After Tom Brady‘s roast erupted on Netflix, with over two million viewers on night one, Joe Rogan sat down with Aaron Rodgers to discuss what that number actually means, as he made a confession. So what is it? Well, it’s the fact that, after being censored out of fear of offending someone, for the UFC commentator, Brady’s great success is confirmation that crazy, no-holds-barred comedy is finally making a comeback.

“It’s always been the wildest s— is what’s funny,” Rogan told the NFL quarterback on episode #2325 of The Joe Rogan Experience. “It’s always the wild s— that’s the funniest s—, period. That’s what people want to see… It’s a f—– art form. It’s called s— talking.” To make things more interesting, Rodgers didn’t flinch either.

“Put your offense to the side,” he replied, almost laughing. It is evident to both of them that individuals are not looking for safety. They’re seeking the real deal when it comes to comedy. The Brady roast didn’t tiptoe around anything. It went for the jugular: his personal life, his looks, and even his football legacy. Fans loved it.

Netflix’s live special entered the Top 10 within hours, despite only being available for a fraction of the week. Joe Rogan and Rodgers regarded this as a strong indication that people are tired of the guardrails. They want comedy that packs a punch, takes risks, and refuses to apologize.

“Just go have a good time,” Rogan suggested. “They don’t mean it.” That’s the whole point. He feels that the best comedians aren’t trying to walk a moral tightrope; they just want to make people laugh.

That’s something the JRE host is putting into reality at his own club, The Mothership, where he’s offering stage time to comics like Brian Holtzman, who was not offered primetime shows in Los Angeles for being too wild. “Throw him up at 10:00, let him headline,” Rogan said. “Give him 40 minutes, man. Let him go off.”

At its root, Joe Rogan and Aaron Rodgers’ conversation was not about Tom Brady or Netflix. It was about where comedy is headed—and where it should go. If the numbers indicate anything, it is that the roast didn’t simply trash Brady—it lit a fire under comedy’s comeback. However, it seems like the New England Patriots legend is regretting it now.

Despite Joe Rogan’s praise, Tom Brady regrets the roast

While Joe Rogan sees the Tom Brady roast as a cultural shift back to daring comedy, Brady has a completely different interpretation. The incident may have drawn millions of spectators and rekindled interest in sharp-edged humor, but it also struck closer to home than the quarterback had anticipated.

On The Pivot podcast, the former quarterback discussed something that numbers and Netflix charts cannot capture: the emotional cost of being the punchline when your children are watching. “I loved when the jokes were about me,” Brady admitted. “I thought they were so fun. I didn’t like the way it affected my kids.”

What he expected to be a lighthearted locker-room roast turned bitter. He didn’t walk away mad over the jokes, but he did leave a changed man. “Sometimes you are naïve. You don’t know,” he added. According to him, the chuckles came at a cost his family wasn’t willing to pay. And it’s that gap between the stage and the living room, the joke and the fallout—that makes Tom Brady’s regret feel so real. He’s not against comedy. He’s only a father. He even stated that he wants to laugh more and be the person who cracks jokes in the locker room again.

But now, post-roast, post-career, and post-divorce, he’s attempting to find a balance in a life that doesn’t come with a playbook. Joe Rogan may see the roast as a win for comedy—and he is not wrong—but for Brady, it was a reminder that even when you’re in on the joke, you don’t always have control over how it plays out.