https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ3ggiWwYHo
A couple weeks ago on UFC color commentator Joe Rogan’s “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, he had UFC President Dana White and fellow comedian Tony Hinchcliffe on the show. Since Hinchcliffe has written for a few of Comedy Central’s celebrity roasts, so Rogan brought up the idea of roasting Cris “Cyborg” Justino before her first UFC fight. When they asked themselves what kind of digs you’d make if roasting “Cyborg,” Rogan immediately said “Her dick.” Hinchcliffe immediately followed with “She’s the only person who cuts weight by chopping off her dick?” You can hear the roast discussion at the start of the clip embedded above. Justino then spent the next two weeks asking for an apology on social media with tweets like this:
@joerogan @TonyHinchcliffe @danawhite your jokes are mean and hurtful not comedy. Who would want 2 work for a team that's so disrespectful
— #UFC219 CyborgVHolm (@criscyborg) November 17, 2015
Justin has also spoken of the effect that the comments had on her father, to the point he was in tears. Whether it was that or some kind of outside pressure, Rogan finally addressed the comments and apologized in an interview with Stephie Haynes at Bloody Elbow. The response has been mixed, in the sense that it reads like he may be making excuses, but it can also be read as him explaining how it happened before apologizing. There’s more in the original interview, but this excerpt is the heart of the apology:
I shouldn’t have said it, but it’s what you say if you’re hanging around with comedians, you know? It’s what we do. Plus, I had a couple of drinks. It was just a dumb thing to do, and I certainly didn’t mean it with any malice. I honestly didn’t. Then Tony elaborated on it and went even deeper with it. That’s what you do in a roast. She didn’t ask to be roasted, and it’s not her fault, but it was in the context of what we were doing. Still, I shouldn’t have done it, I shouldn’t have said it. I do feel bad about it, because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
