Shane Gillis went on Joe Rogan’s podcast Thursday and called white nationalist Nick Fuentes “funny as fuck”—a sentence that should end careers but instead barely registers in 2025’s fascism-laundering media landscape.
WHAT’S GOING ON: The exchange started when Rogan was musing about the lack of Catholic presidents in U.S. history.
When he asked Gillis if he had anyone in mind for the next one, Gillis jokingly suggested Fuentes—the neo-Nazi-adjacent commentator who has called for “total Aryan victory” and has documented connections to white supremacist movements.
“He could probably win in a few years,” Rogan responded, not entirely in jest.
THE DETAILS: Rogan went on to provide what amounted to a sympathetic profile of Fuentes, describing him as a “young guy with a very high verbal IQ” who appeals to young men who “feel very unrepresented.”
He acknowledged that Fuentes “says women shouldn’t be allowed to vote” and “says wild shit,” but framed it all as effective trolling rather than, you know, actual fascist ideology. When Rogan brought up Fuentes’ recent appearance on Piers Morgan’s show—where Fuentes cracked Holocaust jokes—Gillis laughed along, calling the exchange evidence that Fuentes “got hit with a missile” rhetorically. “He’s wild,” Gillis said approvingly.
OF COURSE: This is the same Shane Gillis who got fired from SNL in 2019 for racist jokes before being rehabilitated by the exact same comedy-to-right-wing-pipeline that now treats Rogan as a serious political kingmaker.
And Rogan, of course, continues to launder extremist figures by treating their genocidal ideology as just another edgy perspective worthy of airtime.
WHY IT MATTERS: Here’s the playbook: Call a fascist “funny” enough times and suddenly his calls for white nationalism become “shitposting.” Frame Holocaust denial as a sick burn on Piers Morgan. Describe a young man’s advocacy for stripping women of voting rights as appealing to the “unrepresented.”
This isn’t comedy—it’s normalization. Every time a mainstream figure like Gillis or Rogan chuckles along with Fuentes’ schtick, they’re telling millions of listeners that this ideology is acceptable dinner table conversation.
BOTTOM LINE: There’s nothing funny about white nationalism. But the people with the biggest platforms keep insisting otherwise, and their audiences are listening.