Fight Club is as relevant today as it was when it came out nearly 20 years ago. Absolutely brilliant book/film.

I went to my first fight club meeting yesterday. I was late so I missed the first few rules but wow I love fight club I can't wait to go back

Every man lives 2 lives! the second one starts when he realizes he's only got one life to live..

"We're a generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is the answer we really need." This line resonated with me the most. It propelled me that I do not need the acceptance or approval of a woman to have self worth as a man.

fight club stopped my obsession with branded clothes,shoes etc

"After fighting, everything else in your life got the volume turned down... You could deal with anything."

I read Fight Club after I divorced my first wife. I was feeling depressed and alone like I had nothing to live for and then I read the line: its not until you've lost everything that you're free to do anything. Those words resonated with me and snapped me out of my depression. I took audit of the life that I lost and realized THAT was the life not worth living. THAT LIFE was the one I should've felt despair for. My new life was filled with possibilities, freedom and chances to get it right. I spent the next 5 years being extremely free and happy. Then I got married and fucked it all up again. **Update on 9/28/2021 I came home from work and was blindsided with divorce papers. She took my kids and dog and it really screwed me up. This time was different because my kids are very important to me. I had to fight like hell and spend a small fortune to get my sons back. Time to re-read Fight Club and re-build myself into the man I am supposed to be. I will raise my sons to embrace their primal masculinity and go against the norms of a society that encourages femininity and calls those who self castrate brave. She left me because of my disobedience and refusal to shut up and provide. Because I have my sons in martial arts and encourage them to embrace their natural instincts. I have my sons 50% of the time but now I don’t have her interjection.

An impossibly well written story. Fight club is beyond genius and any millennial man can relate.

"The things you own end up owning you"

I saw fight club as “fear vs comfort”. If you get too comfortable working a job u hate to buy stuff you dont need with the money you dont have you will end up feeling empty and hollow as if life will never be complete, but throughout the movie Tyler envies every person that feels extreme pain or fear because fighting our fears liberates our lives making us feel alive which this generation in america avoids and decide to never feel any pain and always avoid it at any cost, but pain and fear is what makes us stronger, manlier and more alive and we lack that. “Try doing something you are afraid of doing and you will find yourself free”.

So in his next book, he writes a character who is a martial artist radio host... who smokes DMT.

Fight club and matrix were way ahead of their time...

It really astonishes me how many people miss the mark about Fight Club. It is a cautionary tale, not a celebration of nihilism.

I am Jack's complete lack of surprise

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” This quotation changed my life at a very pivotal moment when I was recovering from drug addiction and emptiness.

It's not until you've lost everything, that you're free to do anything.

“The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide...”

Did anyone else catch that at the end? Chuck mentions when something is interesting, people don't become speechless, they will compete and try to tell a better story using the same idea. As he finishes this thought, Joe responds, "Interesting... there are parallels in comedy..." (as if about to tell a competing story)

Chuck: "sometimes I go to the party and listen to hear somebody tell that personal anecdote that does evoke all those other anecdotes because a great anecdote doesn't leave people speechless, it leaves them competing to tell a better version of the same thing." Joe: "That's really interesting. There's a parallel there with comedy, for sure." lol you know it's true because the second he says it, Joe tries to one-up him with his own anecdote

Damn, as a 21 year old this is helping me realize that the issues I’m going through are similar to every other guy that’s entering adulthood

Fight club really scratches that itch as a man in the US in 2018. This guy is brilliant

Middle children of history, no Great War or depression. Our depression is our lives.

“We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

I'm 35 years old and have been out of the Marine Corps for years at this point; yet one moment of pride will never leave my heart. We had a Senior Drill Instructor who trained us as young recruits, he definitely fit the spot of that father role for all 70 of us marine recruits. Sadly he was called to the front lines as he was a Recon Marine and we got a new SDI who trained us very well. At the end of our time in boot camp, we came into the Final Drill event, where we placed 2nd place in the last event. We killed it, we got first place and we felt amazing, we knew right when we finished we did amazing. As we march back to the barracks, we are informed that a guest is waiting for us. We see in the barracks waiting for us, a battle injured SDI who has returned to San Diego due to getting shot. He witnessed our 1st place final drill and got to witness what we were trained to become.. After all the struggle and training, months and months of mastering a craft.. He let us know with a smile on his face, tears in his eyes, and the loudest most proudest Marine you'd ever imagine, of how proud he was of all of us and the Marines we now are. I never felt prouder in my life. Semper Fi Marines

I grew up watching fight club in my teen years. It taught me alot. Not to let material possessions control you (the things you own, end up owning you). Not to be a slave to society (an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables - slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. )

You are not your comment post.

Damn he just put into words what every young man nowadays feels. It all makes sense!

Fight Club, Dead Poet’s Society AND Good Will Hunting.

"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile. Our culture has made us all the same. No one is truly white or black or rich, anymore. We all want the same. Individually, we are nothing." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club.

Amazing to see these two chatting about Fight Club. In Tyler we trust.

I remember walking out of the theatre after seeing it for the first time. I was 16, and into martial arts and action/kung fu movies. When in to see it with a like minded friend just because it was called "Fight Club", we didn't have any idea what we were getting ourselves into. Oh boy, was our mind blown, I can clearly remember my friends face, eyes wide open, with the biggest "wtf did I just watch" expression, my face was pretty much the same. This movie showed me venues of lives i didn't now existed, let alone avoid. The first movies that showed me what "subverting expectations" really means, it made me think for myself and planted some of the seeds for some of mine first truly original ideas. What a movie! And also I was introduced to Edward fucking Norton!

This interview is incomplete. Joe Rogan should have told Chuck "I want you to hit me as hard as you can."

His name.........is robert paulson

That secondary father bit explains why so many of my friends got super religious after we hit our twenties

In my 42 years on this planet, Fight Club is still my all time favorite movie.

U rocked this interview. Great guest and this book/movie changed my life years ago. Thank you both for doing this podcast.

"I wanted to destroy something beautiful"

Chuck is my favorite author. I read fight club and couldn't get enough of his writing style. Amazingly dark and humorous. Absolutely brilliant writer. I'd recommend anything he's written.

"I am Jack's colon, I get cancer, I kill Jack." Lol

One of the best conversations I've listened to in years! So many important points in here.

Joe pointing out the parallel in comedy shows the exact process he was referring too

They’re breaking the rules...

I just watched Fight Club for the first time a couple of days ago, and I was totally blown away. I am a 21yr old guy, single, new to Uni, new in a big town etc the whole thing you get it. Anyway, I felt like that Movie spoke to me on a personal level. I guess a lot of guys felt like that. Hell, I am probably just as much part of the target demographic as a lot of other guys. But the resounance it had on me, with my personal experience... It didnt change me completly or something like that, but rather influenced and validated my believes and the man I started to become.

No Fear. No Distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.

I was in high school in 99, fight club changed the game and my life. Everyman that has blood coursing through his veins loves it.

Every year or two somebody comes with a new angle to analyse Fight Club, another layer to peel off, I love those videos, it's so rich with meaning.

This interview was made in heaven for Joe to be part of. Outstanding quality of questions and knowledge on the topic, just a joy to watch and listen to, both of them.

In Sept of 2015 I lost What I thought was the love of my life. I heard a voice say "once you lose everything, you're free to do anything". Chucks writing saved me.

All I know is that they breaking the first rule...and the second

My secondary father died earlier this year. Alone in his home. Heart failure. But he loved me and i will always have that. And a massive family of other kids he took off the street and schooled in cooking cleaning and hygine. He taught me right from wrong in the darkest of circumstance. RIP Liam. Xx

every time he talks it sounds like he's clicking a pen

Officer and A Gentleman part of the segment. WOW! Spot on!!!

“I say lets never be complete, I say lets stop being perfect.... Lets evolve. Let the chips fall where they may....” -Tyler Durden The best quote from Fight Club...pure genius

Never thought I'd see the day Chuck makes a guest appearance on the Joe Rogan show...what a world. :,)

Though this movie didn't impact me at first as I was still a teenager when I first saw it, over the years it has Really hit home. This is just one of those stories we really need to keep around and really consider what is being told within it. We live in a time and place where the "morals" of this story can really help us as individuals and as a society. Also I find it odd that over the years the film/book seems to have been forgotten, at least within my group of people.

Saw Fight Club, In the Cinerama Dome Hollywood. Opening night, on my 29th birthday. I returned to see it four more times. It was a seminal moment for men my age. Great book too (almost identical to the film).

I just watched this movie last night and it is life changing. I resonated with the second father analogy. Apprenticeship.

Joe is so lucky to be able to talk and interview this person...he’s an amazing writer

Saw the movie and then read the book in one day... Been a fan ever since...

Fight Club is an amazing film and the philosophy behind it really resonates with me. It made me think so much about life, one of my favorite movies.

The "Secondary Father" is a very strong and qualified concept. I can attest to this, as someone who grew up with a very smart, loving, religious, amazingly understanding father, but also respecting a father figure that encompassed similarly respectable features, but was stronger in features that my birth father did not have- abrasive, secular, dry, and unforgiving. I did not lose respect for my father, but it gave me a new and very important perspective on many things that I did not get with my birth father. I am forever grateful to both my father and the secondaries that I had that made me who I am today.

I'm a single-serving friend.

I remember I saw it in the theater. My friends had to drag me to go see it bc I thought it was going to just be another dumb action movie. I was blown away once I saw it!!! It's still one of my favorite movies of all time!

I love fight club with everything in my soul.This is the brotherhood we men all need.

Met Chuck Palahniuk on tour for Invisible Monsters in 2007. I went on to pursue a journalism degree partly because of the inspiration I felt from that talk. He’s so insightful

His newest book, “Adjustment Day” is a novel that will haunt you. It’s written under the name “Talbott Reynolds” Not Chuck Palahniuk. Be seen carrying the book it will save your life.

Since it's release I've been searching for a Tyler Durden type of bath robe at the thrift stores.

Wow, the secondary father comments are beautiful. I totally experienced this with my dad. Then a different person named Jack and now it's a split between my dead and some other mentors. What great insight.

Fightclub is one of those few cases where you go in and watch and being different afterwards... it really added to your view on life. I really envy the myself not yet have seen it just to experience it once more!

Fight Club is the movie that ranks amongst the best, OF ALL TIME. "Go home people"... And then they walk down the basement of Louie's Tavern..."Welcome to Fight Club..." That's it!

This interview was quite good!

Men of any age can relate to this movie. As you watch it as you get older you understanding and interpretation evolve. A masterpiece

What I love so much about this is that Chuck ever so gently suggests to Joe that it isn't necessarily about violence or fighting. Violence in Fight Club is merely a means to an end - it's about being fed up with the departure from what has been a functional upbringing for males for thousands of years, and turning that functional upbringing into a sad, depressing daily grind of meaningless tasks designed to keep up appearances and socially march to some imagined drum. Men have lost so much of our identities in the last hundred years, such that we're considered predators and crimes waiting to happen simply by being male. We've been instructed by society to be what other people want us to be, and that's what resonates with people so goddamn much about Fight Club: we don't want to be perfectly groomed, door-holding, suit-wearing, polite-as-you-like creatures. Violence is merely a way to remind ourselves that we're primitive beings at heart, not some pseudo-civilised pet that occasionally gets scolded by a feminine master for acting out of line.

100% my favorite movie of all time! Fight club was a masterpiece!

"There are so few social models or stories for men" Yeah, that's why we read graphic novels and play video games. Because that's where they are covered in underlying tones.

Remember seeing this in the theatre with my brother and best friend. No one else in the theatre but us. Made it all the more insane.

4:00 love this part. I realized that when I was younger that I needed a second father figure to be tough and guide me

this man single handedly saves the men of our generation. Props to him for creating some of the toughest men i've seen

It’s just as relevant and hard hitting in 2022 as it was in 1999. An unforgettable story.

I'm a woman who has always loved me despite not having a father in my life and I love that Chuck mentions Dead Poets Society, Karate Kid and Officer in this discussion. Along w FC I always adored those stories and saw all many, many times. I was entranced with the depiction of the male experience in all of them. This makes me love Chuck even more.

"Martha's polishing the brass on the Titanic, its all going down." My favorite quote of the film.

It was on the tip of everyone's tongue. Tyler and I just gave it a name.

Taking on an apprentice in my business. It’s going to be an honour to teach him and watch him excel

I loved this movie and it completely changed my life for the better at a very young age.

Fight club isn’t just for men that movie deeply impacted me at a spiritual level

Fight club for me and my friends made a big impact. My father showed the movie to me when I was maybe 12 and I re watched it as a late teen early 20’s and when I got my first apartment I would always have “fight club” playing on my tv when my boys would come over. I boxed growing up but most of my friends had never been in a fight in their lives. So that summer 2017 I taught them all how to fight in my backyard at my first apartment. We’d get drunk and fight all day and night and watch that movie. It was a great summer and that’s when we became men. 😂

This guy know’s how to have a conversation, hardly cuts off joe in the middle of his speech, waits till he finishes

This film was astounding and I watched it many times.

Saw this movie for the first time ever when I was 14 or so around the year 2008- 2009 and it hit me straight across the face and has been my favourite movie ever since just resonates through my soul on how I relate perfectly to this movie

My secondary father was my first sergeant major. At the time he held the record for the highest mountain rescue off Mount Everest. Imagine what that does to a impressionable young man confidence when your surrounded daily by great men. 🙌🏼

Invisible Mosters is his best novel. I read Choke in one night because I couldn't put it down. Fight Club is also amazing. Love Chuck Palahniuk. Met him at a book signing and he was so kind.

A few things I love about Fight Club. The anti-consumerist and anti-corporation themes. The cathartic release of violence and how masculinity is tied to it. (Which is the reason why I love MMA) How society uses consumerism to suppress our masculine and primal instincts.

I am Jack’s palpable enthusiasm.

Wow! I didn’t know that Chuck Palahniuk was on the podcast. He was a superhero to me when I was a teenager and I totally forgot about him until now. I can speak a bit of English now so I should go buy the English versions of his masterpieces.

I watched fight club for the first time at 10 and it had an incredible impact on me. One of my absolute favorites. Seen it probably over 30 times 😂

Watched Fight Club again and holy shit, Joe on a regular basis echoes some of the ideas/quotes. My favorite is the recent one with Kevin Smith and talking about how after fight practice "everything else was easy"/"nothing mattered, we all felt saved" "after fight club, everything else had the volume lowered".

I was so stupid for many years after watching Fight Club, I thought it was about learning to let go. To learn to let go of the constant control we try to have. And by letting go we can finally be real men that can fully enjoy our lives

Joe That's a huge part of martial arts Rogan

An amazing author. Loved the book as much as the movie which usually rarely happens. One seems to always outshine the other.

I never had a father or a father figure. I filled that void by becoming a father myself. I am the father I always wished I had for myself.