I'd talk to more and more people, and then I'm just like, not everybody.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, it would be nice if we didn't have a representative government.
It would be nice, first of all, if you didn't have superdelegates.
What is that?
What do you mean you don't have to vote for the people that your state votes for?
steve hofstetter
Superdelegates were basically to keep Jesse Jackson out of office.
Really?
That's how they started.
Yeah, when Jesse Jackson was starting to get some heat, and I think it was 1980, suddenly, there was 80 or 84, I forget, but it was suddenly superdelegates came out.
joe rogan
Good job, superdelegates.
Get that fucking demon out of the White House.
steve hofstetter
Not only superdelegates, though, but even the delegates of the Electoral College, they don't have to vote the way their constituents do.
In fact, there was a time when one of them, I think it was in Minnesota, accidentally wrote down the name of the vice president in both slots for president and vice president.
So his vote didn't count.
And that was like 30,000 people that he was representing.
Whoa.
And just because he was a fucking idiot.
And like, you can actually, if you're, now obviously, people wouldn't do it for the most part because you'd think, oh well then they'll lose the ability to do it and that's all the little power they have in their life is to be a delegate at this convention.
But the fact of the matter is that like, New York State can vote 100% for a Democrat and then the Electoral College can go and just vote for a Republican.
It can just, they can do it if they want to.
Or vote for a different Democrat.
They can write someone in if they want to.
joe rogan
It's a ridiculous idea that was conceived back when you couldn't communicate with people easily.
It's that simple.
steve hofstetter
The point of it was that not everyone was qualified to vote because you didn't hear things.
And so they would be like, well, here's the representative government.
They'll learn from what their people want, and then they'll take that over there.
And it was a wonderful idea.
And now it's bullshit.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's ridiculous.
And it's time is gone.
I mean, if we, this is a point that I always bring up.
If we didn't have a system of government in place, we had all these people, we all just woke up today, who would say we need one person to run it?
No one.
Who would say that we need one person to be a representative of the state because the people can't tell everybody?
No, well, you have email now.
We have Twitter.
We have Facebook.
We have polls.
There's ways to find out what people want and people don't want.
Representative government in 2016 is like writing with feathers.
It's like some old stupid shit that we don't need anymore.
steve hofstetter
We should make them write with feathers.
joe rogan
We should.
Make them wear powdered wigs, too, those fucks.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, be like, you want this office?
Well, it comes with a couple of things.
joe rogan
Yeah, I mean, if you want to be, like, one of those people, you should dress like one of those people that invented it.
steve hofstetter
Then there'd be no Hillary email scandal, because it would just be, like, maybe she wrote on the wrong kind of parchment.
joe rogan
Yeah, she wrote on actual animal skins and said, we don't do that anymore, Hillary.
You're doing old school.
She's doing old school with her non-encrypted email, right?
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
Have you talked about, I assume you've talked about the gorilla already?
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, we kind of talked about it a little, did we?
I think we did.
Yeah, it's fucked up.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's fucked up for the zoo.
The zoo fucked up.
You shouldn't make it so goddamn easy to get in the gorilla tank.
unidentified
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
So, on this one, I don't know exactly what happened on this one, because I'm trying to kind of block it out.
joe rogan
I saw the whole thing.
steve hofstetter
So, the kid...
joe rogan
Kid fell in.
steve hofstetter
Was it like a kid falling in where the parent was at fault, or was it a kid doing something they shouldn't have done?
joe rogan
Well, the kid was doing something it shouldn't have done, but the parents weren't watching the kid.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Look, the zoo made it way too easy to get into the gorilla enclosure.
The kid got through the fence, fell down into this water.
The gorilla came in, scooped up the kid, arguably saved the kid.
Yeah.
Was handling it in a way that it could handle a gorilla baby, but a human baby, you just rip the arms off the kid.
It could really hurt it.
And I just don't think a gorilla is even aware of how fragile a three-year-old human being is.
Have you ever had a three-year-old chimp or a three-year-old gorilla near you?
steve hofstetter
I can't say I've ever had that experience.
joe rogan
I was on a TV show, it was on news radio, and they brought in a chimp for a scene, and this two-year-old chimp with diaper on was like, I was holding it, and it was beating on me, it was like hitting me in the back, like playing around with me.
They're unbelievably strong, and sinewy, like a little tiny bodybuilder.
Like, they don't feel like a baby.
Like, I have little kids.
And when you pick up a little kid, they're all soft and they feel like little kids.
They're mushy.
This chimp was not mushy.
And I think this gorilla probably had no idea how to handle a baby softly.
Or a toddler.
Really didn't know.
And they panicked and then they shot the gorilla.
But it seems to me that there's got to be a better way to do that.
But I could see the parents being like, fuck that gorilla.
Shoot it.
unidentified
Shoot it.
joe rogan
I want my kid back.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, but I could see the gorilla being like, fuck those parents.
joe rogan
Yeah, but I like people more than I like gorillas.
steve hofstetter
I do, and I love your joke about team people.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
It's, it's, I mean, it's a bit I enjoy, but there was a, there, so there's a bit I used to do, there was a story in Chicago, like, 15 years ago, where a woman was holding her baby over a gorilla.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah, I remember.
steve hofstetter
Like holding it straight up and then drop the baby and on that one the gorilla saved the kid and picked it up and And kept until the zookeeper could give it back to the mother.
Yeah, and the joke I used to do is be like I'm sorry give it back Like at that point a gorilla is a better parent than the person who once you voluntarily dangle your baby over a wild animal It's that's you giving of the baby away.
joe rogan
Well, we've been made it way too easy for people to survive People survive with very little adversity.
Yeah We survive with...
It's easy access to food, easy access to employment.
If you get fired, you get to sue.
If you're incompetent completely, you can claim that you were harassed at work.
There's so many loopholes, and we're so nerfed.
Every sharp edge is covered with foam, and everyone's wearing a helmet.
steve hofstetter
The nerfing of America.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And this is what we've got left.
We've got these fucking idiots.
We've got a bunch of really dumb people that are allowed to fuck and have kids.
And you can't stop people from having kids, because then someone could try to stop you.
Well, I don't like your belief, Steve Hofstetter.
You're a crazy liberal.
You think you should be able to have a nation that's not under God?
And you're going to raise your children without God?
That's child abuse!
steve hofstetter
Were you at my show the other day?
joe rogan
No, I could have been.
I've been to many shows.
I just think human beings need a certain amount of adversity.
We need a certain amount of difficulty to overcome, to learn those lessons, to filter that experience down into your behavior.
And when you don't learn those lessons and you just live this muted, nerfed up world, then you're holding your fucking baby over the gorilla tank because you're getting a little thrill.
unidentified
I can't believe I'm doing this!
I'm holding the baby!
joe rogan
I love the baby, but I like gorillas too!
And whoops, I'm dumb.
I drop the baby just like you drop your cell phone, just like you drop your keys in a fucking drainage ditch.
You're a dummy.
You drop shit.
You're a stupid fuck.
You're not supposed to be alive.
You should have been eaten by wolves hundreds of years ago.
If the world was safe, you would have been the one who walked off the trail.
I'm gonna go find a better way to the castle!
And the wolves would have eaten you and no one would have heard from you.
And that's what's supposed to happen to those kinds of people.
unidentified
It is.
joe rogan
It's supposed to happen.
steve hofstetter
Darwin, big fan.
joe rogan
Big fan of Darwin.
steve hofstetter
Big fan.
joe rogan
He had some good ideas.
steve hofstetter
Chris Bowers, I don't know if you know him, he's a comic out of, oh, you've worked Morty's.
Yes.
joe rogan
In Indianapolis?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, Chris and I are two of the owners.
joe rogan
Oh, you guys own Morty's?
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
No shit!
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
What a great club.
unidentified
Thank you.
joe rogan
That's awesome, man.
steve hofstetter
It's even better.
We have a new location now.
joe rogan
Oh, no shit.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
You guys moved?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, we have like Balcony and everything now.
It's great.
It looks like a small theater.
joe rogan
Oh, that's terrific, man.
That was a great club.
Yeah, that was a fun one.
Everybody loves that place.
That's cool, though.
I didn't know you owned that place.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Good for you.
You fucking entrepreneur.
steve hofstetter
Thank you.
Well, so Bowers has a great theory where, you know, the way to, I guess, prevent the stupid people in the overpopulation is if everyone is basically sterilized and you have to take something in order to be able to be pregnant...
But the only way you get that pill is you have to take that pill every day.
You don't take a pill to stop yourself from being pregnant.
You take a pill to get yourself pregnant.
So you have to take that pill.
Both partners would have to take that pill every day for six months.
Because if you can't commit to taking a pill every day for six months, you can't raise a kid.
joe rogan
Yeah, but it's so easy for people to just do that.
That's not enough of a fucking task.
steve hofstetter
It's a start.
joe rogan
It should be like one of those crows have to get a crumb out of a tube, and they have to use one tool to get the other tool to get the third tool in order to get the food.
That's how it should be.
It's too fucking easy to just take a pill.
You should have to do a puzzle.
Every day they should give you a puzzle.
And if you fail the puzzle, you don't get a pill.
So you get six months of correct answers to puzzles to get your pills.
That's the only way you should be able to get your pills.
steve hofstetter
I think that's how Chipotle gave away a free burrito once on their annual anniversary.
joe rogan
If they did it that way for people, the fucking 405 would be a breeze.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
It would be nobody.
It would just be a couple people waving at each other.
We made it!
steve hofstetter
You ever watch period piece television where they run into people they know?
Like on Mad Men, they would always run into people at the restaurant that they would know.
And part of me is like, oh, well, that's convenient.
And then I'm like, no, no, there are fewer people.
There were way fewer people then.
joe rogan
Way fewer.
steve hofstetter
It seems possible.
joe rogan
It's definitely possible.
It was possible in the 90s.
When I moved here in 1994, there was half as many people.
I wonder what the actual statistic was, but I'm pretty sure it was half as many people.
Like when you would get on the highway, you'd get on the highway and the traffic would be bad, but it wouldn't be that bad.
It would be no big deal.
I remember people talking about getting from Santa Monica to the valley in 10 minutes.
unidentified
What?
joe rogan
Exactly.
Ten minutes.
steve hofstetter
What did they drive?
A DeLorean?
joe rogan
Just drive a regular car.
Just get in your car and drive.
And this was back when cars were slow as shit.
And the brakes were terrible.
There was no traffic.
You just get around.
It's only nine miles.
No problem.
They just did it.
steve hofstetter
It's the same as, you know, planes.
I mean, I've only been flying about 20 years.
But 20 years ago, and now that's part of because they do the spoke garbage now where they, you know, you have to fly through Cincinnati to go to Denver or whatever it is.
unidentified
Right.
steve hofstetter
But it's everything's full.
Yeah.
Every single flight is full.
Like the idea, when someone doesn't have a seat next to you, it's a Christmas party.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
Well, how about when they say we've oversold this flight?
We're looking for volunteers.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like, what do you mean?
josh olin
You're selling some shit you don't even really have?
steve hofstetter
They absolutely do that, but in fairness, we can do that with comedy clubs too, because there's always a percentage of no-shows.
So there's...
joe rogan
Do you do that at Morty's?
steve hofstetter
We've done it, but it's not by a high percentage.
It's like, because usually our no-show percentage will be like 10%, so we'll oversell by like 5%.
Really?
joe rogan
So if you have 100 people, 10 people won't show up?
steve hofstetter
It depends on the price of the ticket.
It depends on the act.
Like with a celebrity, no-show percentage is virtually nothing.
But with like a typical day, you know, at a typical, like we call it a just funny...
You know, someone who's good, but no one has heard of them.
joe rogan
Right.
steve hofstetter
You know, plenty of times someone will be like, oh yeah, let's get four tickets to the club, and then they only have one friend.
Like, that happens all the time.
Babysitter cancels.
joe rogan
That's true.
steve hofstetter
You know, it's too rainy out, someone doesn't want to go out.
There are tons of reasons.
joe rogan
But you can't fuck over the people that actually paid and actually showed up.
steve hofstetter
We've never once.
joe rogan
Okay.
steve hofstetter
Not one time.
unidentified
So how do you do that?
joe rogan
You have extra chairs, you can just shove them in places in case everybody shows up?
steve hofstetter
If we have to, but what happens is, on the ticket it very specifically says, like, this is good until showtime.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
steve hofstetter
And so what happens is, even if there's, even if the no-show rate is way less than it is, even if there's weird anomaly where the no-show rate is like zero, there's still people who come late.
joe rogan
Right, and you can't come late.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, if you come late, like, you might get turned away.
And we tell everyone that.
joe rogan
Even if you have a ticket.
steve hofstetter
We tell everyone that.
If you come late, you can get turned away.
joe rogan
What if you get stuck in trial?
steve hofstetter
Well, you can call.
You can call and say, hey, you know, we're on our way, and please hold a seat.
joe rogan
That seems reasonable.
I accept that.
steve hofstetter
Think about it this way.
With Broadway, I mean, with Broadway, the door's close.
joe rogan
Okay, first of all, fuck Broadway.
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
Fuck all that nonsense.
Fuck musicals and fuck plays.
Okay, we have movies now.
I want special effects.
I don't want you talking loud.
unidentified
I'm with you.
joe rogan
I want you mic'd up.
I want you to be able to whisper, and I want to hear it crystal clear.
steve hofstetter
And I'm giving you no leeway.
I'm giving you no leeway because the costumes are nice.
joe rogan
Yes.
steve hofstetter
I want plot.
I want writing.
joe rogan
I want a fucking...
I want new shit, too.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I want some old shit that doesn't apply anymore.
steve hofstetter
I'm okay with musicals.
I don't...
You know, I can just suspend my disbelief and go, okay, everybody's singing, fine.
joe rogan
Not me.
steve hofstetter
But it's got to be a good song.
It's got to further the plot.
It can't just be something that they know is going to sell well.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I went to a musical.
Well, I should take that back because the Book of Mormon is fucking amazing.
steve hofstetter
Yes.
joe rogan
That's a musical.
steve hofstetter
That's what I mean.
joe rogan
But those guys are just, they do everything right.
They just do everything right.
unidentified
But that was also Bobby Lopez who did Avenue Q. I don't know who that is.
joe rogan
I don't know what that is.
steve hofstetter
You don't know Avenue Q? Nope.
So Avenue Q is the other good Broadway show of the two.
Avenue Q was the one where they had songs, The Internet is for Porn and Everyone's a Little Bit Racist.
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
Oh, so it's a comedy.
Okay, as long as it's a comedy.
steve hofstetter
Wasn't it with puppets?
Yeah, it was with puppets.
joe rogan
Was it a Broadway show with puppets?
jamie vernon
It was like Sesame Street on Broadway.
joe rogan
Hey, whatever happened to the fucking Spider-Man Broadway show where people kept falling on their head?
Did they abandon that?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, eventually.
Yeah, Spider-Man turned off the dark, eventually turned on the dark.
joe rogan
Because people were dying, right?
Didn't people get paralyzed and shit?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, people fell.
So my wife worked at Audience Rewards, which is like frequent flyer points for Broadway.
And so she would go to all these shows.
And so she went to Spider-Man during the previews.
And she texted me and she goes, one of the actors has been stuck for an hour.
Mm-hmm.
Like, just on the rope.
joe rogan
Oh my god.
steve hofstetter
And she just said, yeah, he's been stuck for an hour.
And I was like, I bet you know how he feels.
Like, it's just...
It was terrible.
She would go to all these shows, and eventually, like, I wouldn't have to go anymore.
Because she took me to American Idiot.
Did you ever see that, the Green Day one?
joe rogan
No.
steve hofstetter
So, I like Green Day.
joe rogan
How dare you?
steve hofstetter
I enjoy that song specifically.
joe rogan
I wish Joey Diaz was here right now.
steve hofstetter
He would murder me?
joe rogan
He'd be choking you.
steve hofstetter
Well, I like the song American Idiot because it caused people who it was about to enjoy it without knowing it was about them.
joe rogan
Right.
steve hofstetter
I like the subversity of that.
But the musical was, it was like, I was 30 seconds in before I was like, oh, fuck this show.
It was like watching the best painters in the world try to play football.
It was horrific.
joe rogan
That's a funny way of putting it.
steve hofstetter
Well, I know that Green Day isn't real punk-punk, but at the same time, that's the movement it came out of, and it's supposed to be anti-establishment, and the whole point of the show, I mean, the broadwaying of it, Basically made it like everybody's just jazz hands to fucking Green Day.
It was ridiculous.
joe rogan
Well, it kind of showed what Green Day really is all about.
steve hofstetter
Look at this, yeah.
joe rogan
That Green Day was, it's a manufactured outrage.
steve hofstetter
It's fake.
I was so disappointed because afterward I was like, I can't believe they lent their name to this and then I looked it up and I go, oh no, they were in charge?
It's like, that's it.
That's the end of it for me.
joe rogan
Well, that's why everybody was correct.
And I think that's one of those things where, like, people...
steve hofstetter
Look at the look on that guy.
Is that Jared from Subway?
Like, who is that?
unidentified
Oh...
joe rogan
No, it's Penn Jillette's younger brother.
steve hofstetter
Doesn't it look like...
And that wasn't even a molestation joke.
joe rogan
How about the guy on the far right with the two-tone hair and the conveniently placed tattoos?
I bet he's annoying.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
I bet in his last play he played like a salesman.
joe rogan
How about the guy with the flannel shirt?
Is that a flannel shirt or a jacket?
It's a blazer.
steve hofstetter
It's a flannel blazer.
joe rogan
He's the drummer for Green Day.
steve hofstetter
Oh, Christ.
joe rogan
Just take that picture off, Jamie.
Take it off!
Yeah, man, there's a lot of that stuff.
You know, it's like what we're talking about.
We're talking about suits coming in and telling you what you can and can't say.
I mean, they're being their own suits.
They're trying to formulate something that they think America's going to absorb, and then they're thinking about buying yachts.
steve hofstetter
So Avenue Q is a great show, but the most fun part of watching it was watching the old Broadway people Thinking that they're super naughty for going to the show.
Just like these, like, 60, 70-year-old women who, like, just couldn't believe, like, they said masturbation!
Like, just...
joe rogan
Oh, God.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, that was kind of...
I had fun watching people watch it.
joe rogan
Well, if I was going to go to Broadway, that would be kind of why I would go.
I would go to People Watch, the really upper-crust-rich crowd of Manhattanites.
The people that have homes in the Hamptons, like, those people that go to all those Broadway shows, and that's their social life.
That's what they do.
They go to parties.
They dress really well.
They eat really well.
And they go to the finest restaurants in town.
They always get a table at the finest restaurants.
And here they are.
That's like their hobby is being rich and doing rich people things.
And if you want to be cultured, you have to read the New York Times.
You have to read the New Yorker.
And you have to go to these musicals when they come out.
And you have to go to Broadway when it comes out.
There's a new play.
Are you going to be there?
Yes, we are.
We have season tickets to the Broadway.
Do they have season tickets to Broadway?
They can't.
steve hofstetter
They do?
They're like multi-ticket packages.
Those people have to do everything they can to be cultured except actually talk to human beings.
joe rogan
Well, they talk to a few human beings who are exactly like them.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, but they don't talk to anyone who, you know, I mean, they might know their gardener's name.
joe rogan
Well, there's a bunch of people that are like that, that are just completely locked up in consumption, and that's the only thing that they can discuss.
I had this neighbor, I used to call him Bling Bling, because Bling Bling always had like, everything was shiny, he always had like expensive watches, and he always had like the nicest cars.
I couldn't talk to the fucking guy about anything other than like cars and houses.
You know, like I would say, hey man, how you doing?
And they're good, good, good.
See what that guy did to his house?
Looks like shit.
What year is that car?
Like, that's all he would talk about.
All he was into was consumption, what was good for the property values, where'd you get the watch?
Oh, nice, nice watch.
Like, that was all he was into, like, acquiring items, moving items around, fixing items, making items better.
But this was, he was the American idiot.
I mean, he was locked into that.
I mean, I knew this guy for years.
I mean, literally, that is why I called him Blink Blink.
We never had a conversation about anything other than objects that he wanted or objects that he saw that he liked.
I mean, it was really weird, but I think there's a lot of people like that out there, especially really rich people.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
When people make this argument about, like, oh, well, you know, we have to allow the rich to be able to spend their money because it's for the economy, and that's why they shouldn't, you know, we shouldn't have higher taxes on the rich, I'm just like, do you see how they spend it?
unidentified
Do you see the ridiculousness that...
joe rogan
The problem with higher taxes on the rich is that, like, what's going on?
What is capitalism?
Like, what is it?
Is it a game?
I mean, if one person works harder and they make more money, and one person is more innovative, they're more creative, they figure out a way to extract more money from the system, should they be penalized?
I mean, aren't we all trying to do that?
Are we all trying to acquire money in some way, shape, or form?
And who is to say that one person, some Bill Gates-type guy, is better at it, so they should be penalized?
It seems like you're trying to rig the game because someone is just way fucking better at it.
steve hofstetter
Well, I think the problem is that it's not...
I don't have a problem with the people who are better at it.
I have a problem with the people who are the grandson of the person who is better at it.
joe rogan
Exactly.
steve hofstetter
Who was just the idea of like, oh, you know, my father's sperm was real innovative.
joe rogan
The Heinz account has always had good merit here.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
Yeah, that kind of stuff.
joe rogan
Inherence money, that's a tricky one.
Because I think it's bad for the people, too.
They get it.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
I look at the people who...
There's that quote that...
I forget where it's from, but that quote that America is a nation of temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
That, like, everyone thinks that they're a millionaire.
They're just going through hard times right now.
joe rogan
Oh, I get it.
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, that's one of the reasons why poor people vote for Republicans.
They really think, well, you need business!
Who is more anti-poor people than Republicans?
But how many poor people wind up being conservative?
steve hofstetter
What I want to say to those people is like, I get, you know, we all want to be millionaires, we all want to be successful, and that's wonderful, and we need a path to get there, and that's fantastic.
But tell me this, when you were 55 and you were working at Applebee's, what the fuck is your path?
Where from here to there, you tell me what app you're going to invent, you tell me what, you know, you're going to win on American Idol as the old lady.
Like, you tell me how the fuck are you going to go from the lowest tax bracket to the highest one when you're already 55 and your dream has gone.
joe rogan
But it can happen.
See, to say that is kind of silly because there's been a million stories about someone who writes a book in their 50s and they become rich.
I mean, all that stuff has happened.
steve hofstetter
It can.
joe rogan
But you have to do it.
Whatever it is, you have to do it.
If you're actually just taking all your time and you're staying at Applebee's and then you're drinking and then you watch the TV and then you're falling asleep.
steve hofstetter
That's what I mean.
joe rogan
And you just keep that pattern.
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
If that person said to me, well, I've been working on this novel for a very long time, and I have a lot of faith in it, and I've sent it to a lot of publishers, and you know what?
I've been rejected a lot of times, but I'm not going to take no for an answer.
I'm going to pound the pavement, and I'm going to find it.
Maybe I'll self-publish it, and I'll walk around, and I'll go to libraries, and I'll get my book in libraries.
And if they said all that, I would be like, you know what?
Don't pay taxes.
joe rogan
Yes.
steve hofstetter
Vote Republican.
joe rogan
Yes.
steve hofstetter
But, if they're just like, well, you know, my brother's got this idea, right?
My brother's got this idea.
Now, he just needs a little bit of seed money.
A little bit of seed money.
That person, I'm just like, I don't understand why you're voting against your own best interest.
joe rogan
Well, I don't think they think they are.
They think the people are lazy.
I work hard.
These goddamn lazy people, they want that welfare money, they're gonna take that welfare and just spend it on the cigarettes.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
Well, I loved during the recession, the collapse, when everybody was talking about, like, I don't like how the government spends my money.
They're like, the government spends money on things they can't afford.
I'm like, you just lost your house and your car because you bought something you couldn't afford.
joe rogan
Yeah, but they thought they could afford it.
steve hofstetter
Right.
joe rogan
They're just stupid.
The problem with those goddamn mortgages, man, that was the craziest Ponzi scheme ever.
That you would have someone with an adjustable rate mortgage and all of a sudden the rate gets jacked up through the roof and you're paying three times as much.
Like, what did I sign up for?
unidentified
Wait a minute, I was only paying $1,500 a month and now I'm paying $15,000.
steve hofstetter
There's a great deal of deception and fraud and garbage that was done from the banks and from the people in charge.
But there was also a great deal of people that didn't want to do their homework.
And they just heard something too good to be true, and they didn't know the lesson of if it's too good to be true, it's not true.
joe rogan
Yeah, definitely.
steve hofstetter
It's the same people who, like, they'll open up the email, they'll be like...
What do you mean I got this email where I get all this money?
I just click on this link right here from this person I never met?
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
Like, how do you not know?
The first time I saw that, I was like, this looks wrong.
joe rogan
Well, you're a smart guy, Steve.
steve hofstetter
But that's what I'm saying.
joe rogan
A lot of people, they're dumb.
steve hofstetter
It's so difficult.
joe rogan
So lonely at the top of Olympus well one of the things we were talking about earlier about debt and about people with credit card debt that they don't realize it and if you had money I cash money and you wouldn't you wouldn't be so likely to go into debt with cash Yeah, well, I think that's the same thing with the environment I think the environment is almost like credit because it's we're like throwing garbage out the window and no one's thinking about it We're just burning fossil fuels and fucking spraying hairspray into the sky.
No one's thinking about what that's doing because we don't feel it instantly and immediately.
We don't have like a vault we open up.
Shit, I'm out of air.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
You know?
steve hofstetter
I'm running low.
joe rogan
We're running low on fish lift.
We don't feel it.
So we continue to act in the exact same way, because we're not really getting the feedback.
You know, you watch An Inconvenient Truth, you go, well, that's kind of fucked up.
Gotta go to work in the morning.
Click.
Shut it off.
Go to bed.
unidentified
Beep, beep, beep.
joe rogan
Wake up.
Keep going.
And that's a pattern that just keeps getting repeated and repeated, and we're not feeling the feedback of the negative actions.
steve hofstetter
I was flying, and it was during that crazy winter with the polar vortex stuff, Where it was, like, negative two degrees in a lot of places, and it got down to, like, negative 20 in the Midwest.
joe rogan
What year was that?
steve hofstetter
Uh, two years ago, I think?
Two, three years ago?
Yeah, it was, uh...
I know, in L.A., we're just like, yeah, it got all the way down to 55. It was terrible.
And so, um...
Yeah, I got woken up by the bells of the ice cream truck.
It was really a difficult winter.
But the...
Um, but...
So I'm flying somewhere, and there's this guy, you know, going through in front of me at TSA, and, you know, he's taking off his coat and all that stuff, and...
TSA got a cold outside, didn't it?
One of these small airports where they all went to high school together.
And the guy goes, so much for global warming.
And I need to leave well enough alone.
I need to learn how to do that.
But I was like, actually, you know, global warming also makes it colder in the winter.
joe rogan
Oh, look, the Jews got an opinion!
steve hofstetter
He knew right away.
Yeah, he just immediately, his reaction actually was one of my favorite things anyone's ever said.
He just goes, that's what they want you to believe.
Like they do, because they're scientists, and they want you to believe them.
joe rogan
Well, Sam Harris was talking about this yesterday, that Trump is a global warming denier.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
A global warming denier is really close to being the President of the United States.
steve hofstetter
He is not only a global warming denier, but the good news is, if he felt he would make money off of it, he would believe in global warming.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
For sure.
steve hofstetter
There's no platform he can't believe in.
joe rogan
I wonder what the thought process behind that is.
Just plow straight ahead and just do whatever's good for you and don't give a fuck?
Or is there like...
It's narcissism.
Scientists will figure it out.
Yeah, for sure, right?
That's really what it is.
I'm answering my own question.
steve hofstetter
I think it's, I think it's a, yeah, it's what you were saying, the idea of like plowing ahead and not knowing, like, I have this thing where it bothers me when someone's unhappy.
Like, when I can see unhappiness, whether, like, someone's mad at me about something I did, or just someone's sad, like, immediately I'm like, I have to fix this!
You know, like, and I don't know what that's from.
I don't know how I got that way, and I try to get over it to a degree.
I like being compassionate, but I also don't want it to, like, totally ruin me.
And I think that there are people who are wired in completely the other direction, who they can walk by someone bleeding to death and just be like, ugh, the sidewalk used to be so much nicer.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I guess that's probably like the type of person that you don't want in office.
steve hofstetter
Yes.
unidentified
Right?
steve hofstetter
Yes.
It's the exact type of person you don't want in office.
joe rogan
But you also don't want the type of person in office that's constantly worried about people being sad.
Because then you'll never get anything done.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Because there's 300 million people and at least 30 million of them are sad as fuck.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Right?
At least.
steve hofstetter
I can look at statistics being sad all day with no problem.
joe rogan
Oh, statistics don't fuck with you.
It's actually humans.
steve hofstetter
It's the interaction with humans.
joe rogan
What about puppies and kittens and shit?
steve hofstetter
I'm a big dog rescue guy.
joe rogan
Oh, me too.
I can't go.
I'll take them all.
steve hofstetter
Dude, on this past tour, I did in ten days.
In ten days, I stopped and got four strays.
I didn't keep them, but I helped rescue four strays in ten days just driving around.
joe rogan
You found them on the street?
steve hofstetter
Four strays in ten days.
joe rogan
How do you know they were actually straights?
How do you know people don't just, like, let their dogs out and the dogs come back?
I used to have a dog like that.
steve hofstetter
Well, one of them was, if it hadn't come back, I mean, if it was let out, it had been a couple days.
Like, it was, like, matted up and everything.
One of them was actually someone who, like, was someone who just keeps their door open, and then their dog was just playing in traffic.
And, but, thankfully, and he comes out and he goes, I've been looking for him!
And I just go, where?
joe rogan
All around my bathroom, taking a shit.
Where's the dog?
steve hofstetter
The third one was one who was, I don't think she's ever been owned.
It was just on the streets of Louisville and just walking around near the airport.
And then the fourth one was actually one where this was the one that made me the most upset because leash and collar right outside of a dog grooming place.
So I'm like, oh shit, one got out.
And so, this is in Phoenix.
And I'm running around.
It's 95 degree heat.
And this dog is fast.
And I'm like running around trying to chase it.
And finally, there's like this alcove in the shopping center where it goes in the alcove.
And I'm like, great, it'll be cornered.
I'll finally be able to get it.
And so I go in there, and there's like a woman with a stroller.
And I go, hey, do you see a stray dog run by here?
And then I see the dog in the corner.
And I go, oh, it's right there.
And she goes, that's my dog.
I go, that's your dog.
I've been chasing it for 20 minutes through a parking lot.
It almost got hit by three different cars.
And she goes, oh, did it?
Like, yeah, that's what happens when dogs run around parking lots.
joe rogan
When people have strollers, they don't give a fuck about their dog.
They're like, I'm concerned with this little baby.
This dog can go fuck itself.
steve hofstetter
I just think, like, how hard is it to take that leash and just tie it to the bench that you're sitting on?
joe rogan
It's hard for some people.
Just like it's hard to not hold the baby over the gorilla enclosure.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
It's very difficult.
steve hofstetter
Something that compels you.
joe rogan
The temptation is real.
The struggle is real.
steve hofstetter
It'd be like, you know, I really don't want to let this dog go.
joe rogan
One of my favorite dogs ever.
I got a call from these people that I knew.
They were dog watchers.
And they found a dog in their neighborhood.
And they knew that I had dogs.
And they knew I loved dogs.
And this dog had mange.
She had mange all over her body.
She was really sick.
And they were like, we don't even know if...
If she's gonna be able to make it like she's like she's so fucked like open scabs because of it She was so beat up.
It was so sad And so they had washed her up and they had fed her and she was a really sweet dog And I'm like look I'll take a chance.
Let's see what happens.
Yeah within like a week her mange had grown back It was crazy.
It's just yeah food She's need to be cleaned and needed food within a week Almost all of her hair was like it wasn't fully grown.
It was all growing back She turned out to be the greatest dog of all time but I can't go around those dogs.
I'll have a fucking house full of dogs.
I'll have a hundred dogs.
steve hofstetter
The one I have now, I did not plan on having him.
I saw him in a shelter and he was just the cutest thing.
And I fostered him.
And two days in, someone messaged me.
Because I made an Instagram account for him so that maybe it would get popular and someone would adopt him.
And then someone messaged me.
And immediately I get the message.
And I was thinking, don't you take my dog.
Like, already he was mine.
So he's a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, which is basically like a mini pit.
joe rogan
They look like a pit bull.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, I call it a pit bull face on a pig's body.
It's like, he's adorable.
And he, like, what's crazy is, so that breed, if you were to buy one, they're $2,500.
And that's one without training, without anything, like, and he was just sitting in a shelter.
And so anytime someone's like, oh, well, you know, I gotta go to a shelter because I need a really specific, or, sorry, I gotta go to a breeder because I need a really specific dog.
I'm just like, but they're out there.
Yeah, there's every- You can find anything you want.
joe rogan
Every single kind of dog is out there in a shelter.
steve hofstetter
He's my mascot now.
I take him with me to comedy clubs and everything.
joe rogan
Really?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, because he doesn't bark at all.
I've heard him bark maybe like ten times.
joe rogan
Oh, that's awesome.
steve hofstetter
And so he hangs out in the green room.
He'll find whatever comic left a box of merch.
Sometimes someone will ship merch or something.
He'll just find the box of shirts and just use it as a bed.
He's great.
joe rogan
He's smart.
He knows they're useless.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, man.
Shelters are tough.
It's tough.
It's tough to go there.
It's tough to see.
People are so irresponsible.
They're so irresponsible with pets.
They get them.
We can't have this dog.
This dog's shitting the house.
You've got to teach them to not shit in the house.
Next thing you know, they just give them up and leave them in a cage and out of sight, out of mind, go on with their life.
What disturbed me is when I found out how many animals PETA kills every year.
steve hofstetter
Oh, I got into it with the PETA spokesperson on Twitter.
joe rogan
Did you?
unidentified
Oh, I fucked her up.
steve hofstetter
Good.
I was pretty happy with that one.
joe rogan
What was it about?
steve hofstetter
So she followed me on Twitter, and I just write back and I go, hey, I'm so honored for the follow.
Since you're the PETA spokesperson, could you let me know why PETA has a 90% kill rate?
And so she starts doing, you know, the standard PR thing of like, well, you know, people bring dogs to us that, you know, don't really have much of a chance elsewhere.
And so, you know, we're kind of a last resort.
And I go, oh, well, that's actually not true, because I know of shelters that are like that, and their kill rate is one-tenth of yours.
So, if you could explain...
And I just kept hammering her about it, hammering her about it, hammering her...
Politely?
Calmly.
I wasn't like, shut up, bitch!
Like, because that gets you nowhere.
joe rogan
Right.
steve hofstetter
You know, I was just trying to outwit her, and it was a lot of fun.
And eventually then, she's like, look, I don't speak for PETA. And I was like, well, in your bio...
On your Twitter, it says, head of communications.
So, you do, and now you're speaking to me.
joe rogan
Is it a resource issue?
Does PETA just not have the money to take care of them?
steve hofstetter
It's actually a Batman issue.
You know how, like, Ra's al Ghul...
joe rogan
Pause.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
unidentified
Pause.
steve hofstetter
You know how the idea of, like, in the first Christian Bale Batman, Ra's al Ghul was kind of like...
joe rogan
Who's that?
steve hofstetter
Okay, so the bad guy in Batman, they were like, we need to save the city by destroying it.
unidentified
Right.
steve hofstetter
Like, the humans are destroying themselves, so we're gonna wipe this out, and so that'll prevent the problem.
And that's what it is.
PETA is basically like, there's a problem with...
We love these dogs, and so to stop them from overbreeding, we're just going to murder a lot of them.
That's where they go with it.
joe rogan
Well, the head of PETA, when you get to the top...
steve hofstetter
Crazy person.
Am I going to be murdered for saying this?
joe rogan
No, you shouldn't be.
If they do, they're rude.
Animal Liberation Organization, at the very head of a lot of these really radical animal rights movements, and by the way, I love animals, so I get it.
I get the wanting pets...
To be taken care of, but they don't want pets to be taken care of.
They don't want pets.
They think animals should be free.
All animals should be free.
All livestock, all pets.
None of that should be real.
All animals should just exist in some sort of a wild state.
steve hofstetter
They also...
She's gone on a record many, many times talking about how, you know, pit bulls should be eradicated.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
And, you know, and like things like that and the idea of...
unidentified
Pit bulls are...
joe rogan
They are dangerous.
I've had them.
They just are.
You know, they've thousands of years of breeding to fight each other.
And if you're an irresponsible dog owner, pit bulls can be fucking dangerous.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, but at the same time, they say that about my dog, about my Staffie.
joe rogan
Yeah, but Staffordshire House Terrors, that's ignorance.
They're not the same breed.
See, there's a genetic lie.
steve hofstetter
According to law, they are.
joe rogan
Yeah, but that's not, it's not right.
The law is incorrect.
There's just some stuff written down on paper.
When you deal with the actual genetic lines of the dog, I've had dogs that were, their line was from fighting dogs.
And they were impossible.
You couldn't take them to the dog park, couldn't take them, it didn't matter how much I trained him, how much I was with him all the time, when dogs would bow up around him, he would get aggressive and he'd want to fight.
steve hofstetter
Well, I agree with you on a lot of things, but this is one where I have a completely different line, because I have a dog who is Chihuahua Basset Hound, and I can't bring her near other dogs.
joe rogan
But that's an exception to the rule.
Pit bulls are kind of the rule.
The problem with pit bulls is, it's a very dangerous dog.
They're super powerful, they're really aggressive, and they don't...
Respond to pain the way a lot of other dogs do because it's been bred out of them Like if you follow the way they breed dogs for fighting when dogs fight if they back away if they cower they were killed That was the whole Michael Vick thing.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Is that they had killed all these dogs that quit in fights so when you have all of that Reinforcement genetically and you're dealing with a breed that's been Raised like this for hundreds and hundreds of generations, you're dealing with an incredibly aggressive dog with a really high kill drive.
And when these dogs with high prey drives are given to irresponsible people, that's when you're getting all babies getting killed, little kids getting killed, dogs getting killed.
I mean, it is breed specific.
steve hofstetter
But, I mean, that's also the same train of thought that people, you know, if you can put on a powdered wig and say that about, quote-unquote, the Negro.
joe rogan
No, you couldn't.
I mean, that was the same.
Because they weren't bred for fighting and killing.
If you bred a bunch of people just for fighting and killing, yeah, you can make that distinction.
But pit bulls were bred for fighting.
I mean, that's what they were bred for.
That's why they looked that way.
I mean, this is a thing that's been done.
steve hofstetter
That's recent, though.
joe rogan
Hundreds and hundreds of generations.
It's not that recent.
unidentified
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, I mean, they used to be, you know, the pit bull was America's sweetheart.
Yes, it was, during World War I. Yeah, you know, Petey from the Little Rascals had the pit bull, you know, whatever it was.
joe rogan
It was almost America's mascot, by the way, before the eagle.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, and I think the problem is also is that if a dog looks like a pit bull, Because Pitbull actually isn't even a breed.
It's, what is it, American something Terrier is the actual breed that people are talking about.
joe rogan
Well, it was an American Bulldog mixed with a Terrier.
Terriers were more aggressive.
steve hofstetter
And then they made the new breed.
joe rogan
Yeah.
But if you get a bloodline from one that is a fighting dog, and this is not someone...
I love Pitbulls.
I have friends that have Pitbulls.
I love them.
They're the sweetest, most friendly dog.
steve hofstetter
If handled correctly.
Yeah.
joe rogan
They still have a problem being aggressive with other dogs.
A lot of them do.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
And they're really powerful dogs and in the hands of the wrong people.
We're not talking about labs, okay?
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
When you have a lab, labs are like universally loving and nice.
You can get the exception to the rule.
You get a bad lab.
But overall, Labrador Retrievers are really friendly, easy-going dogs.
So when someone has a lab, you go, oh, he's got a lab.
When someone has a pit bull, there's a fucking reason why people go, oh, great, he's got a pit bull.
Because a lot of them are fucking crazy.
A lot.
steve hofstetter
I think it boils down to who is handling the dog and the idea of if you...
I hate when someone is like, I'm thinking of getting a pit bull.
It's like, well, either you need to know everything about it and you get one, or you don't.
joe rogan
Well, you have to have a yard that can contain that dog for sure.
You have to be on top of it when it comes to training it.
You have to really be aware.
You have to read books on it.
You should probably seek help with a professional, a behavioral specialist with dogs.
But even then, if some dog threatens your dog or growls around your dog, it's likely that your dog's going to clamp a hold of its neck, and that dog's going to get fucked up.
steve hofstetter
But that's also why I'm a huge proponent of leash laws.
I think, by the way, if LA... Fuck these parking tickets.
Leash laws.
Like, you enforce leash laws, and we will have more money than any city in the world.
joe rogan
Right.
Yeah, well, I guess.
I mean, how many people really walk around with their dog without a leash?
Is that really a problem?
steve hofstetter
I couldn't...
I don't know if I've ever walked my dog without running into someone who had an off-leash dog.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's irresponsible.
Unless you're on a trail or something like that.
steve hofstetter
But even then, I was walking my dogs on this trail on a leash park in, I think it was Fryman, and these two huge dogs come bounding at us.
And now look, Maybe they're playful.
One of mine's not.
One of mine is a fucking terror when it comes to other dogs.
And so immediately we pick them up, and this lady starts lecturing us about how you're not socializing your dogs correctly, and they'll never learn.
And I was like, well, if you want my dog to bite your dog, I can put her back down if you'd like.
But, like, that's why...
joe rogan
They'll never learn.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
People whose lives are a mess always love correcting people.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
You need to get your shit together!
steve hofstetter
I call it incorrecting.
joe rogan
Incorrecting.
steve hofstetter
It's like, thanks for incorrecting me.
joe rogan
Yeah, you need to socialize your dog.
Well, first of all, if it's a little dog that you can pick up and big dogs are running around, you probably should pick them up.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Dogs like to bite little dogs.
They do it all the time.
Yeah, this dog looks like a rabbit.
Especially if it's the wrong kind of dog, you know, like Huskies.
Huskies are Akitas, you know, like real aggressive dogs.
steve hofstetter
There are so many people.
There was one in my old neighborhood.
We're walking our dogs and all of a sudden this dog comes charging at us.
And it was like a little dog.
And so, you know, we pick our dogs and my wife yells, leash your damn dog.
And the guy goes, this is a public space.
And I go, yeah, that's why you leash your dog.
joe rogan
But where was this?
steve hofstetter
Just this little lawn of an apartment complex.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
steve hofstetter
Like just a place where people walk their dogs all the time.
joe rogan
Do you believe in leashing your dogs on trails and stuff too?
Like when you're in parks?
steve hofstetter
I mean, if it is a non-leash place, then that's fine.
If it's a leash place, the problem is that if someone's dog is leashed and someone's dog isn't leashed, that's a bad way for them to meet.
joe rogan
Right, because one dog feels trapped and confined.
steve hofstetter
Right, so it's a bad expectation.
So if I know that there are going to be non-leash dogs there, I'm fine, because I know and I'm prepared and I'm ready, and the dog is prepared, and etc.
But if all of a sudden a dog just comes out of the woods...
That's not safe.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's true.
steve hofstetter
They're not robots.
They're not.
joe rogan
Well, there's so much variety in the way dogs behave and the way dogs treat other dogs and other people.
It's always like, what's this dog like?
Here comes a dog.
What are we dealing with?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, exactly.
unidentified
I really don't know.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, I have no idea.
And I know that even when I stop for them on the road, I know that's dangerous to do because you have no idea if that dog is going to try to bite you.
joe rogan
Have you been bit?
steve hofstetter
I haven't.
Really?
Yeah, I keep a slope lead in the car.
joe rogan
Do you constantly keep a...
steve hofstetter
I just have a slip lead in my trunk.
joe rogan
Wow.
steve hofstetter
I've seen so many of them, and I can't tell you how many times I'm like, I wish I had something to put around this dog.
joe rogan
And when you capture them, then when you put them in your car, what do you do?
You just bring them right to a shelter?
steve hofstetter
Well, so far, I actually have not had that happen.
Usually it is either like one time there was someone else there that happened to work for rescue that also stopped You know one time there was like a pet store right nearby So I kind of like brought the dog into the pet store and like they were able to hold him while While you know the owner came huh, so So I actually haven't, but, oh no, you know, the one time, yeah, I brought a dog to, in Louisville, I brought a dog to a shelter, the one this past week, where like I, you And then I had to be super careful and disinfect everything, because you never know what the dog has.
And I have a dog, and so...
I just basically...
I had my buddy who...
Because I had my dog with me when I saw the other dog.
So I had my buddy...
We were like half a mile from the hotel, so he just walked back to the hotel with my dog.
And then I just drove the other dog to the shelter.
And then you just hope someone adopts it.
You just put it on social media, and you hope.
joe rogan
Yeah, if you pick up a dog that has fleas, and the fleas get in the carpet of your car...
steve hofstetter
Well, but, but that's the thing.
I've given up on flea prevention.
joe rogan
Really?
steve hofstetter
Like, it's something where I give my dogs the medicine for it, but, like, California has such a fucking flea problem that there's nothing you can do.
Like, after a certain amount, like, every, every dog here has fleas.
joe rogan
Really?
steve hofstetter
Yeah, it's, it's some, some react to it worse than others.
joe rogan
My dogs don't have fleas.
steve hofstetter
But there's, look, you live in a special place.
You live in a magical cloud above Los Angeles.
joe rogan
A magical cloud of flea-less dogs.
The PETA-killing thing always fucks with me.
steve hofstetter
It's amazing to me that people will justify it also.
There's video of them going to a porch and leading someone's dog off their porch and taking it and killing it within a couple hours.
joe rogan
Yeah, and why do they do that?
Why do they lead it off the porch?
steve hofstetter
Again, they want to eradicate it.
joe rogan
They just don't want pets.
They just don't want pets.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
So they think it's better to kill the pet than allow the pet to be with the person that they love.
steve hofstetter
To lead a life of slavery.
joe rogan
So bizarre.
Just that kind of radical thinking.
But that's just the case with everything, right?
I mean, you have your reasonable people and then you have your people that take that to the utmost and take it to the furthest point of rational thinking.
To the point where you're like, you're killing all the dogs you capture?
steve hofstetter
One of my favorite things that I've seen was Jon Stewart showed a video of people merging to the, I think it was like the Holland Tunnel or the Lincoln Tunnel or something.
And it was like one car, one car, one car, one car.
Like you're supposed to do with merge.
And every now and then, someone would drive up on the shoulder and go around all of them.
And just be like...
Fuck everybody but me, you know?
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
And that is who creates terrible policy.
That is who shouts from the rooftops about that.
Like, that is who most of us will just drive one car, one car.
joe rogan
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
And understand that that's what you do because that's what you want to have done to you.
joe rogan
But there's always that one guy that's late for work every day.
He's like, fuck!
I saw a guy do that the other day.
He hit the breakdown lane near a light.
A light was about to turn green and he got into the side lane where people park and just gunned it through the intersection.
Almost plowed into people and then you see him speeding up ahead because he was probably late for work.
It was early in the morning.
You know, there's so many people that every day they barely make it to work on time, and it's like this adrenaline rush they're addicted to.
They don't even realize it.
They're supposed to leave at 7.10, but meanwhile it's 7.15, it's 7.20.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
And they run out the door, and that's the race.
That's where they're getting their char.
They're not getting chased by saber-toothed tigers, but they are getting their adrenaline fix.
Because that's the danger.
steve hofstetter
Another thing that, another Chris Bauer story, another comic was asking him about, because he drives around to gigs all the time, and someone asked him about, because he said, oh yeah, I never speed.
And he's like, what do you mean you never speed?
How do you get there?
And he's like, well, I'm in my 40s now, so I wake up 15 minutes earlier.
And then I still get there.
Because that's all it is.
Like, at the same time, it's hard not to speed, because when you're like, when you have these straightaways, when there are no cars near you, and it's like, why the fuck is the speed limit 60 here?
Are you kidding me?
I can go 100 safely, easy.
But at the same time, the idea of like, well, I just...
What are you gonna save?
Unless you're doing like a 10-hour drive, you're not saving anything significant.
joe rogan
Right, but then there's the idea of the man telling you how fast you can go.
steve hofstetter
Yeah.
joe rogan
Fuck him, man.
steve hofstetter
Well, I think you should be able to unlock levels like on your driver's license.
joe rogan
That's a good idea.
steve hofstetter
Like, I could get a 75 mile an hour speed limit.
I could easily drive at 75 with no problem.
joe rogan
Right, if you're like a race car driver.
If you know how to really drive and you're super responsible with your choices of lane changing and things along those lines.
Yeah.
steve hofstetter
You should be able to drive faster.
The problem is, how do you enforce it?
You have to pull the person over and then maybe you get a sticker on your car, something.
joe rogan
Right, that's good.
steve hofstetter
I'd even drive an ugly car.
Like, I would drive, like, give me a purple Fender.
You know, give me something ridiculous that the cops can easily see then and go, okay, that's a 75 mile an hour guy.
joe rogan
And if you text in your car, if you text while you're driving, while you're actually moving, I mean, how many times have I looked over and I saw this car acting weird and they're texting?
You should just, you should lose your license for a week.
steve hofstetter
Here's the better question.
Yeah, fuck.
When do we pee on this show?
joe rogan
Oh, you have to pee?
unidentified
Go ahead.
joe rogan
Go pee now.
unidentified
Alright, cool.
joe rogan
We're going to wrap this up soon anyway.
I've got to boogie soon.
steve hofstetter
Alright, I'll pee quick.
joe rogan
Go ahead.
Go pee.
Steve Hofstadter, ladies and gentlemen.
If you want to see that video, you can find it on his YouTube channel.
Actually, if you just look up Steve Hofstadter destroys a heckler, you'll find it.
Easy to find.
jamie vernon
He's got a couple multi-million view heckler videos.
joe rogan
Wow.
Maybe it's him.
Maybe he baits these people.
We don't need to watch them, but he's probably baiting these motherfuckers.
Good dude, though, but crazy traveling around with fucking leashes.
Kidnapping dogs and yelling at PETA people.
Young motherfucking team.
jamie vernon
It happened to me one time when I was walking around running.
I had my headphones on and a dog just came running up behind me.
joe rogan
It scared me.
jamie vernon
Whatever, just a dog.
unidentified
And then I kind of like, get away, dog, get away.
steve hofstetter
Shoo, shoo, kind of thing.
unidentified
And there was a girl behind me.
jamie vernon
But it came back like five minutes later was jumping at me and barking and I was like, get the f- I kinda got pissed, you know what I mean?
It was like she was taking her dog and picking up and getting mad at me because I got mad at the dog.
joe rogan
Well, people get mad that you don't know their dog is cool.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like, how do I know?
Your dog could be a fucking maniac, you crazy bitch.
I don't even know her.
I'm talking to her while she's really here.
steve hofstetter
But what do I do?
unidentified
If I kick it and I'm an asshole now because your dog's going to bite me, I've got to take a bite?
joe rogan
Well, that's also the problem with running with headphones on.
But running with headphones on is so much more inspirational than running without headphones on.
jamie vernon
I just found out, too, there's a cool thing on Spotify.
You can have it set to your pace, your beats per minute.
It'll play symphonic movie action-themed song stuff.
unidentified
Really?
You're the best around!
It'll play that kind of stuff.
Nothing's going on!
joe rogan
We're talking about running with headphones on a dog, came up to him, barking at him, and, you know, that is disturbing.
unidentified
It happens.
joe rogan
Yeah, it can.
If you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, and, you know, obviously people do get bit, you know?
Fucking German shepherds, man.
Those little fuckers.
My daughter got bit by a German Shepherd recently.
These people have this dog, and I'm like, this is not a regular dog.
You can't just have this fucking dog in your yard.
You need to teach this dog.
And they're like, oh, well, she's a little rambunctious.
I go, no, this is a working dog.
This is a working dog.
Do you understand?
This is a really smart dog.
It's going to figure out a way out of your yard.
And when kids are fucking with it, it's going to bite them.
This is what's going to happen, unless you teach it.
You have to take this thing now, when it's eight months old, and you've got to really train it.
Because it's already fucking 70 pounds.
It's already a big-ass dog.
You have a responsibility when you have a dog like this.
This is not...
This is not like a bulldog that'll just sit there and is happy to just drink water and chill out.
This is a super active, really aggressive dog.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, it needs to think.
You need to give it puzzles.
Maybe you can get the birth control pill.
joe rogan
This is sort of the same thing along the same lines we were talking about with pit bulls.
These animals are bred for a very specific activity.
In order to discourage that activity, boy, you're going to have to fucking throw a lot of tennis balls.
You're going to have to get this dog a lot of exercise.
You're going to have to give this dog a lot of activity, a lot of stuff that they can occupy their mind with.
steve hofstetter
It's like humans being bred for office jobs.
joe rogan
Yeah, exactly.
Dude, you just fucking nailed it.
Steve Hofstetter, we've got to wrap this up.
I've got to get out of here.
steve hofstetter
If I knew that, I would have held the pee for a little longer.
joe rogan
It's not a good deal, dude.
This is a casual show.
Yeah.
So, where can people see you?
Where can they see you live?
Where can they find your Twitter?
Is Steve Hofstetter?
Yeah.
H-O-F-F-S-T-E-T-T-E-R. Okay, sorry.
steve hofstetter
That's okay.
It happens all the time.
My YouTube is just YouTube, the Hofstetter.
But you can also just Google it.
And I have a podcast called Major League Podcast, which is where I interview baseball players.
joe rogan
Oh, you're a baseball fan.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, huge baseball fan.
joe rogan
Oh, cool, cool, cool.
steve hofstetter
Yeah, I'm doing a thing now where I'm throwing out first pitches.
It's like a thing.
joe rogan
Oh, nice.
steve hofstetter
It's like my favorite thing to do.
joe rogan
Well, listen, man.
You're a funny, funny dude.
unidentified
Thank you.
joe rogan
I love the Heckler video.
It's awesome.
I love that it's blown up for you and you're getting all this attention and all this cool shit's happening for you.
steve hofstetter
You're part of that, man.
And you tweeting out, life has changed for me from six weeks ago.
It's crazy.
joe rogan
It's awesome.
I love it.
I love it.
Congratulations.
unidentified
Thank you.
joe rogan
And more success to you, sir.
steve hofstetter
Thanks for having me on.
unidentified
All right.
joe rogan
My pleasure.
My pleasure.
All right.
Well, that's it for the week, you fucks.
So we'll see you soon.
We'll be back next week.
And much love to all.
Thank you.
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