Funny Factor

Watching people on television shove roaches down their pants while eating raw cow’s balls may not sound like your idea of a good time, but it sure did make comedian Joe Rogan a shit ton of money. While the former Fear Factor host may not need to champion such gnarly behavior nowadays, he has found other means to cause public discomfort—namely, his very vocal accusations that fellow comedians Dane Cook and Carlos Mencia plagiarize other comedians’ material. Rogan got into a highly publicized onstage spat with Mencia last year at the Comedy Store in Hollywood; the club then canceled all of Rogan’s shows. The entire incident was filmed for an Internet reality show, JoeShow, which you can find on YouTube. When he’s not accusing his peers of stealing jokes, he’s rubbing regular people the wrong way by endorsing conspiracy theories that refute the legitimacy of the moon landing and World Trade Center attacks. Yes, confrontation is a friend of Rogan’s (he’s even an announcer for the Ultimate Fighting Championship), but goddamn, the man is hilarious.
Fri., Oct. 10, 10 p.m.; Oct. 11-12, 7 p.m., 2008