Rife For Cancellation | Matt Rife | EP 401

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down in-person with recently “canceled” comedian Matt Rife. They discuss the incident in question, his viral response, the prominence of crowd work in his act, his early career start at the age of 15, the innovative use of social media to build his name, and the real reason he remains unapologetic for having a sense of humor.

Matthew Steven Rife was born in 1995 and is an American stand up comedian and actor. He started early, entering a school talent show at the age of 14 after being encouraged by a friend. Finding this to be a success, he went professional the next year at age 15. Using TikTok, he managed to consistently go viral with his stand up and "red flag" crowd work. He then entered the arena full time, using social media to grow his name before producing three straight-to-YouTube comedy specials from 2021 to 2023. This year, he debuted his first Netflix special, "Natural Selection."

This episode was filmed on November 22, 2023

Dr. Peterson's extensive catalog is available now on DailyWire+

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- Links -

For Matt Rife:

Full Specials:

“Only Fans”

“Matthew Steven Rife”

“Walking Red Flag”

Watch “Natural Selection” on Netflix now!

- Chapters -

(0:00) Coming up

(0:30) Intro

(1:45) A summary of events

(2:34) What happens when you apologize

(3:33) Naturally funny, risk and reward

(5:20) How broad is the rebellion?

(6:49) The "men" who support the "offended"

(8:28) The two types of Orangutan

(9:58) Why Matt Rife reached out to Dr. Peterson

(10:29) Red Flags

(12:43) Closing the chapter on crowd work

(13:12) Small town open mics at age 15

(14:34) Perks of growing up in a “boring” town

(15:45) The Columbus Funny Bone

(17:02) First manager, Tweeting at famous comics

(20:48) Training with Gary Abdo

(22:47) Skipping college and headed to LA at 17

(24:51) Wild n’ Out - the rarest diversity hire

(26:06) The art of constraint: playing the “white guy” and spam haikus

(27:53) Getting over shyness for an on-stage career

(31:16) When you realize that you’re funny

(32:24) Balancing funny and mean

(34:09) Psychology of offense, toying with the forbidden

(36:15) Did Matt Rife “betray women”? Status and social media

(40:27) Making a “bad” joke worse, and even funnier

(42:47) How you know you’ve recovered from tragedy

(48:10) Confidence and intent

(50:33) Freud, “jokes are the root to the subconscious”

(52:48) Screening jokes, the “oooh” response

(55:07) Fake offense and virtue signaling

(58:42) Crowd demographics, “women showed up asking to be roasted”

(1:00:00) Russell Peters, ethnic jokes, and making fun of everyone

(1:01:20) Comedy Unleashed, Andrew Doyle

(1:02:54) This has never happened

(1:03:40) When in the throes of the mob - do no apologize

(1:05:45) The internet creates a false confidence that does not function in the real world

(1:07:31) What caused the outrage

(1:11:19) Nothing but a beneficial outcome

// LINKS //

All socials

// COURSES //

Discovering Personality

Self Authoring Suite

Understand Myself (personality test)

// BOOKS //

Beyond Order12 More Rules for Life

12 Rules for LifeAn Antidote to Chaos

Maps of MeaningThe Architecture of Belief

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