The guest
Bobby Lee: Korean-American stand-up comedian and actor; MADtv alum and host of the TigerBelly and Bad Friends podcasts.
What this episode covers
Bobby Lee and Joe Rogan reconnect after years, opening with Bobby's history of addiction, multiple relapses, and getting sober. They reminisce about the early Comedy Store days, including Joe pulling Bobby out of a dangerous strip-club confrontation in 1995. The conversation swings through COVID-era lockdowns and vaccine skepticism, politics as a 'cult,' voting-machine vulnerabilities, and the war in Gaza. Bobby opens up about abusive directors early in his career, the freedom the podcast era gave comedians, and Joe repeatedly urges him to move to Austin. It closes with Bobby promoting his film Drugstore June and the two affirming their friendship.
Recommended on this episode
ProductRecommended
Alpha Brain Black Label
Onnit
“That stuff is the [ __ ]; we did two double blind placebo controlled studies; I take four sometimes I take six”
“You take take four of those. That's Alpha Brain Black Label. That stuff is the [ __ ]”— Joe Rogan
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Neuro Gum
Neuro
“Neurogum really works. 100%; we always keep Neurog gum in the studio”
“And you really Neurogum really works. Oh, yeah. 100%. It's got theineine in it and caffeine and a couple other things.”— Joe Rogan
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JRE Cigars
Joe Rogan
“They're actually really good”
“No, these are um they're from Nicaragua. These are JRE cigars. Oh, [ __ ] They're actually really good.”— Joe Rogan
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Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Inner Light
“the greatest piece of sci-fi ever filmed”
“The episode's called Inner Light. That episode is the greatest piece of sci-fi ever filmed and Adam Eaggan hated Star Trek I forced him to watch this episode.”— Bobby Lee
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Star Trek (original series)
“I love Star Trek”
“It's still a good sci-fi show. I love Star Trek. Next Generation. No, first one. The real one. Old one.”— Joe Rogan
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Battlestar Galactica (2004 series)
“So good. So good. It's incredible; that's a great [ __ ] show”
“Battlestar Galactica. The new version. So good. So good. I've seen it twice already all the way through. It's incredible.”— Joe Rogan
The guest's own work
MediaBy the guest
Bad Friends
Bobby Lee, Andrew Santino
“I'm on a podcast called Bad Friends. It's a funny podcast.”— Bobby Lee
MediaBy the guest
TigerBelly
Bobby Lee, Khalyla Kuhn
“Because before I did Tiger Bell and Bad Friends, I mean Joe, I'll be honest with you. I mean, I would do half rooms.”— Bobby Lee
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
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Copenhagen
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company
“What are those? These are pouches. They're called Copenhagens. Oh, okay. These little rogues. I like these.”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
300 Winchester Magnum
Winchester
“You want a large caliber rifle. You want like a 300 Win Mag. You want something big, something boom boom.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Aliens
James Cameron
“But Aliens 2 not as good. Not as good but still entertaining. Different kind of movie.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Once Upon a Time in America
Sergio Leone
“Like in that movie Once Upon a Time in America. Diero was like [ __ ] up on opiates.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Avatar
James Cameron
“So, if I would have [ __ ] the Avatar ladies. The Avatar ladies, that lady's hot on Pandora.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog
“You know Grizzly Man, that documentary I saw. That video where the lens cap was on, but they have an audio of him dying.”— Bobby Lee
MediaReferenced
Painkiller
Peter Berg
“He did uh that Netflix series, Painkiller, the one on the uh Sackler family.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Starfield
Bethesda
“I'll just start playing Starfield or something and 16 hours later I'm on a planet and I'm making an outpost.”— Bobby Lee
MediaReferenced
Stardew Valley
ConcernedApe
“Or I'll play Stardew Valley. I'll create a farm.”— Bobby Lee
MediaReferenced
Magnum P.I.
“Like I remember like taking edible going to Hawaii cuz I was shooting Magnum PI or something.”— Bobby Lee
MediaReferenced
MADtv
“Well, when I was on Matt TV and I relapsed cuz at 13 years I got on Matt TV, all I got addicted to the Vicodin.”— Bobby Lee
MediaReferenced
NewsRadio
“You're great in news radio. Thank you very much. Huge laughs. It's fun.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Reservation Dogs
“But what the jobs I have now, like I did reservation dogs.”— Bobby Lee
MediaReferenced
And Just Like That (Sex and the City)
“I'm on Sex in the City, the new one. It's I I said no to it for the first couple of times.”— Bobby Lee
MediaReferenced
Beef
“But in the sense of like a show like Beef getting green lit with a mostly all Korean or Asian cast. I think in that way it's good.”— Bobby Lee
MediaReferenced
Modern Family
“You know Eric, he's on Modern Family. He plays the fat gay guy in it.”— Bobby Lee
MediaReferenced
Stranger Things
“But if you're watching Stranger Things, that's what you want to watch.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Fear Factor
“That's why I did Fear Factor. I don't want to deal with actors anymore. When Fear Factor came along, I was like, oh, this is perfect.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Joe Rogan Questions Everything
“This is when we were doing Joe Rogan Questions Everything for Sci-Fi. Duncan and I, we uh flew together.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
The Six Million Dollar Man
“It's right up there with the sticks. $6 million man versus Bigfoot. That's the dumbest one.”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Bobby reveals he stayed sober 17 years, then relapsed twice, first after taking a gummy when his father died.
- Bobby got addicted to Vicodin (30-40 a day) on MADtv and detoxed mid-sketch, soiling himself on camera during a Connie Chung bit.
- Joe recounts saving Bobby from gang members at a San Diego strip club in 1995 after Bobby approached a gangster's stripper girlfriend.
- Bobby took a free trip to Israel ~14 years ago and was required to tweet praise daily, sparking massive online backlash.
- Joe says two people he knew had strokes within 10 days of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was later pulled for blood clots.
- Bobby describes abusive directors, one made the crew form a circle and call him 'the worst actor on planet Earth,' another called him a 'panface.'
- Joe relays Tarantino's story of an old-school director with a bedroom in his office where starlets had to sleep with him.
Worth remembering
- A Denver Health medical team became some of the first to receive a live Ebola vaccine preventively, despite no Ebola cases in the U.S.
- Joe describes Rand Paul grilling Fauci over the NIH funding gain-of-function research through an intermediary organization.
- Onnit ran two double-blind placebo-controlled studies on Alpha Brain at the Boston Center for Memory showing increased alpha flow and verbal memory.
- Duncan Trussell lived with Joe Rogan for six months after getting kicked out by a girlfriend tired of his video-game habit.
- Joe explains the Lakota tribe's 'Heyoka,' a sacred clown whose role was to make fun of everything.
- Bobby placed a written note in the Western Wall, which he says dates to around 19 BC.
- Computer scientist J. Alex Halderman hacked a Dominion voting tabulator in an Atlanta federal court using only a pen to change vote totals.
- Musician Gary Clark Jr. is one of the owners of the Austin music club Antone's.
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