Really think Sam isn't even doing the "comedian" route as much as he just tries to Hollywood ladderclimb. That's why he's so obsessed with Joe Rogan, it’s what he wants to do. Pivot from having to do things like make content to just having a show where you sit at a table and spout nonsense and make millions of dollars from drooling, slackjawed, (probably fatherless) fans that think everything you say is pure gold. He's got it all, the pseudointellectualism, the combat sports obsession, shady supplements, his outdated comedy stylings that basically were ripped off from Tom Green anyways. I'm convinced that he's just leveraged the couple times where he actually managed to pull one over on people and uses it as smokescreen to cover for when he acts like a retard. Literally the "I was only pretending to be retarded" meme if it goes wrong, or "All according to Sam's Master Plan" if it goes right. That's why he can win when he's up against hacks like TedX and Idubbbz because he's just the king of hacks. As soon as he faces off against someone that has real comedy chops, with real wit, someone that has no idea about his reputation, he gets exposed for being a big fish in a small pond and the only thing he knows how to do otherwise is throw a fit because it usually makes people give up.
He’s had a very strange form of humor that’s hard to sell. Where the audience is the joke and they’re unaware of it. Relying on a sort of meta audience that’s probably only capable of existing online. It makes you wonder, do we only follow this drama and only like the comedy we like because someone is “undefeated” it’s all very strange. this is probably a good thing. Comedians can’t make too much money, or they’ll just phone it in and make a podcast and talk all day about themselves like H3H3
