The Howard Stern Thread

this steve martin interview is so wonderful. meghan trainor seems like an awful person.

yeah the Meghan Trainor interview was awful. Torturous. Not much Howard could do.

That Harry Reid moment was devastating

revisiting the Benjy/Elisa saga, he's such a fucking mystery to me, I could live in the vortex.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFZCFP3av4c

I think Benjy's best bits are behind him. But I guess you could say the same about the rest of the staff as well.

Man, did any of you guys hear the beginning of the show today? What the fuck is Ralph so stressed about? Total mystery...him and Howard were just laughing about but "really can't say what it is..." Obviously not an illness or anything financial... could he have knocked someone up?

i think gary guessed correctly.

also, re: Benjy - his Periscope account is worth following. Over the weekend I saw him run up to a tour bus near Central Park and start yelling at all the people on the top, just shouting "HEY! HEY! HEY! I'M FAMOUS! STOP THE BUS! YOU'RE LOOKING AT A FAMOUS PERSON! FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @BRONK! I'M FAMOUS!"

yah thats not worth it for me.

but Ralph said himself if he knocked someone off, it's not a big deal going to PP and getting an abortion. unless it was too late

any ralph content is good content. guy is a trainwreck

that benji bit is pretty good. It would be cool if the shows aired his best 'scope bits

I'm curious as to what Howard thinks about DJT. The silence on his part is deafening when Robin talks about DJT during the news. It's impossible to discern what he really thinks of anyone, being that nearly every relationship he has is doubtless situational: he doesn't have anything to do with Artie (that epic fight in 2006-2007 was the only time I know of when Howard was outmatched; Artie had his number, didn't back down and Howard was defeated on his own turf, the only one he will step on) and his conduct when he was rude to Gary at his party that he deigned to go to was maddening(even Beth seemed furious with him).

I wonder if he has any affection for DJT, or if its game recognizes game and he wants to protect him as a favored guest, or if he fears him. The Stern mooks would lose vs the Alt right/ twitter lunatics/masterbates to anime cohort. but obv. there is massive overlap.

DJT?

Trump

he wants to protect him as a favored guest

this is my feeling about. he's been outspoken for hillary.

He's talked a lot about Trump and Hillary this year. Several callers have asked him who he supports. He's donated to HRC's campaign but they want nothing to do with him- on the other hand he's personal friends with Trump (last appearance on the show, a call in, was August 25, 2015), and he talks all the time about how if Trump wins him and Robin are going to basically have carte blanche at the White House, they'll get to visit Camp David and see what's doing, etc. He hasn't been quiet about Trump, and vice versa (remember when Trump referred to Howard as "my good friend, and yours" to Megyn Kelly in one of the million debates this year?)

Fiona Simmons

JD and Ronnie 4 life

The only time I laugh theze dayz

And Sour of course!!!

“When I said the pelican thing, it was over. No one ever said that. And I was out of line, quite frankly. But when he said, ‘do you think I look like a pelican?’ And I said ‘yes,’ there was no going back, it was a matter of time.”

http://uproxx.com/webculture/artie-lange-howard-stern/3/

I'm going through all six hours of the Beetlejuice episode of Wack History Month and making ringtones. Figured I'd at least channel my current aimless depressive energy into something obsessive.

that is a great use of your time, if you want, please share some of your ringtones here.

Howard surprisingly measured today re: Orlando. Although he made a great point that why should a Taliban sympathizer be allowed in this country?

"allowed in this country"...The guy was born here, and the FBI interviewed him twice re online comments he made, but couldn't prove anything. Plus, the US government has signed off on Afghan government negotiations in Afghanistan with part of the Taliban. So trying to boot a US citizen out of the US for allegedly being a Taliban sympathizer, is much more complicated than you make it out to be, or presumably than Howard Stern did.

Was referring to his father.

Father's politics are not so clear, and have changed back and forth over the years and its not clear anyone knew them until after he came to the US and subsequently did a tv show. Can Stern proved US immigration people knew the details he says, at the time the guy came to the US. So I'm not seeing this as a "great point."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-shooting-father-idUSKCN0YY109

Plus its not clear when he came here, and what he believes regarding the Taliban and when he changed his views on the Taliban, and when he first made those views public.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-orlando-shooters-afghan-roots/2016/06/13/d89a8cd0-30e4-11e6-ab9d-1da2b0f24f93_story.html

Afghan government officials said they did not know when Seddique Mateen left the country but noted millions of Afghans fled after it was invaded by the former Soviet Union in 1979.

Gay Ramon was right about the shooter being a self-hating homosexual. BTW, love the homeless lady's song and the smooth jazz reworking of it on TWUS.

Today is the 9th anniversary of Robin getting a coffee enema. The show put the whole saga up on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/howardstern/sets/9th-anniversary-of-robin

Sour's George Takei impression is the best

I think that might've been the longest time he stayed in character on the air a couple weeks ago talking to Mahmet. His Ralph is pretty promising, too - he's got the laugh down.

WHOOP WHOOOPP!!

i've only been able to listen intermittently lately: what is the provenance of "whoop whoop"? and what's with the lady who sings nonsense?

Is the stern fan network gone?

SFN is gone. Some talk here: https://www.reddit.com/r/howardstern

whoop whoop is what the juggalos say...

I grew up outside Philly, so always had Stern around, but never listened because I didn't get it. Like, I *got* it, but even in, say, middle school or high school I thought it was kind of obnoxious, not totally unlike other morning zoo types I ignored. Now years and years later, I've pretty much avoided him, at least post peak "Private Parts" popularity, but I have friends who listen, friends I never thought would listen to Howard Stern. Like, far left try too hard self-conscious progressive people who make their young kids listen to free jazz and Kendrick Lamar and refuse to acknowledge the presence of what they consider crass pop culture, like Disney or Hollywood or major label stuff. One of this couple listens to rips of scratchy '78s in his Prius, the other half listens to Jesus Lizard and Bjork and claims not to know the names of any movie stars or pop stars or anything. Yet they both listen to and love Howard Stern. So every once in a while I tune in on Sirius to listen to Stern and try to understand, but I still don't get it. Is it just getting lost in the mythology of so many years on the air? Is it the sneakily relentless way he gets the dirt out of interview subjects? Is it the way he describes boobs?

Stern has always been a gigantic political moron; don't know how much his bigotry has lessened over the years since i heard him but this shit doesn't indicate it has.

appeal of the show these days is somewhat like a long running sitcom: character based humor surrounding the staff, regular callers, and of course Howard himself. it's like having a fun group of coworkers--not necessarily people you'd be friends with but there is a group dynamic that's pleasant and often hilarious.

the interviews are good if you care about the subject (or if they are funny in their own right) and the prepared bits--apart from the occasional prank call--are usually painfully unfunny but not always in an unendearing way.

not sure why he appeals to educated people--maybe it's a "safe space" for goofiness or maybe the group dynamic of the show adds a noogie-giving element missing from most adult professionals lives.

Morbs, you've said the same thing in this thread several times already. He's mellowed out. I think the appeal for 'educated' people is exactly what ryan said: it's a long-running sitcom, and a lot of people connect with Howard on a level where they could listen to him talk about anything all day. I mean, the show is 4 hours long, and he's got millions of listeners.

But is he ever actually funny? It's more like, to my mind, hanging around the local blowhards at the greasy spoon, who are always in the corner booth. "Oh, that's just Howard, he's always here. Howard, how's your soup? (off-screen fart sound) Ha, that Howard, what a character!"

Obviously. That's why I'm compelled to listen. Artie's podcast is more like what you described - he's great as a sidekick but boring as fuck as a host. The show is hard to get into. It took me years. At first, I only listened to the interviews. I thought he was a phenomenal interviewer, but I ignored the rest of the show until a couple years ago. I listen to the full show twice a day, it's like music to me. I'm not sure how to describe it any other way. I remember watching the E! show as a kid and totally not getting it. Dunno when or what made it click.

I was the same through the 90s and early 2000s. then in 2002 I moved somewhere new and didn't know a single person for 500 miles. there was a 24 hour a day stern channel on the local radio. the first time I tuned in, just wanting to hear a human voice, and Howard is launching into his classic Vietnam vet routine and I'm in tears from laughing in my car. fan from that moment on. it's just such a happy environment, even when people on the show are upset or angry it's somehow cathartic. the humor on the show is often about ugly things but it always makes me feel better somehow.

it tickles me every single time when Howard starts getting mad at a run of bad callers. in fact the fact that he ends up exasperated with nearly every caller always makes me laugh.

and even though I agree that Howard's politic opinions can sometimes be annoying and/or stupid there's no question he's possessed of a great deal more intelligence than any other radio (or tv?) show host I can think of. perhaps that's really the source of his appeal for many of his post-2000 fans.

Surreal to me. Because I do tune in every once in a while, just to see if anything is different, and whether it's bad timing or who knows what, it's pretty much just as I expected, same as it ever was. Howard's self-loathing, a bit of in-fighting and argument, long stretches ripping on members of his rogue's gallery, and then totally puerile stuff run into the ground. I was sitting in a cell phone lot the other day, waiting for a plane to land, and tuned in Howard. It was just some jamoke calling in and talking in detail about his Tinder hookup with a woman in her '50s. And it just played as I expected.

"How was her body? Was it like an old raisin?"
"No, Howard she was actually really fit?"
"Really? Wow. That sounds hot. And how about her breasts? Were they shriveled up and gross?"
"No, Howard, they were really great."
"Wow. Sounds like you lucked out. I'd be getting turned down at the old folk's home."
"No, Howard, she was great, I could barely last 5 minutes."
"Huh, I would have lasted 5 seconds. Did you know I have a small penis?"

And so on. It was kind of fascinating. I don't think he's dumb, as a person, but the show just felt so ... rote. Mechanical. I know every once in a while something clicks and it all sparks to life, in a chaotic sense, but it feels too much like talk radio, a guy who is really good at filling 4 hours, by any means necessary, even though it is rarely necessary.

I listened to a Louisville morning zoo during my teens in the 80s. Moved to NYC to go to school in 89, and had the morning radio habit, and so alternated between WBAI/Pacifica and Howard. I also became a big fan of Al Goldstein/Midnight blue at this this time, so I guess I had a thing for loudmouth new york jews Roundabout '93, I got really Chomskied out, so Howard started to bother me, and 92.3 K-rock at the time was a disgusting next of classic rock exceptionalism…the most horrible DJs expressing platitudes of

But in the mid-to-late '90s, I really started to get into the entire HS milieu. The Jackie dynamic was/is awesome. I will admit that ethnic and sexual humor of the sort that gets you drummed about out of acceptable bourgie Brooklyn society these days was and is funny to me —I don't wish to advertise this in public, but HS is an outlet for me as such. Faux-Bieber "I'll suck your ween" is funny. Also, despite that he is the dominant radio personality alongside Rush L., sometimes it's like listening to radio show about the town I live in. Which it is.

There is not doub in my mind that, while it could certainly have been no picnic for Alison to have been married to him and I sympathize, him getting out of Long Island helped broaden his views. He was at the peak of his first phase in the 90s —the books and the movie (to me, the making of the movie took over the show itself, represented his egomania at his most unchecked and was the worst period of the show) were the ultimate expressions as such. I remember thinking that listening to him and knowing next to nothing about every other morning zoo shithead show is like being really into Zeppelin and only having the vaguest notion about any other other hard rock act (which may be a common experience). But when he moved to NYC and gradually transitioned to "hamptons Howie," it changed the show. SFN guys coined that term to suggest that he longer represented the white, tri-state area mook paradigm, which is true and was fine with me.

from about '98 til whenever artie left, I absolutely had to hear the entirety of every show —the day that Artie stood up to Howard was rivetting. now I hear about 1/2 of it. Part of it is having put in so much time that I reflexively respond to a lot of the codes/signifiers. Josh: that story about the couple is great.

First time / no time!

Listening history: 92-93, 03-present

Sour, JD, and Ronnie 4 life

I think the Gary's Dinner Party saga is a good introduction to the show. It's part sitcom/soap opera/theater of the mind/psychoanalysis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVhtQp3ekC4

EXCELLENT fake Bernie and DJT debate on the show right now. Due to the show being so celeb interview intensive recently, they don't do bits like this as much.

Whoever is doing the voices (DJT sounds a bit like Smigel and isn't the same guy as the one who does the DJT voice on the show occasionally; the Bernie guy is much much stronger) are doing references to bourgie culture (whole foods, yoga instructors) of the sort that I do not ever remember hearing on the show before; the "listening to 78 rips in their prius" couple that Chicago Josh referenced above would probly lose their shit listening to this.

The thing that Flappy has posted would indeed be a great intro to the soap opera aspect of the show (I have never been as disgusted with HS's entitled rudeness as above), and this bit on the air presently would be to the sketch/ theater of the mind aspect. The imitators are tearing it up, making wide-ranging references and and HS is showing what a terrific host/interlocutor he can be.

they do those stupid fake presidential calls every day