# Howard Stern: Obnoxious Ass or Mildly Amusing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729 "2005-09-27T19:25:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729/21 "2005-09-28T05:21:05Z")
I listen daily. It’s ten times better than anything else on the radio, excepting good music. When he has a good guest, it’s fantastic. There was this one time when he interviewed Paul McCartney, and I got a new respect for the guy, for example. Straight interview. On the other hand, there was the time Anna Nicole Smith refused to get into the studio. Funnier than heck, and great radio. But most of the good stuff is when they’re just chatting and riffing off each other. It just feels more natural than the rest of the zany and wacky crews I hear. Of course, I’m a New Yorker, so Howard’s local to me. That may change things. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729/22 "2005-09-28T08:29:08Z")
\*\* Dog off of Family Guy:\*\* “…Yeah, so I was listening to Howard Stern this morning. He had a couple of strippers on there… They sounded hot. Then he made a joke about Black people. But Robbin laughed, so it was OK.” That pretty much sums it up right there. ---
**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729/23 "2005-09-28T09:23:03Z")
I’ve been a regular listener since '87. He can be annoying, whiny, out of touch with the “common man”, and almost every other complaint here can at times be accurate. Pre election '04 he was insufferable. He is however, the best thing, by far, on the radio. The show has continued to evolve, change cast members, and grow. Anyone who thinks Howard is more whiny since his divorce must not really remember pre-divorce Howard. He has actually mellowed quite a bit with age and therapy (mellowed towards mistakes by Gary and Scott, not mellowed in crude behavior). I will be making the switch to Eh eh eh. Sal and Richard are funny, although they’ll be much happier when they admit their true feelings for each other. Robin has an obnoxious know-it-all, who in my 18 years listening, has never admitted to being wrong. She does make Howard better. If you’ve ever heard a morning where Robin was out, the show can get pretty out of control, quickly. Fun once in a while, but the show is better with her. Artie is a pure delight. His cocaine abuse, his bank robbery, punching a cop, his interventions and jail time, his passionate love (despite this trial seperation) for Jack Daniels, it’s all an amazing counterpoint to the law abiding boy scouts in the rest of the cast. And, he’s funny as hell (even in Dirty Work!). Oh, and _WAY_ too much Granny porn! ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729/24 "2005-09-28T12:22:15Z")
> [@SHAKES](#): > > \*\* Dog off of Family Guy:\*\* > > “…Yeah, so I was listening to Howard Stern this morning. He had a couple of strippers on there… > They sounded hot. > Then he made a joke about Black people. But Robbin laughed, so it was OK.” > That pretty much sums it up right there. [nitpick] It was Stewie, and the joke was about _Negros_, both important elements that made the joke better. [/nitpick] And I listen for four hours a day, four days a week, since 1999. I loathed his TV show, but once I hearrd his show, I was hooked. Definately the most entertaining show on the radio, and definately worth the investment in Sirius equipment, just so I know I will get to smile every day. Yeah, there are flaws, but never enough to make me turn it off - unless I’m in the car with Mr. singular, who hates him with a passion (while simultaniously admiring his talent and drive). ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729/25 "2005-09-28T13:39:30Z")
> [@sleeepy2](#): > > Oh, and _WAY_ too much Granny porn! That’s been my only beef lately. It was funny at first, but you get tired of hearing old ladies ask to be “bent over their walker” over and over and over again. ---
**Author:** ![TommyTutone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729/26 "2005-09-28T14:27:30Z")
I fall into the ‘loved him until his divorce’ camp. I read his books, saw his film in the theater and listened to him religously. What made him tick, to me, was that he was surrounded by all these beautiful naked women, but he remained faithful to his wife. The fact that he was pretty funny on top of that made it bonus. I gave up on all ‘shock jock’ radio until about three months ago. I had long had satellite radio, but rarely had opportunity to listen to it since the XM is in my wife’s truck. They have added internet stations so that if you are a subscriber, you can listen for free most of their stations on the internet. One of the stations is the Opie & Anthony show, and I have been really enjoying it. I was concerned that uncensored talk radio would make for a poor show just full of F-bombs, but they temper the show so that they don’t rely on foul language and focus on being funny without fear of their bosses. Of course Stern invented the radio and all (hoo hoo, tell 'em Fred)… ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729/27 "2005-09-28T15:12:11Z")
I’m a big fan of Stern. I listen from 6-7 each morning. The main thing for me is that it just sounds like a bunch of people having fun, and that’s fun to listen to. My least favorite times are when he has strippers in. Boring. When they’re ripping on each other, and riffing on sound bites from Rush Limbaugh and news men (e.g. Wolf Blitzer on Katrina’s victims: “these people are so poor and so black. . .”) I think it’s a great show. I also like when they’re just talking about regular stuff. . .what Artie ate, a TV show they all watched, etc. I also think that people underestimate just how much Stern is aware of what he’s doing. He has always had an incredible amount of listeners and advertisers. For example, when 500 movies get made each year, they can take chances and appeal to different tastes. When a guy is on the radio every single day, and that’s his only source of livelihood, no matter how creative he is. . .he has to stick with what works. Stern is careful and patient about how he branches out into new areas, and bringing in new characters. Anyway, an appeal to the more intellectual among you. . . A few months ago, there was an article in the New York Times Magazine written by Ira Glass. Here’s a bit of it. I think it says a lot. (“The Way We Live Now”. May 9th, 2005). > [@Ira Glass in NYT Magazine](#): > > I’m the host of a show on public radio, and when my listeners tell me they don’t care for Stern, I always think it reveals a regrettable narrowness of vision. Mostly, they’re put off by the naked girls. But Stern has invented a way of being on the air that uses the medium better than nearly anyone. He’s more honest, more emotionally present, more interesting, more wide-ranging in his opinions than any host on public radio. Also, he’s a fantastic interviewer. He’s truly funny. And his staff on the air is cheerfully inclusive of every kind of person: black, white, dwarf, stutterer, drunk and supposed gay. What public radio show has that kind of diversity? > Recently, in a show about testosterone, we stole the format Stern invented. On the air, our staff debated who among us probably has the most testosterone. Then we were tested. Then we opened the results on the air and tussled some more. That, in a nutshell, is the genius of Stern: you put all your regular characters into some situation; they argue; the situation takes a turn; they argue some more. > > Sadly, lots of smart people shrug off the recent government crackdown on Howard Stern – and on other ‘‘indecency’’ – as if it were nastiness going on in some bad neighborhood of the broadcast dial, one that doesn’t concern them, one that they’d never stoop to visit. > > But the recent F.C.C. rulings make me Stern’s brother as I’ve never been before. Here are just a few of the things we’ve broadcast on our show that now could conceivably result in fines of up to a half million dollars for the 484 public stations that run the program: assorted curse words, people saying ‘‘damn’’ and ‘‘goddamn’’ (a recent F.C.C. decision declared that ‘‘profane’’ and ‘‘blasphemous’’ speech would now come under scrutiny); various prison stories; and a very funny story by the writer David Sedaris that takes place in a bathroom and that violates all three F.C.C. criteria for ‘‘indecency.’’ It’s explicitly graphic in talking about ‘‘excretory organs or activities’’; Sedaris repeats and dwells on the descriptions at length, and he absolutely means to pander and shock. That’s what makes it funny. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729/28 "2005-09-28T15:44:49Z")
I really didn’t read all the posts because I hate it when people diss on Howard. I have been listening since W **N** BC and I just love him so much and I love Robin too. I love the honesty, the silliness, the relationships among all of them and I LOVE Artie. For those of you who think that it’s all strippers…well, at one time there were a lot of them because of the E Show; it being TV there had to be something to see. FYI, the E Show is over and the strippers seem to be gone. I sort of viewed them as a necessary evil for a long time. I’m getting Sirius for Christmas even though we are really trying to save money and not have tons of monthly expenses. I can’t just lose Howard after 20+ years! He was killing me this morning: he was being the evil “Baby Bice”, Bo Bice’s new son and he started to recite the cursed numbers from Lost. I swear, Howard is the third Caricci twin and I’ve been saying that for years. (See, I love Bo Bice and I love Lost.) The other day he was surprising. He is a big Don Adams fan since childhood since his father’s recording studio is where the Tennessee Tuxedo voice work was done. He was so kind and sensitive in his tribute to the late Mr. Adams. I was listening the day Baba Booey got his name - walking down Myrtle Avenue to Woodhaven Blvd. to the J train and into Wall Street. How sick is that - it’s like the Kennedy asassination or something to me. At any rate, Howard is like an old friend to me. I love him. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729/29 "2005-09-28T16:13:23Z")
> [@sleeepy2](#): > > He is however, the best thing, by far, on the radio. This is why I switched to Sirius a few years ago. The state of commercial radio these days is really sad. I’ve loathed every syndicated morning talk show I’ve ever heard, including Howard’s, but I am pleased to see the comments in this thread that folks will be subscribing to Sirius because he’s moving his show. I hope this means their expensive gamble on him will pay off, and that Sirius will be around for a long time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howard-stern-obnoxious-ass-or-mildly-amusing/323729.md?page=1)