"...one of the most deft interviewers in the business"
July 28, 2016 5:38 PM Subscribe
great_radio: "I would not have thought this was the reaction people had when invited to host America's Got Talent. I thought it's where you went when your career was over."
It depends on your starting point, doesn't it? If I got picked to play the sidekick in a minor TV sitcom, I'd be stoked. If Chris Evans got picked to play the sidekick in a minor TV sitcom, he'd see it as a big step down. Apparently Howard Stern always thought of himself as below America's Got Talent judge level.
posted by Bugbread at 7:48 PM on July 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
It depends on your starting point, doesn't it? If I got picked to play the sidekick in a minor TV sitcom, I'd be stoked. If Chris Evans got picked to play the sidekick in a minor TV sitcom, he'd see it as a big step down. Apparently Howard Stern always thought of himself as below America's Got Talent judge level.
posted by Bugbread at 7:48 PM on July 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
Also, not having seen any photos of Howard Stern since the early 1990s, holy shit, he actually doesn't look like Joey Ramone! Until Joey Ramone's death I was half convinced that Howard Stern/Joey Ramone was the equivalent of Sacha Baron Cohen/Borat, and even after Joey Ramone's death I was 1/4 convinced they were the same person and he'd just decided to retire his Joey Ramone persona. Now I can see that they are actually different people!
posted by Bugbread at 7:53 PM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Bugbread at 7:53 PM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Haven't paid attention to Stern in at least 10 years. Did he get a chin implant?
posted by ericthegardener at 7:57 PM on July 28, 2016
posted by ericthegardener at 7:57 PM on July 28, 2016
Any chance that Stern might start trash-talking Trump on a regular basis between now and November 8th?
posted by blueberry at 8:05 PM on July 28, 2016
posted by blueberry at 8:05 PM on July 28, 2016
Haven't paid attention to Stern in at least 10 years. Did he get a chin implant?
If he has a big brow too, sounds like HGH usage.
posted by benzenedream at 8:14 PM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
If he has a big brow too, sounds like HGH usage.
posted by benzenedream at 8:14 PM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've been seeing so many sound bites lately of Trump on Stern's show that I actually have been wondering what happened to Stern. Thanks for the news The Gooch.
posted by bendy at 8:20 PM on July 28, 2016
posted by bendy at 8:20 PM on July 28, 2016
Is there anyone who dropped out of the general public's view faster than Stern? It seems like he was everywhere in the eighties and nineties and then once he went to satellite radio he just vaporized.
posted by octothorpe at 8:48 PM on July 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 8:48 PM on July 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
I've been watching AGT since it began. It's a great show, harkening to old-school variety as well as The Gong Show. There is a very positive Americana vibe about the whole thing. Stern was attuned to this, and I'm not surprised that it had a permanent impact on him.
posted by No Robots at 9:00 PM on July 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by No Robots at 9:00 PM on July 28, 2016 [3 favorites]
Stern was, by far, the best judge that AGT ever had. During his time on that show, I came to actually like him, and respect him.
posted by yesster at 9:58 PM on July 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by yesster at 9:58 PM on July 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
My only exposure to Howard Stern was when I needed an MRI when I was 13 and the tech thought that it would be a good idea to tune the radio I could hear on the headphones to the station that played him while I was trapped in that tube. For 45 very long and confusing (for a sheltered sick kid) minutes I listened to that shock shock spew. Glad to hear he's changed; this was an interesting read.
posted by sockermom at 10:35 PM on July 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by sockermom at 10:35 PM on July 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
Best Letterman Guest Ever
posted by jcruelty at 12:51 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by jcruelty at 12:51 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
Stern chose satellite radio. Tune in he's probably still broadcasting from a trailer dragged along behind the ISS.
posted by sammyo at 5:38 AM on July 29, 2016
posted by sammyo at 5:38 AM on July 29, 2016
I started listening to Howard on WWDC in the early 80's.
I particularly remember the 'Leave it to Beaver' and 'Gayligan's Island' skits. Very juvenile. Very un-PC. Very, very funny.
Then he moved to NYC and I didn't hear anything for about 10 years until some station in DC picked up his NYC show, and I was looking forward to it.
I kept waiting for him to say something funny, but I never heard it. Just kvetching.
I thought he was surrounded by yes-men (and -women...Robin certainly didn't try to smooth out his edges).
No one there except his wife to say 'you went a little too far there', and him telling her 'I wish you wouldn't listen to the show.'
I don't listen to satellite radio or watch TV, so I haven't heard him in years.
Sounds like he's grown up. Good for him.
posted by MtDewd at 6:35 AM on July 29, 2016
I particularly remember the 'Leave it to Beaver' and 'Gayligan's Island' skits. Very juvenile. Very un-PC. Very, very funny.
Then he moved to NYC and I didn't hear anything for about 10 years until some station in DC picked up his NYC show, and I was looking forward to it.
I kept waiting for him to say something funny, but I never heard it. Just kvetching.
I thought he was surrounded by yes-men (and -women...Robin certainly didn't try to smooth out his edges).
No one there except his wife to say 'you went a little too far there', and him telling her 'I wish you wouldn't listen to the show.'
I don't listen to satellite radio or watch TV, so I haven't heard him in years.
Sounds like he's grown up. Good for him.
posted by MtDewd at 6:35 AM on July 29, 2016
Oh, good. It only took ~50-odd years of playing out his contrary, angry dude shtick, running out of boundaries to bark and rub against, and four-times-weekly psychoanalysis to get there.
This is the same guy who, for years, traded misogynistic quips with anyone who was game, including, Donald J. Trump. In a 2005 phone interview, the two rated the looks of the cast of “Desperate Housewives.”
“Would you go out with Marcia Cross,” Mr. Trump asked, “or would you turn gay, Howard?”
“She’s got a good body,” he answered. “Just put a bag over her head.”
He was what, 54 then? And what finally prompted the real change?
Friends and fans attribute Mr. Stern’s evolution in large part to his marriage, in 2008, to Beth Ostrosky Stern, a former model who not only has left him lovestruck, but turned him into an animal rescue advocate.
Aha, ok. Well done, Mr. Stern :/
posted by cotton dress sock at 7:20 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is the same guy who, for years, traded misogynistic quips with anyone who was game, including, Donald J. Trump. In a 2005 phone interview, the two rated the looks of the cast of “Desperate Housewives.”
“Would you go out with Marcia Cross,” Mr. Trump asked, “or would you turn gay, Howard?”
“She’s got a good body,” he answered. “Just put a bag over her head.”
He was what, 54 then? And what finally prompted the real change?
Friends and fans attribute Mr. Stern’s evolution in large part to his marriage, in 2008, to Beth Ostrosky Stern, a former model who not only has left him lovestruck, but turned him into an animal rescue advocate.
Aha, ok. Well done, Mr. Stern :/
posted by cotton dress sock at 7:20 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
Haven't paid attention to Stern in at least 10 years. Did he get a chin implant?
If he has a big brow too, sounds like HGH usage.
I listened to Stern on AM a few times during one week back in the '90s because I wanted to hear what the fuss was about, and because I thought all that uninhibited sex-talk might illuminate some things I was trying to figure out, but the schtick was impenetrably thick, and it made for some of the narrowest and most inhibited sex-talk I'd ever heard.
But Stern went on and on about how he was "hung like a three year old", and while that's scarcely credible (of course), I thought I did hear some real dissatisfaction in his voice.
Maybe he tried to do something about that; there's some reason to think HGH might possibly increase penis size in my opinion, and that was one of the things I wanted to understand, so perhaps I can take the change in his appearance as evidence that someone who was in position to hear every rumor, folk belief, and piece of scuttlebutt thought it might, too.
posted by jamjam at 1:04 PM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
If he has a big brow too, sounds like HGH usage.
I listened to Stern on AM a few times during one week back in the '90s because I wanted to hear what the fuss was about, and because I thought all that uninhibited sex-talk might illuminate some things I was trying to figure out, but the schtick was impenetrably thick, and it made for some of the narrowest and most inhibited sex-talk I'd ever heard.
But Stern went on and on about how he was "hung like a three year old", and while that's scarcely credible (of course), I thought I did hear some real dissatisfaction in his voice.
Maybe he tried to do something about that; there's some reason to think HGH might possibly increase penis size in my opinion, and that was one of the things I wanted to understand, so perhaps I can take the change in his appearance as evidence that someone who was in position to hear every rumor, folk belief, and piece of scuttlebutt thought it might, too.
posted by jamjam at 1:04 PM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
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Having Jimmy Kimmel on brings some of that feeling back, even as a call-in guest. He called in after Eric The Actor was reported dead and remarked that it was a great honor to follow preceding caller "Gonzo ShitCock" in the ensuing memorial show in a deadpan voice that almost made me choke with laughter.
posted by dr_dank at 7:21 PM on July 28, 2016