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Comment by s__s | Hacker News Reader

Diaz’s whole shtick as a comedian is that he tells these off the cuff, crazy, somewhat believable, but always totally fictional stories about himself. They’re always super offensive, and paint him as a sort of greasy criminal/mobster.

So this clip alone isn’t really enough to come to any conclusions.

That would be truly awful if the stories he told were at all true, but without additional evidence I’m inclined to believe that they’re nothing more than a comedy routine.

The story in this video is offensive for sure, but in context it also wasn’t really all that taboo to make those types of jokes back when this was recorded.

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This was 2010 not 1955 for fucks sake.

Back then! Jesus Christ.

In 1955 the casting couch stuff was common place and acceptable, at least in some circles. In 2010 not so much, but still acceptable to make jokes about. After the “metoo“ movement, it’s a lot more taboo to joke about.

I don't think it's very controversial to point out that kind of shock story-telling was less taboo 12 years ago.

I think this comments section demonstrates it. TFA is a pretty uninteresting retelling of their experience in Rogan's studio. Yet the top HN comment is pearl clutching over that 12-year-old Diaz clip that has nothing to do with TFA and all of HN is going on record to be tough like Scruff McGruff on raunchy stories.

And did you guys, like, see what Joe did? He laughed at it. Like a hyena.

this comment is literally the definition of gaslighting.

Or it’s a wholly accurate representation of Joey Diaz’s act.

However, that doesn’t have to change the fact that if his comedy’s content (true or not) is offensive to you that you have to like it, accept it, pay to see it…etc.

Trying to diminish something said in earnest by later claiming it was a joke is definitely a technique that can be used to gaslight.

But right now we’re talking about a comedian who’s essentially recording himself performing. It’s quite obviously different.

It would be silly to assume a comedian is telling the truth during a performance, and absurd to claim said comedian is gaslighting when he later explains that he was joking.

So everything said by Joey Diaz and joe Rohan on their podcast is, in your view, a joke with no truth value?

No, you just have to be a fan so you can pick and choose which problematic bits you claim and which you disavow. No matter that they change over time, or the general cult of personality allows people to think Joe is "unproblematic" at least at stretches of time, even though it's easy to find constant, repeated indicators of his actual character. It's really just amazing the parasocial relationships that even HNera fall for and have zero outside perspective on.

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