Joe Rogan, Jeff Dye Slam Comedy’s Unwritten DEI Rules

Many comedians are straight, white and male. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Because there isn’t.

Tell that to comedy impresarios who force diversity quotas where none should exist. It’s a problem that has plagued Hollywood for some time. One intrepid scribe even wrote an entire book about it.

Now, the woke mind virus is starting to fade. Two major comedians suggest the woke restrictions can’t disappear soon enough.

Comedian Jeff Dye, a “Gutfeld!” favorite, visited “The Joe Rogan Experience” for Wednesday’s new episode. The host of the “Dye Hard with Jeff Dye” podcast shared his experiences in the stand-up trenches.

Turned out they align with Rogan’s perspective, too.

Neither appreciates woke diversity mandates, a la DEI-style efforts, to make comedy clubs more “equitable.”

The duo discussed how female comics have a harder time within the industry, in general, but they sometimes get preferential treatment due to their low numbers in the field.

“I’m sympathetic to the things female comics have to go through,” Dye said, acknowledging some problems unique to women in their industry like creepy fans. The pair expanded the conversation to DEI-style mandates within their field.

“They’ve literally said that, ‘we have too many white male comics,'” Rogan said of some who rule over the industry.

“I’ve heard it my whole career,” Dye added.

Dye recalled a time in Boston where comedians were submitting applications for a comedy festival.

“Someone came out and goes, ‘Listen. If you’re a straight white guy you better be real different,'” Dye recalled. “It’s Boston, we’re all straight white guys …  that kind of hurt my feelings a little bit. What does that imply about my circumstances?”

Dye recalled a similar message from his agent after he shared praise about one of his clients. The comedian in question was black and had deaf parents, checking not one but two Identity Politics boxes.

“‘He has all these great things that make him interesting to the industry. I think you’re gonna have to reinvent yourself,'” the agent told Dye. 

“That’s just Hollywood … we don’t do that in Texas, in the [Comedy] Mothership,” Rogan said of his Austin-based club. “It’s a meritocracy. And because it’s a meritocracy, it’s very diverse.”

“You got a lot of women in the lineup. You got a lot of all kinds of people,” Rogan said before squashing a narrative that his club caters to MAGA artists.

“The vast majority of comics at my club are Left wing,” Rogan said. “They’re artists.”