James Delingpole James Delingpole

About as edgy as Banksy: Joe Rogan’s Netflix special reviewed

Plus: my attempt to avoid watching the Olympics, and the joy of MUBI

The Olympics are a good time to bury bad TV: perhaps that's why Netflix screened Joe Rogan’s alleged comedy special in the middle of it. Image: Troy Conrad / Netflix © 2024 
issue 17 August 2024

My resolution this summer was to see how far into the Olympics I could get without watching an event. It’s harder than you think. Especially when you’ve got kids calling constantly from the sitting room: ‘Dad, Dad, it’s Romania vs Burkina Faso in the finals of the women’s beach volleyball and there’s been a tremendous upset…’

Rogan is marketed as an edgy alternative to the mainstream media. He is about as edgy as Banksy

I jest. I actually do know what happened in the finals of the women’s beach volleyball. It was the first thing I watched because that was what was on when I walked into the room and broke my duck. Italy beat the long-standing champions the United States, which delighted me enormously. One of the things that had most annoyed me about the Olympics when I wasn’t watching was hearing the American national anthem on autorepeat, from the TV room, as they won yet another gold.

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