There was a new stigma about HIV and AIDS in the 90s that stopped Magic Johnson and several other sufferers from doing their jobs. NBA players were scared to play with the Lakers legend, despite all the awareness campaigns about the disease. However, Dennis Rodman was one of the stars who was not afraid. And comedian Damon Wayans had a wrecked yet hilarious bit about the same.
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The start of the 1990s was a strange time in the NBA. The league’s favorite superstar, Michael Jordan, had finally overcome the Pistons and then Magic’s Lakers to win his first championship. It would also be the latter’s last full year in the NBA because of his HIV diagnosis. Rodman, at this time, was gradually becoming ‘Dennis the Menace’ from the silent enforcer of Detroit.
Johnson tried making a comeback in 1996, and no stars apart from Rodman were ready to play against him. And while HIV/AIDS was the scariest disease of that decade and yet, some comedians dared to get loose about it.
Joe Rogan recalls a hilarious Damon Wayans bit on Dennis Rodman, Magic Johnson, Madonna, and HIV
The NBA was quite a different place in 1992 than it was 2 years ago. There were no Magic or Larry Bird, and Isaiah Thomas and Co weren’t that good anymore either. MJ was “the man” around. It could have changed in 1996, as Johnson tried making a comeback to the league, still having a touch like he was never away.
But stars had their fears playing with him, even his own teammates. However, Rodman, who was now with the Bulls, was the only star who wasn’t. And he was quite open about his brave stance with so less information about the deadly HIV then.
Recently, comedian and podcaster, Joe Rogan, had WWE Hall of Fame Ric Flair’s company on the Joe Rogan Experience and talked about Rodman’s expeditions. While at it, Joe reminisced a Damon Wayans joke about Rodman, Magic, HIV, and Madonna which might have been too offensive even for that time.
“Motherfu**er, I [Dennis Rodman] f**k Madonna, I’ll spit in your [Magic Johnson’s] mouth and accelerate your [HIV] symptoms,” Rogan recalled Wayans saying it in a comedic bit of his.
All three present in the podcast, including Joe, were dying laughing remembering the wild nature of The Worm. Watch it in the following embed.
Rodman might have been a menace, but he was mostly misunderstood
Dennis was a tremendous basketball talent who could do everything on a given night according to his team’s requirements. The man always stuck with what he was best at, rebounding.
And off the hardwood as well, he kept rebounding from the fights with his inner demons and most of the time, came out victorious.
His will to play against Magic when nobody else wanted to, was just one of the several stories of Rodman being a different person than how he was perceived.
