Elon Musk has a one-word reaction to his 2018 podcast with Joe Rogan being ranked the most-watched JRE episode ever

Elon Musk recently posted a one-word reaction after his 2018 interview with Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience wasranked the most watched episode of the podcast. As of now, the episode has garnered more than 69 million views on YouTube. While reacting to the news, the Tesla CEO wrote on X,

"Banger."

This reaction by Musk went viral as well, with more than 3 million people viewing it and over 42K people liking the post. Many recalled the reach that podcast episode had at the time. One user pointed out that it was impossible to fake that kind of impact on the audience. The X user tweeted,

"That podcast broke the internet. Still unmatched. One cigar, one brain dump, and everyone was talking for weeks. Love him or not, Elon's episodes don't just trend they define eras. You can't fake that kind of impact."

The 2018 interview was the first time that Elon Musk appeared on Rogan's podcast. Since then, the billionaire has made multiple appearances on the show. In May 2020, Musk sat for an interview with Rogan, and the episode currently has more than 34 million views. The most recent interview with Musk was released through an episode on October 31, 2025.

As of now, the latest episode has garnered more than 5 million views.

Elon Musk was seen smoking marijuana on Joe Rogan's podcast during the 2018 interview

As previously mentioned, Tesla CEO's interview with Joe Rogan gained massive traction on social media at the time, when it was uploaded in September 2018. At the time, several clips went viral that captured Musk sipping whiskey and smoking marijuana during the live interview with Rogan.

According to reports by CNBC, Musk was handed the joint by Rogan, who has been an advocate for legalizing marijuana. The billionaire even asked the comedian,

"Is that a joint? Or is it a cigar?"

To this, the comedian responded by saying that it was a cigarette that had tobacco and marijuana in it. For the unversed, California is one of the states where recreational consumption of marijuana has been legalized. Joe Rogan then asked Musk if he had ever tried it in the past, to which he said that he believed he had done it once.

According to reports by CNBC, the interview was livestreamed, and it gained about 450K viewers at the time. In January 2025, The Wall Street Journal published an article citing Elon Musk's drug usage. According to the article, Musk's behavior was concerning to many board members at Tesla and SpaceX. On January 7, 2025, Musk took to X and reacted to the allegations.

In the tweet, he made a reference to the 2018 interview with Joe Rogan, where he smoked marijuana. He wrote,

"After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASA's request, to do 3 years of random drug testing. Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol. @WSJ is not fit to line a parrot cage for bird."

At the time, attorney Alex Spiro confirmed that the billionaire had been subjected to multiple drug tests since the 2018 interview, and he had never failed any.

Apart from the interview with Elon Musk, other interviews on The Joe Rogan Experience that reportedly gained massive views include the ones with Donald Trump, Graham Hancock, and Alex Jones.