Joe Rogan Hits Back at Claims He Lied About Charlie Kirk Assassination Details on Podcast
Joe Rogan was caught in lie about Charlie Kirk's assassination.
April 6 2026, Published 11:40 a.m. ET
Joe Rogan shared a rare instance of humility when the podcaster was forced to apologize for his "dumb memory moment," RadarOnline.com can report,
The controversial comedian was caught in a "lie" about how he found out conservative influencer Charlie Kirk had been assassinated.
Rogan's Cloudy Memory
The podcast host misremembered how he found out about Kirk's death.
During a sprawling conversation with fellow podcaster Theo Von on a recent episode of his self-titled The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Rogan mentioned Kirk's shooting death at a Utah college on September 10, 2025.
The 58-year-old reflected that he was in Utah hunting elk when it happened. He then puzzlingly described more of his actions and responses from that fateful day.
"I was getting text messages from people wanting me to comment on things," Rogan shared. "I was like, 'What are you talking about?' I literally didn't know what was going on."
However, fans were the ones wondering what he was talking about, as one person shared the discussion on X, immediately followed by Rogan's actual reaction to learning of Kirk's death live while recording his podcast.
"So this just happened, we just found out that Charlie Kirk got shot," Rogan announced at the time.
Rogan's Mea Culpa
Rogan was actually in the middle of recording an episode when he learned of the shooting
One viewer busted Rogan, tweeting the two clips while commenting, "What a weird thing to lie about."
Rogan caught wind of the controversy, and instead of lashing out in a typical tirade, the former Fear Factor host turned contrite.
"Honestly I just remembered it wrong," Rogan tweeted, before taking another swipe at a colleague. "I was elk hunting when Jimmy Kimmel was getting people angry at him for joking about the assassination and blaming it on MAGA. I would never 'lie' about that. I just had a dumb memory moment."
'There's No Way You Could Forget That'
Kirk was shot and killed on a college campus last September.
But critics wondered how someone who has featured Kirk and his philosophies so vehemently on his show could ever make that mistake.
"This is a little weird. There’s no way you could 'forget' that… this was national news," one person commented, as another agreed, "I want to believe this, but it is one of those events, similar to 9/11, that you remember exactly where you were when you heard the news."
A third person chimed in, "How do you not remember where you were when such a historical figure was assassinated, especially while you’re on air? I remember exactly where I was when I got the news. I’m starting to get worried about your brain, sir."
While one person suggested, "Peak pandering to the Trump crowd. Rogan knows his audience has shifted hard right post-election, can't afford to look like he was memeing or downplaying it. Quick rewrite so he stays in the good graces of the based bros who keep the numbers up."
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Flashback to the Day of Kirk's Death
Rogan was interviewing Charlie Sheen when a producer told him the news.
As Radar reported at the time, the opinionated podcaster and his guest, former troubled actor Charlie Sheen, were interrupted by Rogan’s producer with the actual news.
"This just happened... we just found out that Charlie Kirk got shot," he said, as he put his hands on his head in disbelief.
Sheen quickly reacted, "That's f------ awful," and claimed Kirk was killed for "having a different opinion," to which Rogan responded that he didn't "know who did it or the reason behind the shooting."
"He didn't deserve that," the Major League star added.
