'Laugh to death': Joe Rogan mocks Australian petrol sniffing awareness video

American podcast host Joe Rogan has received backlash online after he mocked a song written for, and with, Indigenous Australians, about the very real issue of petrol sniffing in outback communities.

During an episode of one of the world's most popular podcasts, his guest commentator Andrew Wilson promised Rogan would "laugh himself to death" over the awareness-raising song.

“What I'm about to show you is going to make you laugh to death,” Wilson said, before inaccurately identifying it as created by the Australian government.

The pair laughed during the clip, with Rogan saying, “Imagine you got that and you think you're going to fix that problem with a catchy song?”

In the ensuing conversation, Wilson and Rogan made derogatory comments about Indigenous Australians, including comparing petrol sniffing to the “crack epidemic”, and 'joked' that Australian government should offer land as an incentive.

Their mockery of the song attracted harsh criticism the director of Indigenous Services Australia, Tony Shaw.

“Watching grown men sit in a studio thousands of kilometres away, completely ignorant of the context, laughing at those children and turning their efforts into a joke was disgraceful,” Mr Shaw told news.com.au.

"Joe, perhaps before ridiculing something like this, it would have been worth finding out what you were actually watching.

“You have an enormous audience. You could have taken five minutes to learn the story behind what you were watching. Instead, you chose to mock it.”

Adam Thompson says Joe Rogan needs to be educated

Mr Shaw explained how Australian musician Adam Thompson, who was involved in the song, had worked with children to write lyrics and create it.

Thompson, the frontman of iconic Aussie band Chocolate Starfish, told news.com.au:

“When you have no lived experience, it’s easy for the squeaky wheel majority on the internet to look from the outside and comment on things they know very little about.

"My goal is simply to invite people to listen and learn more. 

“If this moment forces people to research the incredible social work happening in these communities, then we’ve turned mockery into genuine understanding.”