The controversy surrounding podcaster Joe Rogan shows no signs of dying down, with the furor over his repeated use of the n-word in old episodes of "The Joe Rogan Experience" reaching such a fever pitch he was forced to issue a public apology.
Actress Melanie Lynskey isn't buying it.
The New Zealand-born star of Showtime's Yellowjackets took to Twitter over the weekend to call into question Rogan's apology and his assertion that his uses of the word were taken out of context, and people are applauding her for it.
See the tweet below.
I don\u2019t think a word can slip out of your mouth unless it regularly comes out of your mouth. I\u2019m not going around accidentally calling people Horace— Melanie Lynskey (@Melanie Lynskey) 1644194921
Lynskey wrote:
"I don’t think a word can slip out of your mouth unless it regularly comes out of your mouth. I’m not going around accidentally calling people Horace"
Fair point!
Rogan has been at the center of two overlapping controversies in recent weeks that saw music legends like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young removing their music from Spotify in protest of the misinformation about COVID-19 Rogan has repeatedly amplified on his podcast.
Rogan apologized and Spotify agreed to add a content warning to Rogan's show before deleting some 70 relevant episodes, in part due to intense backlash from Spotify employees. But just as that was beginning to die down, a supercut of clips from as far back as 2010 of Rogan using the n-word almost instantly went viral.
Rogan took to Instagram to apologize again, calling the incidents “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly" and explaining that his understanding of the rules around white people using the word was different at the time.
But many people shared Lynskey's skepticism in light of Rogan's history, which includes more than 40 episodes Spotify already quietly deleted last April because they featured chummy conversations with figures like white nationalist Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and comedian Chris D'Elia, who was accused of sexual harassment by multipl women.
And on Twitter, people applauded Lynskey for her call-out of Rogan.
Whenever I tell someone I have never said the n word and they act shocked like I must be lying? That tells me a lot right there <3— Lauren McKenzie (@Lauren McKenzie) 1644195147
I don\u2019t even use the soft A version as much as Joe Rogan uses the hard R versionhttps://twitter.com/melanielynskey/status/1490487647910998024\u00a0\u2026— \u2693\ufe0fImani Gandy Presents the Barge \u2693\ufe0f (@\u2693\ufe0fImani Gandy Presents the Barge \u2693\ufe0f) 1644236508
I\u2019m a white guy from the south. And I can remember exactly the last time I heard that word in person. 2001.— J Bo (@J Bo) 1644203392
I try to convey this to people. Like I\u2019m not trying to be the P.C. Police when I say to people \u201cHey, you shouldn\u2019t say that word\u201d. What I\u2019m really saying is \u201cMaybe if you practice not saying that word, it will leave your vocabulary\u201d.— Andrew Levine (@Andrew Levine) 1644196194
I was 6 years old when I heard & used the "n-word" once. Promptly told NEVER to say the word ever again & given an easy explanation by my Dad why it is wrong to say it. He said "We are all HUMAN beings & the same but different & that is great, we are 1 family".— Dionne Egwene Pfizer\ud83e\udd81\ud83d\ude0e\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2\u2764\ud83c\udf40 (@Dionne Egwene Pfizer\ud83e\udd81\ud83d\ude0e\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2\u2764\ud83c\udf40) 1644202017
See now that\u2019s a good joke. It looks like this. For all the comedy knowers out there.https://twitter.com/melanielynskey/status/1490487647910998024\u00a0\u2026— David M. Perry (@David M. Perry) 1644215026
Reason # 1,366,836 to love Melanie Lynskeyhttps://twitter.com/melanielynskey/status/1490487647910998024\u00a0\u2026— JackMeat Singh (@JackMeat Singh) 1644240929
Lynskey didn't stop there, though.
When a Twitter friend joked Lynskey called him a "dirty Horace" just yesterday, Lynskey had more fun at Rogan's expense, mocking his repeated laments about "cancel culture" supposedly "silencing" him.
This is cancel culture!!— Melanie Lynskey (@Melanie Lynskey) 1644195725
Well played, Ms. Lynskey.
Well played.
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter