Joe Rogan Once Got In a Fight On ‘Fear Factor’

Before Joe Rogan began hosting his wildly popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, he also commented on fights and did stand-up comedy. And he also hosted Fear Factor. If, for some reason, you missed out on Fear Factor, it was a pretty straightforward show. Contestants competed in teams against others in disgusting and frightening challenges for a relatively measly payoff of $50,000. 

However, chowing down on gross foods or jumping from great heights weren’t the only bizarre situations contestants were placed into. One contestant found himself clinched by the host after instigating a fight. 

How Joe Rogan got the job on ‘Fear Factor’

Joe Rogan claims that most of the reason he got the job hosting Fear Factor was because of how he approached the interview. It seems as if Rogan was very aware of just how ridiculous the show was, and decided to interview with that in mind. 

On an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan said, “Immediately it was a hit. I was like, this is so stupid, the show was so stupid. And the reason why I got the gig was because I made fun of it.” 

Rogan went on to add, “Like everybody was trying to be spooky, they’re, you know, ‘Is fear a factor for you?’ So I came into this meeting, I was high as f*ck. I came into this meeting, and they were telling me what they wanted to do, one of the casting directors got Jeff from NBC, hooked up the meeting, thought I would be a good fit for it. You know, I had just been on NBC for News Radio. Then I came into this meeting, I was like, what are you gonna do? You’re gonna sic dogs on people? This is like a bit in an act, this is like the bit where it goes terribly wrong.”

“I was like, this is the most insane idea for a television show I’ve ever heard, this is gonna be canceled immediately, and I’m gonna have all this material about remember when I used to host Fear Factor? Meanwhile a hundred and sixty f*cking episodes later…,” recalled Rogan. So much for a quick run, huh?  

It seems as if Rogan’s bewildered and nonchalant approach to the casting call worked out great.

Joe Rogan gets into a fight

Typically, Fear Factor contestants have to confront disgusting foods, heights, deep water, swarms of insects — things along those lines. They don’t typically wind up confronting Joe Rogan himself. For one unfortunate contestant, this wasn’t true. 

During one episode of Fear Factor, a female contestant shoved a male contestant, and Joe Rogan told them off. “What are you doing, you can’t assault people. What he did is called strategy, you can’t run up to him and hit him,” said Joe after the shove.

Unhappy about that, the woman’s husband approached Joe Rogan. Either this guy was really confident in his physical prowess, or he didn’t know Joe Rogan is a trained fighter. The husband got in Joe Rogan’s face and started yelling at him. Rogan was not having it and grabbed the guy in a clinch. 

‘Fear Factor’ gets canceled, Joe Rogan remembers

While the fight was a thrilling moment for audience members and contestants alike, it wasn’t Joe Rogan’s most outrageous moment on the show. Rogan recalled the one challenge that was so gross, it wound up getting the show canceled. 

The challenge was called Donkey Juice. On an episode of his podcast, Rogan said it involved, “A jug of [semen]. Donkey [semen].”

“They played horseshoes, but they could never win. Even if you made a ringer you’d have to drink one ounce. But if you f*cked up you had to drink 10, 11, 12 ounces. These were jugs, jugs of [semen],” said Rogan. 

“So hard to imagine that was a real show,” added Rogan. “Well, this was the one that killed it. That episode killed it.”