I’m not really a regular Stern listener. It’s not really for me, but I understand the humor.
One thing I don’t understand is why Robin Quivers is a part of this show. She’s not funny, she makes stupid jokes, she supposed to be the “straight (wo)man” to Stern but she’s not and does nothing for the shows dynamic.
Perhaps I’m missing something, since I don’t listen much, but she seems painful to listen to.
What bothers me is that Stern NEVER gives her any hell. She’s untouchable, even though Stern seems to rag on everyone on his staff and even his best guests. The way she does the news segment is just stupid. She wants people to listen to all her sound clips, but 5 seconds into the sound clips, Stern stops them then makes fun of them (or tries to), and moves on. She also makes lame remarks that are just ignored in that segment.
What’s the deal? Is it that they are friends? Do people agree at all?
I would say that it’s a matter of personal opinion. I think she fits in well in the show. She reads the news and has the most “authority” (if you can call it that) out of anyone on the show. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, she’s also the only one who had another job outside of radio (besides bit jobs), she was a nurse IIRC.
Stern may not get on her case as often as he does the others, but it does happen. She’s threatened to quit numerous times (as have they all) and I believe she’s walked off of a show or two.
If the movie “Private Parts” is to be believed at all, I think that the fact that she was the only news reporter who could put up with him was a big part of it. She laughs at his jokes, and apparently offers insight now and then.
And I have heard him rag on her, not as much as he does on others, however, and she just blows it off with an “Oh Howard”
I don’t listen much anymore, but I always considered her just ‘part of the family’. She reads the news, offers comments, is intelligent, she’s a refreshing change from the parade of idiots and whackos that populate his studio.
Oh, she gets her share of grief… think about all the jokes about her breasts, her molestation at the hands of her father, etc.
I think she used to be a more valuable member of the cast before Howard’s divorce, however. She used to provide the tension when he was doing something he shouldn’t be doing.
I think she is absolutely critical. Besides being part of the “family,” she is the smart sensible one amidst a bunch of loons. She knows alot of the type of gossip that the show feeds on and Howard once said that he couldn’t do the show without her, indicating that he knows he is making the audience laugh if he makes her laugh. She is also level-headed and likeable.
Robin is the best thing about the show. Her comments are never lame and she balances the excesses with, “Oh my goodness,” and laughs.
It is probable that she disapproves (in some sense) of a lot of what Howard comes up with but seems to take the attitude: well what are you going to do with somebody as childish and neurotic as Howard–it means nothing more than a small child spattering mud around, so why get upset. Or she doesn’t really “disapprove,” she just doesn’t care and laughs for the same reason anybody would laugh at something aggressively pathetic. The whole crew including her is hard-boiled, that is, tough and completely alien to humanity whatever that means, but very funny. Not always but usually funny. Howard is like the Andy Warhol of the Latter Days in his use of freaks and embarrassingly self-centered nobodies and no-talents, etc. His positive contribution to humanity is that if a person is or thinks he is a freak he can go ahead and act like one instead of trying to act normal and be miserable. Those odd people who are sometimes on the show, like the so-called retarded ones, seem to be having more fun than they would have sitting home as just another retarded person, for instance. One would have to be hard-boiled to “help” so called freaks in this way, but it really is a help. I wouldn’t want to have antying to do with it myself. But Possibly Howard is an Existentialist: maybe he says: if you are or think you are X, then just be it even more instead of trying to “cure” it (always excepting anything that would harm others). Didn’t Sartre encourage that one guy who was a thief to go on being a thief if that’s what he was, and write books about it–Jean Genet?
Robin Quivers is an idiot. She has NOTHING of value to say, ever. She talks too much, has no sense of comedic timing, and just generally makes the most inane comments imaginable. I also dislike her fake, snooty way of speaking. I have on more than one occasion had to turn off the radio because I was so annoyed with her. Yet Howard seems infinitely patient with her. Not only that, but in the one area where she might possibly do some good, e.g. providing a counter to Howard’s frequent racist remarks, she generally does nothing to discourage him, save the occasional “Oh, Howard (giggle)”.
I have always suspected that Howard keeps her on the show because he feels obligated to do so. From the movie, I got the impression that she had kind of stood up for him back when he was getting started in the business, and it cost her her job at one point. And in the movie, doesn’t Howard say that he’s going to make it up to her, or something to that effect? So as Harli pointed out, if the movie is to be believed, I would think even a jerk like Stern would be hard-pressed to get rid of a friend with that kind of history.
Robin is like Lisa on the Simpsons. She’s the voice of reason amongst a gang of immature, irresponsible narcissists. She’s also a women who is not the least bit phased or insulted by men acting like little boys. In fact, she knows and appreciates this behavior perfectly.
She’s also a black women who is not so pathetically thin-skinned that she can’t appreciate a good ethnic slur!!
She is not a comedian. She never was. The simple answer is to just say that she’s Howard’s straight man.
Because I consider today’s climate of militantly intolerant political correctness to be utterly unreasonable and people like Robin & Howard know this too.
It’s pretty obvious that you’re not a fan and I am, so suffice it to say that we both will probably remain so…
Fair enough. Allow me one more nitpick, though. You said Robin was the voice of reason amongst a gang of immature, irresponsible narcissists, which would imply to me that you are saying she’s the only one who is “P.C.”
It just sounds like you’re praising her both for going along with the guys on the show, and for NOT going along with the guys on the show. Well, it can’t be both.
And, there’s a whole spectrum between “militantly intolerant political correctness”, and blatant racism and sexism. If Howard were somewhere in the middle, I wouldn’t mind. Unfortunately, he’s on the extreme end.
But then, I can’t stand Howard. Even though I’d do him, just from a physical standpoint.
By the way, what’s going on with him now that he’s divorced? He used to be such a leering scumbag but it was all a put-on because he was faithful to his wife…so what’s his gig now? “Hey baby, come suck my dick and I mean it”?
I don’t see her as a voice of reason at all. In fact, she seems to have the most unintelligent and nonsensical things to say. She is not clever in the least, whether we are talking about serious statements or comical.
Of course this is all MHO. No, I’m not a fan of Stern, however I can see why people are. I didn’t say anything BAD about Stern. I see no reason to. When it comes to Robin, I don’t understand how she can have fans.
I can’t stand her. She’s not nearly as smart as she thinks she is. Nor is she anywhere near as funny as she thinks she is. She always sounds like she trying to fit in…but not quite making it.
Howard does need someone like her to help balance the show, but she just grates.
I don’t see how these people can fail to like Robin. She’s so out there with herself, so overt and outspoken but laughs even at herself as well as at everybody else. Who else do you know like that? What a relief from the usual taken for granted phoniness she is! And not self-important either. And nobody mentioned that she does a lot of work and contribution for charity, or so I heard, without talking about it. She also IS actually more intelligent than anybody else on the show. Her only fault is she seems to have the mean streak that all hard-boiled people have of being unmerciful toward weak, lame, unenergetic, or limp, irresolute people. I like to hear her on the radio, but I wouldn’t care to know her in person for that reason. I guess all celebrities have to be so hard because of their struggle for celebrityhood and being kept down and humiliated so much they have been forced out of humanity feelings to be as humiliating themselves. Perhaps only the weak or the meek can be merciful.
