Neil Young who? Aussie pranksters The Chaser have gotten involved in the Joe Rogan Spotify controversy in the most comical way possible.
The satirical comedy group left thousands of users on the streaming platform very perplexed after they briefly took over the top ranking for “Joe Rogan” on Spotify. Using a fake podcast, they used their brief moment in the Spotify sun to positively promote COVID-19 vaccines.
The Chaser decided to act in the wake of musicians like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulling their music catalogue from Spotify as a form of protest against Rogan’s spread of misinformation around vaccines.
“People like Neil Young have been pulling their music to get back at Spotify, which is very noble but probably isn’t going to convince many people to get jabbed,” The Chaser’s Charles Firth explained. “We figured most of Rogan’s audience is so gullible it’d be easier if we just pretended to be Joe for a day and declare that vaccines are safe. Knowing how quickly his fans fall for most scams, we expect they’ll all be fully vaccinated within the next six to eight hours.”
In playing The Chaser’s fake episode, listeners were met with a message endorsing vaccines; their version of ‘Joe Rogan’ also declared, “I’m just a shoot-from-the-hip moron in his 50s who’s balding and an idiot, I can do what I like.”
Firth added that he wasn’t worried about Spotify seeking retribution for the prank. “At first we thought Spotify might be upset with us pretending to be their star podcaster, and pull our show as a result, but then we remembered they don’t have any problem with misinformation being spread on their platform, so I think we’re good.”
If that’s not enough, the group has also purchased the domain name JoeRogan.com.au: visiting that site now redirects users to the federal government’s vaccine booking website.
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It’s not the first time The Chaser have caused carnage with their online pranks. Back in 2020, they were briefly removed from Twitter for election interference after the group impersonated Donald Trump and instructed people to not vote for him.
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