Joe Rogan on Tuesday addressed an infamous incident between himself and Carlos Mencia more than a decade ago, when he accused the former Comedy Central host of stealing jokes.
While interviewing Bob Saget on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, the comic wished Mencia well and said he hoped others who also accused Mencia of lifting material had forgiven him.
“I don’t have any hate for that dude,” Rogan said. “And I hope he’s doing great, I really do.” Saget interjected, “I think he has learned his lesson.” To which Rogan replied, “I hope he has, and I hope people forgive him, too.”
Saget pointed out that one of the greatest comics ever, his close friend Robin Williams, had also been accused of stealing jokes.
The entire conversation harkened back to 2007 when Rogan famously confronted Mencia onstage at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles and accused him in front of the audience and fellow comics of plagiarism. Rogan then posted the video online, spliced with a number of comics doing their versions of a joke compared to a later version by Mencia. One of the comedians in the video was George Lopez, who has also accused Mencia of stealing jokes.
Rogan told Saget that despite his belief that he was doing the right thing by confronting Mencia in such a pubic way at the time, the outcome — he was banned for years from The Comedy Store — was not what he expected.
“I was angry,” Rogan said. “I put all that time into that place, and that Mencia thing — I thought we were doing the right thing. I thought that was a real problem.”
In a September 2019 interview, Mencia maintained he did nothing wrong and reiterated he has never stolen material. He also noted that his team at the time, which included Comedy Central, told him to not address the situation, which Mencia said made him look guilty.
“At this point, when you took the road I took, you have to commit to it,” Mencia said. “A really good friend of mine said I should call Joe and make up because he has got a really good podcast. And I said, ‘What am I supposed to say to someone who accused me of stealing jokes, but not his, and he’s the one who’s tried to ruin my career?’ I never tried to ruin his career. I don’t know how to address that.”
Watch the full Rogan segment below.
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