The OP is trying to assassinate character by what a person laughs at.
Fwiw, I have an extremely dark sense of humor and I’m not arguing in either direction when pointing out the handle. I do find Rogan problematic, however.
These "jokes" are not funny, and in fact are disturbing to folks that have actually internalized and lived the fact that these "jokes" are a reflection of culture.
It wasn't a joke, Jesus Christ, and the fact that you offer that up as a defense is in and of itself telling.
All the HNers coming out to put it on record how disgusted they are with the story remind me of that Daniel Tosh clip where a heckler shouts "rape is never funny" and he goes "it's not... but wouldn't it be funny if someone raped [the heckler]?" and everyone laughs.
It's like watching people get offended on the behalf of babies over some dead baby jokes and then lecturing each other on a forum.
People forget that edginess used to mean that but it turned into bits like Chelsea Handler retelling how she got gangbanged over the weekend.
Much of stand up comedy comes from an extremely dark place, and its successes derived from relating stories about their messed up lives to an audience who for a fleeting moment live vicariously through them or find humorous the complete insanity and barbarity they just witnessed. And this type of comedy is very successful. To deny this is at best naive and myopic and at worst deliberate ignorance of the world around us.
It's not exclusive to the east coast; go listen to some Bobby Lee brothel stories on YouTube and prepare to be uncomfortable. These are real people, telling real stories about their past.
Please understand that people have different tastes; there is a large audience for this type of humor; everyone else try not to choke on your own tears laughing it up with Stephen Colbert.