Joe Rogan admits one Fear Factor stunt made him so uncomfortable he warned contestants to avoid doing it
Joe Rogan has been a prominent on-screen personality during UFC broadcasts since 1997, but there was a time when the comedian was more famous for a different gig.
Rogan was the original host of the daredevil TV series Fear Factor from 2001 until it was cancelled in 2008.
The gameshow tasked contestants with completing risky physical feats and stomach-churning challenges.
Fear Factor was cancelled by American network NBC in 2008 after the show challenged contestants to drink a pint's worth of donkey semen and urine.
Advert
That episode never aired, with the network intervening and showing a rerun in its place.
But some of the stunts that were not considered worthy of shutting down the show included having contestants submerge their heads in a vat of cows blood, drink a blended rat and eat buffalo testicles.
And there was one challenge that even Rogan thought was a step too far.
“The one that scared the s*** out of me the most was bull riding," The longtime UFC commentator said on a 2019 episode of his podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience.
"We had people ride bulls. It was the only time I told contestants, ‘Don't do it.’
“I said, 'But you don't know how to ride a bull. We're not teaching you how to ride a bull. You're not going through classes. You're not slowly but surely building up your techniques.
"You're just going to ride a bull. Right. Don't do that.'
“And we had this girl, she was like 98 pounds. She got launched off the back of this bull. And these people went f****** flying, like, that thing's kicking.
“Barely misses them when it's kicking. I mean, they're wearing helmets and s***. The fall, the way she fell like that, that is like getting hit in the back of the head with the world.
“She was tough as s***. But I felt and everybody did, in that one we got lucky. I feel like we rolled the dice because if they stomp you, they lacerate livers and crush spleens, and they can stomp you.”
Ryan Baldi