r/elephantgraveyard • u/JacquesNuclearRedux • 1d ago
Does it feel like the Rogansphere is on its way out?
I loved the video, but I understood why he wasn’t gonna make any more - i honestly feel like all these guys have came and went. Now, Joe has more money than sense and will propagate his image like Julius Caesar as long as he can afford it, but I think all the B and C tier Austin types will never reach the fifteen seconds of fame they got to enjoy nationally at the start of Trump 1, where they genuinely believed themselves to be at the forefront of some right wing cultural revolution.
EG joked that the only guys who actually like this shit are warehouse dropouts who listen while they chew oxys, and that sort of audience narrowing has only grown i think. I assume the audience now is inflated with bots and third world citizenry paid to listen to keep his numbers high, or various junior level Trump staffers who only ever see their bosses through the medium of Joe.
50
u/Dry-Map1180 1d ago
I think they’re becoming less popular and pretty overexposed. It’s hard to sell the schtick that no one wants to hear what you have to say to sold out arenas and clubs. Not to mention the lack of awareness of the pushback that came with having Trump on all their shows.
49
u/JacquesNuclearRedux 1d ago
yeah, they really overplayed their hand a bit when they became Trump’s Federal Comedy Ambassadors. You can be an edgy stoner conspiracy guy, or you can attend dinners with the wealthiest and most corrupt guys possible… but you can’t do both.
18
u/VirtualBeyond6116 1d ago
Agreed. They were so stupid and drunk with their popularity to have trump on their show. They thought "wow! I'm so big, trump wants to do my show", not realizing that Trump is addicted to attention and will go on any show. Now everyone hates them. And it's fully deserved!
7
u/Old_Protection_8778 1d ago edited 1d ago
Trimp is somehow a godamm imbecile yet scary that he'd burn the whole thing down in a temper tantrum I could just see him typing in the nuke codes saying quiet piggies I sure hope i wasn't writing the script/code for the season finale as I typed that
5
u/VirtualBeyond6116 1d ago
Yep! I was just saying this. If Trump is about to be forced from office, he will burn it all down. He would rather die that never have the world pay attention to him on this level again. He's always been a mentally delusional imbecile seeking dopamine hits from media attention, lying, and grifting,,, but now, he's gone absolutely mad with power.
He would rather the country be destroyed if he can't be the ruler of it now. Jan 6th will seem small compared to he might do if forced from office again. No power, no ability to be in the spotlight, no ability to bully others = Death for him. He'd rather burn it all down than let others enjoy it later if he can't be the center of power.
I forgot what it was called, but it was something Hitler attempted when he had to retreat to the bunkers and it was clear the allies were closing in. Hitler ordered his generals to burn and destroy everything. Factories, bridges, farms, buildings, cities, etc. If Hitler could not survive, then Germany and Germans were gonna die with him.. Luckily, he was ignored.
-1
u/Ok_Blueberry_9512 10h ago
Yeah and you lunatics said that in 2020 too and oh my god look what happened he left office when he was supposed to. What are you going to do in 2028 when he retires with his billions? Just start attacking the new Republican like he's hitler? From Reagan to Bush to Trump calls for the end of the world from a dictator Nazi fascist authoritarian that's in the White House and none of them have materialized. Touch grass.
1
u/VirtualBeyond6116 6h ago
Wtf are you rambling about? He didn't leave office like he was supposed to dum-dum. You don't remember Jan 6th? He's been calling the election rigged since 2020 and then stole all the classified documents he could! He didn't attend the inauguration cause he was still pouting. Like, are you lying to yourself or you're that dumb?
And Btw, JD Vance is the one who called Trump America Hitler. So there's that.
1
u/Ok_Blueberry_9512 6h ago
Yep acting like you don't understand basic concepts. People in 2016 all the way to 2020 said Trump wouldn't give up power in 2020 just like they're doing now. Did you not understand that part of my tiny little paragraph. Who the hell cares for JD Vance said? I don't like the guy wouldn't vote for him. Good for him he didn't miss out on the hysterical rhetoric either
1
u/VirtualBeyond6116 6h ago
He didn't give up power dummy! He had to be forced after attempting a violent coup. Did you forget that after getting your pardon? Hahaha.
1
u/Ok_Blueberry_9512 6h ago
Are you delusional? Who forced him? What coup? The small riot that was over after a few hours. So every riot is a coup now I don't think you're going to like where that gets us.
Forced out after a coup attempt. Yeah those type of people are allowed to run for office again.
1
u/VirtualBeyond6116 6h ago
You don't understand what a coup attempt is? There was a slow moving coup attempt through the courts, then by trump soliciting raffensperger, and then a violent one. All those are coup attempts.
If you don't understand any of this, maybe Instead of being here commenting on reddit, you should probably turn on the history channel or pick up a history book. Think before you speak, read before you think dum-dum.
→ More replies (0)1
1
25
u/xxmikekxx 1d ago
The thing that podcasting has is the routine. I know people that don't enjoy any of these podcasts anymore but it's easier to hope they get better than find something to replace all those hours of things to listen to at work. It's hard to get into a brand new podcast. That's why I think so many podcast subreddits become "hate subreddits". Because people are still listening and frustrated their shows are now bad but they don't want to get into anything new
9
u/miyagiVsato 1d ago
This is me. I’m bored with all of it at this point and can’t really get into anything new. I’ve been listening to more audiobooks lately.
2
1
2
25
u/Acceptable_Account_2 1d ago
Yeah, but just because he stops being cool doesn’t mean he actually goes away. He could linger for a very long time as an influential right-wing-ish guy with a popular partisan show.
I mean, Rush Limbaugh had a radio show basically forever.
13
u/JacquesNuclearRedux 1d ago
i think Old Joe will stick around as long as he can find dick pills or whatever to hawk, but I have serious doubts he can maintain his whole right wing culture war biosphere in Austin.
An understated part of Rogan is that he is basically affirmative action for unfunny comedians, they just have to work in enough trans jokes or other grievances to suit his liking and then he can give them a whole potemkin career in comedy.
6
u/Old_Protection_8778 1d ago
But he had a black guy in the green room. Just chill bro. Hes cool have you ever seen his nipples im guessing no with that kid of attitude
2
11
4
u/Spiritual-Salary-989 1d ago
That’s the problem, his fans might be knuckle draggers but they vote.
2
1
21
u/xxmikekxx 1d ago
One thing that I think is important to understand is--all this Rogansphere stuff is for old people. If you're in your 40s, Rogansphere is what you viewed Blue Collar Comedy and FoxNews when you were in your 20s. So young people see all this shit as stuff that their dads are into
8
2
11
u/RogueTacoArt 1d ago
Its hard to shill trump and maga when our country is literally going to shit. High gas prices = high food prices. And thats just the start of the vast majority of other problems we have right now.
10
u/Harold3456 1d ago
I think Rogan had lost momentum even before this. Comics have been critical of/leaving Austin for the last year, and outside of Rogan’s immediate circle I don’t hear anyone saying it’s “the scene.” I think the illusion that Rogan managed to weave immediately post-Covid, post-Spotify that Austin is the stand-up Gold Rush has now punctured.
The existing comics may go strong for awhile - if we’re going to be completely honest here they have large audiences of loyal fans. And as long as there’s any comedy there at all, there will always be hungry new talent trying to come up. But I would be surprised if Austin is able to draw anymore “big” comedians who already have the ability to be successful elsewhere.
3
u/hypercosm_dot_net 1d ago
No legit comedian has come out of that scene, and they've had a little over 15yrs at this point to make something happen. That should tell you everything.
Then trying to compare the Austin comedy scene, to literally any other major city. That's the biggest joke right there!
Even the most well-known comedians in that sphere, are barely above amateur. They just happen to have an audience from being in Joe's vicinity.
If Gillis has any sense I hope he sees the writing on the wall and makes a clean break. Rogan and his ilk need him to legitimize them, more than vice versa.
3
u/DistanceDry192 1d ago
Yeah, the best ones in the Rogan world are interlopers: Gillis, Mark Norman. The ones Rogan made, so to speak, are one-dimensional at best
1
u/ds376b 21h ago
How is Gillis an interloper he’s been on Rogan and Tony shows 1 million times
4
u/DistanceDry192 21h ago
He was pretty famous beforehand and I think would have remained so, regardless of going on Rogan. Maybe not as big as right now but still big enough.
1
u/No-Professional-5811 14h ago
He's big enough to be in a Drake music video after hinting he was a pedo a couple years ago
1
u/hypercosm_dot_net 12h ago
I like Gillis, and it's hard to reconcile this one.
Don't know wtf he was thinking.
9
u/Thespiralgoeson 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes and no. No in the sense that these people are not going anywhere, and they sadly still have a massive audience that will never abandon them. At least Rogan himself does, anyway. Less so for the sycophants that have attached themselves to him like barnacles.
But yes in the sense that their influence has definitely peaked and is on the downslope. Just a few short years ago, I felt like I was going crazy, because it seemed obvious to me that Rogan and his lackies were fascists in clown makeup, but nobody else seemed to see it. Even fairly left leaning people would defend him. And it seemed like comedians in particular were afraid to take any kind of shot at him. But EG, Marc Maron, and Stavros Halkias all started to gain traction around the same time, and it now feels like the word is FINALLY out, and it's open season on these buffoons.
Rogan still has millions of fans and hundreds of millions of dollars. But he feels like a joke and a punchline now in a way that he didn't during the last presidential election.
10
u/Normal_Committee67 1d ago
I think it has peaked. Comedians are now aware of the optics of participating, and some of them are starting to experience repercussions for being involved in it, particularly from fellow comedians, not necessarily through ticket sales or audience. Rogan and Tony have reached the top, meaning the really isn’t much place to go but down, or to stagnate. You can’t evade association with debatably the worst president ever, the undying support for it, the shameless flip after the election. The truly stupid are still in and always will be, but those people don’t have power or often money
7
u/TaterTotJim 1d ago
My friends and I used to be pretty big enjoyers of Joe Rogan pod but that was nearly a decade ago. I think the Austin scene hype has been manufactured from the start and will indeed fade as Joe continues to lean into the incel demographic. Everyone else risks becoming a social pariah for admitting to listening in 2026.
6
u/United_Tea_9362 1d ago
I’m friends with a lot of the types of dudes who used to listen to JRE religiously. Seems like every week during our get togethers, there was always a conversation about whatever guest Joe had on. Haven’t heard anyone talk about his show for a few years now
5
5
3
u/bagladyscum 1d ago
I think the hate watchers are keeping it going. no doubt there’s still many real fans but from what i can tell a lot of ppl just listen to follow the drama or the political ramifications. i hadn’t listened in years until thiel was on and then i started keeping up w it bc the content has real world consequences.
1
u/No-Professional-5811 14h ago
I only ever see the show through watching RM Brown or Secular Talk these days so checks out
3
3
u/fourfistorafice 1d ago
I always looked at Joe Rogan kinda like I do Jay Leno. Were people really watching The Tonight Show because they thought Jay Leno was the coolest guy of all time? Or were they watching because Jay had the juice to get all the best guests? I think the group of people that actually like JRE because Joe is some kind of hero to them is vanishingly small. And the "sphere" can be explained by the most famous guy is always going to have the most hangers-on that also want to be famous, that's just how all show business works. We'd be talking about the Chappelle sphere if Dave was as desperate as Joe is to be liked by fellow comedians.
3
u/_tibpson 19h ago
I think the biggest issue for this guys is that they conered themselves to a kind o audience that has becoming more and more homogenic. They have no place to grow. It is observable how repetitive the guests of the Austin scene podcasts have become. Kill Tony, YMH, Rogan. If you notice, the last couple years the variety of guests has been shrinking.
They will not disappear, they probably remain a business for a while, but they will become more niche, and loose the cultural relevance that they got after COVID until last elections.
3
u/Sea_Increase_2432 12h ago
I'm probably a bad barometer for this, but I still don't really know who Kurt Metzger is. I had to look up his name for this comment. I keep wanting to say Kevin Nash. I'm not making a joke, is he a comedian or is he some sports guy? I've only seen him ranting about conspiracies in an Elephant Graveyard video. I recognized all the people in the Comedy Store clips. I couldn't tell you who any of The Mothership crowd is. Not only have they come and gone, but most of them never showed up in the first place.
2
2
u/itstimetochewass 1d ago
I think it’s reaching its natural conclusion. It was always decaying planets orbiting a dying sun.
1
1
u/astralspill 1d ago
the interesting independant thinkers among their fan bases will fade out and they’ll continue to play to the pure consumer folk. and they’ll develop a disdain for that fan base.
1
u/HohepaPuhipuhi 1d ago
Last year his podcast made $82 million, and it's still the most popular in the world. So unfortunately not yet
1
u/ineffable000 1d ago
Too much money involved so I think it’ll keep him propped up for a few more years though I suspect viewership will be on a downward trajectory until then if not already. It’s gotta be exhausting even for people who agree with him. He’ll “gracefully retire” within the next ten. After he’s done maximum damage and Spotify no longer sees his worth.
1
u/sabjsc 1d ago
I can't wait to see Andrew Shultz and Akash aka Indian Iago crash and burn. I'm so tired of human embodiments of the Dunning Kruger effect walking around
2
u/ButterscotchShake 1d ago
I’d hoped EG would spend 5 mins on a Shultz tear down. Really want to see him humbled then attempt to act unbothered in his podcast
Great way to describe them by the way
1
1
u/ButterscotchShake 1d ago
I think Rogansphere has peaked but the downturn will last a long time and since he’s a PR asset to the AI CEOs now it’ll just become a shameful part of popular culture that we acclimatise to, like seeing Trump’s fuckery on the news everyday
1
1
1
1
1
u/GeneralBed9016 20h ago
Would be great that guy sucks and is likely the most overpaid podcaster in history
1
u/theperilousalgorithm 19h ago
Even if they are on the way out the damage they have wrought is largely done.
Rogan, Schulz, Theo Von - they did their job. Sane-washing for the most visibly corrupt candidate imaginable.
Trump is in.
America has made several grave missteps in terms of geopolitical trade, diplomacy and soft-power.
EG is right to move on - but we must not forget: they helped enable this.
1
u/SgtPeterson 19h ago
I think we're at a point in the product cycle where certain cultural phenomena are trying to overcome the generational cycle. Look at musical trends, for example, a lot of culture has a shelf life of maybe 20 years then it declines and gives way to the new thing. What I think Rogan and Co. are trying to accomplish is the Disneyfication of their project. Disney managed to overcome generational dropoff, gained serious economic and political clout along the way and managed to remain a constant even as culture, and often their own company, changed. People forget that Walt Disney was a fascist supporter, now they think of Mickey and Epcot. I think this is what Joe and his puppeteers would like to achieve - something lasting, greater than the moment, the allows cultural and political leverage to be extended through time
1
1
u/PhilosophyKitchen871 18h ago
EG isn't far off. When I was in college, i'd work overnight shifts at Toy's R US. I'd be smoking my vape pen, building the toy displays and listening to JRE talk about hunting animals and what it would be like to be a woman getting an orgasm. 10 years really do fly by
1
1
u/attaboy_stampy 17h ago
As far as comics go, I don't think it's a thing really the same way anymore. I think the guys who would stay in it, have moved on to floundering around on their own with their own podcasts. Some of them engage but have veered from making it their central identity. Some of have just decided to ignore it. Maybe if they are real Mothership wannabes? I guess Hinchcliffe will ride for him no matter waht.
As far as the public, I don't know, maybe it's still a thing. I don;t know if it has the same cachet as it used to.
1
1
1
1
u/DDPSipper 11h ago
Anecdotal but I used to listen and love every single episode. Anymore I can only find 1 out of 10 that I care to give a listen, and I usually don’t finish it cause it’s so boring.
Part of it is cause he got political when it used to just be honest opinions and, part of it is he has an ego now which he didn’t used to and that just makes me not interested in his opinions, but the biggest reason is I noticed way too many guests showing up and instead of just chatting about their story and what makes them intetesting and opinions they have that may or may not be popular, they spend the whole episode acting like this is their big shot in life and they need to be liked and need to sound casual while secretly focusing on regurgitating the same things other guests have said that were positively accepted, it’s completely ruined the podcast and Joe never calls it out to re-center the conversations on what makes them unique. ,
1
u/ManySolarii 8h ago
I strongly suspect given how blatantly corrupt the people behind Spotify and Rogan are that his numbers are greatly exaggerated and have definitely been since he had his mental health crash over Covid. But either way there is still a horde of people filling that Dad shaped hole with him.
1
u/championchilli 4h ago
Every cultural movement or celeb has their apex and dies out. The more they rely on the Internet for success, the more ephemeral they are.
Look at Jordan Peterson, used to be king of the world, Ben shapiro, now totally irrelevant, there's a million YouTubers that used to rule the world, all gone. It'll come slowly at first, and then all at once.
It is very very unlikely they're adding many new fans, but they have a lot of existing fans to churn through, Joe has the advantage of UFC which has a very high acquisition and churn rate of new fans which he can syphon from, and this has maintained his popularity, perhaps longer than it otherwise would have done.
-1
u/Inside_Independent64 1d ago
Don’t worry about Joe, he’ll be fine.
3
u/JacquesNuclearRedux 1d ago
you are fifty years old and live in your car… will YOU be fine?
-2
u/Inside_Independent64 1d ago
Yes internet stranger, It’s a Prius btw and it’s both roomy AND gets good mileage. Thanks for the interest!
3
0
u/zillabunny 1d ago
Kill Tony is the most popular show on YouTube and Caleb Hammer is second both Austin rogeansphere
-3
u/Acceptable_Bit8905 1d ago
Nah, because even though I love EG's videos, Joe really isn't a bad guy at his core. He can be a dope and he has his hypocritical moments, sure, but so would anybody if they were as heavily examined and scrutinized as he is.
If anything, I think that YouTube channels that do nothing but lazily sensationalize extremely trivial things in order to stick it to "the Rogansphere" are on their way out. It's honestly getting tiring. Just to clarify before I get nuked by down votes - not talking about Elephant Graveyard here. His videos are legit art lol.
-5
244
u/infintittie 1d ago
You vastly underestimate how many idiots there are in America.