Joe Rogan Says ‘Fried Chicken Isn’t Racist’ In Response To Dada 5000 Critics

Joe Rogan has responded to criticisms from the family of Dhafir Harris (otherwise known as “Dada 5000”) that painted remarks made after a Bellator fight with Kimbo Slice in a negative — some say racist — light.

The UFC commentator, stand-up comedian, and host of popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience joked that when Dada, an African-American, was taken to the hospital after the fight, the surgeon found it to be packed with “cheeseburgers, fried chicken, and orange soda.”

On Wednesday’s (March 2) show, Rogan took exception to being referred to as having dealt out “racist” remarks from the family of Dada, who condemned his comments as soon as they went viral.

He said that he was sorry if people took his comments in that way, but he would not apologize for saying it, noting that “fried chicken isn’t racist.”

Rogan slammed what he deemed to be “oversensitivity” and political correctness, acknowledging that part of it comes from a good place because “there is a lot of positive momentum, and people want it known that we’re going to nip that s**t in the bud and not tolerate it, which is understandable, but we have to know when racism is real and when it’s not real.”

(WARNING: Video below is NSFW.)

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One of the indicators that it’s “not real” is when people flip out over passing food references, such as watermelon and fried chicken in relation to African-Americans, Rogan said.

“There’s also a lot of bandwagon bulls**t jumping-on, where people just decide that this is something they should be offended by. It’s a stupid argument,” he remarked. “It’s like watermelon. Watermelon’s a stupid argument. Watermelon’s a g*****n delicious fruit. You tell me that watermelon is racist, and you’re a f***ing idiot.”

Joe Rogan accused people of reacting to “what was used in the past” without any acknowledgement of context. He also continued to defend the fried chicken part of his argument.

“Fried chicken has always been a delicious food,” he said. “It’s not something that poor people could only afford. As a matter of fact… when [Franklin] Roosevelt was running for President, part of his campaign was ‘a chicken in every pot.’ The reason why is that chicken was expensive back then, and he wanted to bring prosperity to people, so that every family could afford chicken. It’s not racist. It’s racial in that it’s always been somehow connected with black people, but it’s not something only black people eat.”

Rogan also hit Yahoo! for cutting off the “cheeseburgers” part of his comments to where the headline was just “Joe Rogan says Dada’s heart was clogged with fried chicken and orange soda,” because they thought it sounded more racist, adding that “orange soda is not connected to black people. It’s just not.”

Joe Rogan is known for making off-color remarks and taking a particularly edgy tone absent from UFC broadcasts on his podcast.

In the context of his remarks, he was trying to make the point that Dada 5000 and Kimbo Slice were extremely out of shape when they co-main evented the Bellator card.

He didn’t back down from that on Wednesday’s show, calling it a “disgrace” that two fighters would be that ill-prepared for a major fight on cable television, and that it was a disgrace for Bellator to feature it.

Most MMA pundits have agreed with that assessment.

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The fight almost went all three rounds, but Slice finished Dada in the third with an attack that barely registered. Dada noticeably went down from exhaustion and referee “Big” John McCarthy called a stop to the bout. Afterward, Dada was rushed to the hospital and was only recently released, according to Sherdog.

Do you think Joe Rogan should apologize for his “cheeseburgers, fried chicken, and orange soda” remark, or is he right to dig in his heels? Sound off in the comments section.

[Image via Joe Rogan Facebook]