A subreddit filled with 44,000 users has banded together with one common goal: to discuss the podcast…and expose Brendan Schaub’s disingenuous self.

The first time I heard about Brendan Schaub and the “Homeless Cats” was back in 2019. I was having dinner with my boyfriend and he was laughing at his cellphone when I asked him what was so funny. Laughing harder, he explained, “There is a subreddit that is devoted to this ex-MMA fighter who became a comedian. It’s so funny.”

“The comedian is funny?” I asked.

“No! All of Brendan’s fans have turned into “haters”. There are over 6000 subscribers and all we do is make fun of him.”

“Well, that sounds mean,” I would say, not understanding how a group of 6000 cyberbullies could be funny.

But, as the months went on and my boyfriend continued to share more and more examples of Brendan Schaub’s two-faced, narcissistic, lying, talentless, and inauthentic character, it was impossible not to be marveled by how such an unlikeable person could have fallen backward into fame. It wasn’t just me who was swayed to join the hate wagon — in fact, as of today, there are now over 44,000 subscribed homeless cats working diligently to expose Brendan “Schwab”, as they call them.

Now, before I begin, I must preface that I do not condone online bullying in any other situation. In fact, as a victim of cyberstalking and bullying myself, it’s normally something that triggers a mass amount of empathy and sympathy within me toward the victims.

But the Homeless Cats aren’t your typical cyberbullies. In fact, I’d call them “vigilantes” before I’d call them cyberbullies. But by definition… yeah, they’re bullies. Or “Haters” as Schaub calls them. This community of “Homeless Cats” have bonded and worked together for years, exposing Schaub’s unsavory behaviors that might otherwise go unknown due to his overall irrelevance in the comedy, MMA, and podcast community.

Just because he’s irrelevant doesn’t mean he’s not important — in fact, I think Schaub appears to be the perfect archetype of what is wrong with the influx of YouTube celebrities (Yes, I know his “fame” extends past YouTube).

Schaub is the epitome of inauthenticity and a giant bully himself. Just ask Ariel Helwani, Canadian MMA journalist, who after years of remaining silent while Schaub repeatedly insulted him on his podcast, has finally begun fighting back, joining the Homeless Cats on their mission of exposing the phony.

This is why I ask, that before you reflexively feel the need to condemn or report the subreddit that is built on hating and bullying a grown man, please hear me out. This subreddit is filled with heroes. Hilarious heroes who deserve a place in the world of comedy more than Schaub.

Now, if you’re like me and don’t follow the world of MMA, you might be wondering…

Who Even Is Brendan Schaub?

Brendan Schaub was born on March 18, 1983, in Aurora Colorado. Today, Schaub lives with his long-time girlfriend Joanna Zanella and two sons, Tiger and Boston, in Los Angeles, California. Currently, Schaub is the host of three podcasts: The Fighter and the Kid, Below the Belt, and King and the Sting and is performing “sold out” comedy shows around America (but more on the “sold out” aspect, later).

Initially, he strived to be an NFL player and was even invited to join the Buffalo Bills’ training camp in 2006 but was cut, leading to his retirement from American football in 2007.

As a natural athlete who grew up playing sports and learning martial arts like his father, who has a second-degree black belt in taekwondo, Schaub moved his athletic career over to the UFC.

Beginning in 2009, Schaub was a contestant on the tenth season of the UFC-produced reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” and lost in the finals, receiving second place. This launched his career as a heavyweight fighter. It was during his time as a fighter that he became friends with UFC commentator, comedian, and the host of one of the most popular podcasts to date, Joe Rogan. And that’s when things began to go downhill for Schaub.

In 2014, after a technical knockout by Travis Browne in the first round, Schaub was invited to the Joe Rogan Experience. It was on that podcast that Rogan expressed his concerns for Schaub’s physical health and well-being. After a career filled with concussions and damage to Schaub’s body, Rogan critiqued his fighting technique, stating that Schaub did not have what it takes to be an elite fighter.

Schaub stayed silent during this intimate and surprisingly vulnerable intervention, later claiming that if he would have talked, he would have cried. I can’t blame Schaub for feeling emotional during this podcast. After all, he was very dedicated and his livelihood was based on it. It would hurt to hear that you’re not good enough and that you’re putting your safety at risk from the influential Joe Rogan while being broadcasted live for millions of viewers to hear.

Schaub tried to argue Rogan’s intervention, but in 2015, he announced his retirement from the UFC. And for some reason, with Rogan backing him up every second of the way, Brendan Schaub decided that instead of being an MMA fighter he would jump head-first into comedy.

Most comedians need to work their way up from the very bottom, performing for free in tiny, dark venues for years before they’re noticed by someone who can bring them into the starlight. They’ll work tirelessly, crafting their jokes, using the audience’s reactions to gauge whether they’re funny or not, even if it means hearing the daunting “boo”s’ from the crowd. Even though criticism never feels good, it’s the audience that comedians need to please. If you can’t make your audience laugh, you will never be a successful comedian.

At least, that’s what I thought until Brendan Schaub was signed by Showtime for his first-ever comedy special titled “You’d Be Surprised” despite having little-to-no experience or fanbase. Initially, the few fans he did have who followed his UFC career and his MMA podcast “The Fighter and the Kid” were optimistic. After all, legendary comedian Joe Rogan was pushing him through all the doors that would normally be locked tight for an amateur comedian. It appeared Schaub had a secret, gifted, funny bone that he never had the opportunity to share while fighting in the UFC.

Well, we were all surprised to learn that couldn’t be further from the truth.

To this day, Schaub’s comedy special is the worst-rated comedy special on IMDB, sitting at a 1.8/10 with over 3000 votes. The Showtime special is filled with boring “jokes”, often based on racial stereotypes, which Schaub incoherently mumbles with no charisma or stage presence. It deserved the low rating.

You’d think that as a failed NFL player, failed UFC fighter, and with a failed comedy special, Schaub would give up. His ego must be bruised. But nope.

Schaub’s ego grows larger day by day. His attitude would only be justified if he were a legendary comic like Bill Burr, Dave Chapelle, or Sarah Silverman. But even these comedians have a humble self-awareness when off the stage that contributes to their success and hilarity. Part of being a comedian is showing some humility toward themselves — after all, there’s nothing funny about listening to a person discuss how great they are.

But Schaub is the opposite of humble and self-aware. It’s as if it is impossible for Schaub to offer anyone an ounce of praise without adding a negative comment behind it, never letting anyone appear superior to him. At least in his own mind.

Just take, for example, the episode of Below The Belt that was released today, October 6th where he discusses Tyson Fury, a boxer who has been open about his struggles with depression and is passionate about spreading mental health awareness.

In the same sentence of praising Fury’s successful career, claiming that Fury is his favorite fighter and he “loves him”, he also adds that everyone knows his struggles with mental health and that if he has to hear about it one more time he is “going to slit his f*cking wrist”.

Wow. What a great thing to say about the fighter you “love” who has suffered from suicidal ideation for years. Threaten suicide yourself. Hilarious joke! Not.

This is only the tip of the iceberg.

Schaub has gone on record insulting everyone from fellow comedians, fighters, journalists, to his cohost, Bryan Callen, who was accused of sexual assault and misconduct in 2020. Callen might be Schaub’s only real friend left. After all, once Callen’s career plummeted after the allegations, it seems he is dependent on Schaub.

Despite the allegations, Callen appears to have more emotional intelligence than Schaub and will often act as a buffer or mediator when Schaub’s ego is threatened by a guest on their podcast. Even though Schaub is a comedian, Callen is the comedic relief during the awkward moments when Schaub pouts because someone corrected or teased him. Callen always has Schaub’s back and seems to truly care about him, but Schaub will ridicule him without a second thought.

So, now that you know a bit more about Brendan Schaub’s character, it’s time to introduce The Homeless Cats.

Who Are The Homeless Cats?

The Homeless Cats is a name the subscribers to the Fighter and the Kid subreddit proudly call themselves after Schaub acknowledged the large number of negative reviews he received for his comedy special. He compared the reviewers to “homeless guys” or “cats”, claiming the users are trolls living in their mom’s basement who mean nothing to him.

But the funny thing that Schaub doesn’t realize, or refuses to believe, is that the original homeless cats, at one point, were his fans. They followed his career as a fighter and MMA analyst, but once Schaub began showing his true character, they began to critique him. If Schaub was smart, he wouldn’t ignore his audience, he would take their feedback into consideration and try to improve his jokes. Making his audience laugh should be his top priority.

The hate began when Schaub told a story from his college days, proudly describing an incident where he ate his roommate’s food, then once he was held accountable, he threatened to fight his roommate. When the roommate states he was going to call the police if Brendan assaulted him, he proceeded to spit on and throw the roommate through a glass door.

Apparently, Brendan thinks physically assaulting his roommate is hilarious, thus all of his fans should, too.

However, as time went on, Schaub continued giving the Homeless Cats more reasons to dislike him as a person. The more ammo he gave, the more they banded together. They even created their own lingo which they call “Schaubisms”, based on Schaub’s own mispronunciation of the English language. For example, “Water we dune hair?” means, “What are we doing here?”

The Homeless Cats aren’t just trolls living in their parent’s basement like Schaub wants to believe. The subreddit has reached a few important members of the MMA media, like Ariel Helwani, Brian Campbell, and Luke Thomas. It has turned into a widespread “inside joke”, of sorts. On their podcast “Morning Kombat”, Brian Campbell often drops references to the subreddit, trying to conceal his laughter as Luke Thomas rolls his eyes, though unable to hide his own smirk, the subreddit explodes with praise.

Just taking a stroll through Schaub’s Twitter profile will show you how huge this community is. Nearly every comment on every tweet is Homeless Cats speaking in what would appear as gibberish to most, but to those who are in the community, it is a second language.

Schaub claims he doesn’t read any comments from his “hadders”, but it is obvious he is affected by them. It would be difficult not to be. I would have sympathy for him if he tried to grow from the criticisms he receives, but instead, he pretends they don’t exist.

You might still be wondering why this group of 44,000 people hating a single person is justified. So, let’s get into that.

Why Are These Cyber Bullies Actually Vigilantes?

If you’re still not convinced Schaub is a bad person, let’s go through a few of his more despicable incidents.

The moment I realized Schaub needed to be exposed was 8 months ago when his pregnant girlfriend shared an Instagram post explaining that she had just had a miscarriage and lost their baby. That same day, while she was in the hospital, Schaub shared this now-deleted photograph of him in a hot tub with his “boyz” on his own Instagram.

When I heard about a man partying with his “boyz” in a hot tub while his girlfriend sits in the hospital, traumatized by the loss of their unborn child, I was appalled. Before that moment, I thought the Homeless Cats were overreacting to Schaub, but if anyone deserves a “Worst Boyfriend Of The Year Award”, it’s him.

Schaub’s selfish, narcissistic, and inauthentic behavior goes deeper than this.

Earlier this year, one of Schaub’s cohosts, Malik Bazille, mysteriously “quit” The Fighter And The Kid’s podcast after he corrected Schaub on a simple mistake. Schaub insisted that the boxing match between Andy Ruiz and Chris Arreola wasn’t a pay-per-view fight when in actuality, it was. Seeing as their jobs are to promote combat sports, it’s important the information they are spreading is correct. Naturally, Malik corrects Schaub and the conversation should move forward without issue.

Instead, Schaub shows a look of sheer irritability over being wrong, scowling with his body tense. The next day…Malik was gone.

It’s evident by his guests’ body language throughout all his episodes that they aren’t allowed to poke fun at or correct Schaub, even though he’s a comedian and should be able to joke around with his pals. Instead, if Schaub says or does something wrong, the room will be filled with awkward tension as Callen stumbles around, trying to keep Schaub from blowing his lid.

The most important person that a narcissist must lie to is themselves. Now, I’m not diagnosing Schaub with a personality disorder. However, it is apparent that he must control his environment and remain in a safe space, free of criticism, even at the risk of sharing false information.

This delusional behavior was seen recently when Schaub repeatedly claimed that two comedy shows scheduled Friday, September 24, and Saturday, September 25th, were sold out. In reality, so few tickets were sold, that they had to combine the two dates into a single show. Along with that, the AT&T Center where the show was held was giving away not 1 free ticket, not 2, but 5 free tickets to see Schaub’s “sold out” show.

Telling your fans that a show is “sold out” when in actuality, the venue is literally giving away a handful of tickets just to fill seats, has to be the worst marketing strategy ever.

Schaub is famous for deception and spreading misinformation without hesitation. Between spreading anti-Covid-19 propaganda, tarnishing Ariel Helwani’s reputation with no evidence, taking too much inspiration from other people’s logos for his own, and (most likely) using bots to boost his YouTube and Twitter subscribers, Schaub is the epitome of inauthentic.

And that is why I argue that despite the Homeless Cats technically being a group of 44,000 cyberbullies, they are vigilantes exposing Schaub’s true character. He is not a prodigy comedian like he wants to believe. He is merely an insecure man who piggy-backed off of Joe Rogan’s success and needs to control every aspect of his environment in fear of being offended.

Seriously, Schaub, I thought comedians could take a joke. Water we dune hair?

This article was originally posted here: https://medium.com/@ashe.ryland.writes/brendan-schaub-the-homeless-cats-the-fight-against-inauthenticity-c1af83268c69 . Subscribe for more great content!

Correction: Tyson Fury is a boxer, not MMA. Shout out to the homeless cats for pointing out the error.