Gillis, who has returned to stardom after previously using an anti-Asian slur on a podcast and getting fired from Saturday Night Live, moved from New York City to Austin in 2023. He's said in several interviews that his move was motivated by a desire to be closer to Rogan's comedy venue and Texas' lack of a state income tax.

Tim Dillon, another Rogan-adjacent comic who fled to Austin during the height of COVID restrictions, torched the city in a brutal tirade on Whitney Cummings’ podcast in September 2024. He called it a “soulless city that should be burned to the ground,” and mocked its supposed thriving music scene as just “three heroin addicts busking with guitars.”