Thank You Marc Maron

There is a very funny bit in Marc Maron’s new HBO special, Panicked, where he says that if Hitler were alive today, Theo Von would have him as a podcast guest:

I think if Hitler were alive today, he'd probably appear on Theo Von's podcast. And Theo would be like, "See, y'all did a lot of meth, right? I mean, all the Nazis were all fucked up on meth, right, Hitler? That shit will make you crazy, dog. I did some meth once. I was up for three days and then I ate a live bird. No shit, Hitler. A live bird, bro! Hey Hitler, you probably didn't even hate the Jews. That was just the meth making you crazy, dog. Hey Hitler, do you want to apologize to all the Jews right now on my show? No? I get it."

I want to provide two quick pieces of context for this bit. One is that the specific flavor of soft Holocaust denial Maron characterizes here—that Hitler didn’t actually hate Jews, he was just high on meth—is one that already exists in comedy. It was articulated in an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast not even two months ago; I quoted it in my newsletter about Shane Gillis’s desire to buy Hitler memorabilia: 

Shaffir: […] Wait, that's so funny. I mean, it's a whatever bit. But calling Hitler a f—ot will get you in trouble for the wrong reason. 

Normand: That's true. 

Gillis: But he's top five all time. 

Normand: Top five. 

Gillis: Yeah. Biggest fucking turds on earth. 

Normand: He's the Michael Jordan of f—ots. 

Rogan: Cranked out of his mind the entire time. Like a poster boy for "don't do drugs.”

Shaffir: It was actually, Eichmann was—drove it more, because Hitler was like, "Whatever you need..." Eichmann was the one. That's what I think I remember, is him going, "Let's find—we need an Other." He was the smarter one about it. He goes, "We need some Other." And he goes, "Let's do the Jews. They stay to themselves." But he was like, "Well, anyone will do." 

Rogan: Really?

Shaffir: He was the writer of all it. And Adolf was like, "Yeah, that'll help us get nationalism going."

Rogan: He was like the Dick Cheney to George W? 

Shaffir: Yeah. 

Gillis: Adolf was like, "Dude, just let me spit. Tell me who."

Needless to say, Shaffir is laughably wrong about Eichmann’s role in the Holocaust, and his wrongness is made even more laughable by the fact that he is literally the son of a Holocaust survivor. Hitler’s drug use, meanwhile, has been a longstanding hobby horse of Rogan’s, going back to 2019 if not earlier. Last year he interviewed pop historian Norman Ohler, the author of a book about methamphetamine use throughout the Third Reich, arguing (questionably) that Hitler’s meth addiction was largely responsible for his crimes. We’ve seen shades of this historical revisionism elsewhere in the Rogansphere, for instance Chris Distefano’s belief that a lot of Nazi soldiers had no choice but to be Nazi soldiers: “They had to fight in the Nazi army or they would be killed. And then they're all drugged out, so then the suicide rate tripled.”