Steve Allen blasted Howard Stern in an interview for NPR only hours before he died:
“All he does is talk dirty, like some emotionally disturbed 14-year-old…”
See this NY Daily News story.
Bravo Steverino!
potty-mouth???
now that’s funny! :rolleyes:
How excellent and how fitting! Steve Allen was a genuinely learned, witty, civilized man. He knew literature, history, music; the whole shebang.
Odd how threads blend…I’m rethinking Pinky’s position on insults. Steve Allen never needed to use crass putdowns and would have disdained them.
Know what’s sad? I can’t think of anyone comparable to him today. (And hey, I still think Richard Pryor was hilarious and just as pointed in his own fashion.) But the shock personalities are proliferating like weeds while the genuine wits are nearly extinct.
Sigh.
Veb
Well, that’s why you come here, Veb.
I agree, Steve Allen was a national treasure, if an under-appreciated one in recent years. (I would say that in the last few years he did get a bit strident in his contempt for the likes of Stern, but he had paid his dues and if you can’t be cranky in your old age, when are you going to do it? Notice that he regarded Lenny Bruce highly, even bringing Lenny onto his show.)
They play howards morning show on a station here in vegas. When I first got here I gave it… and I am not kidding a solid 3 or 4 months try. I thought I am smack dab in the middle of this mans demographic and he should be right up my alley. However every morning was mixed with a few chuckles but MOSTLY idiocy. I felt embarrased for Howard and the people that laughed along with him, it is the most asinine drivel I have ever heard. Making fun of the poor, homeless and mentally impared every morning just turned my stomach as well as turning me against this fool.
Remember, this comes from Whammo. King of SDMB idiocy, but even Howard makes me sick.
The day after Steve died I happened to change the radio to that station trying to find music instead of commercials and howard was DOGGING on Steve and saying what a big of fool he was. Big man attacking a dead man. I turned immediatly.
Thanks, tomndebb for reminding me and putting it so much better…
Damnit, Steve Allen wasn’t a fool or a naif. Thought I’d remembered him championing Lenny Bruce but wasn’t sure enough to mention it.
There’s a difference, damnit, between using humor to push the edges and grossness to feed the lowest common denominator. Steve Allen knew the difference: he recognized shock-art when it was art, even it wasn’t his style. And he championed it when it wasn’t popular.
He deserves a helluva lot more–for discrimination, depth and actual bravery–than casual indifference broken only by cheap-shot opportunism.
Sorry, bereaved moment here.
Instead of “Meeting of The Minds”, what’s Stern going to offer in comparison?
Veb
Stern has Naked breasts and genitals visible ONLY through RADIO of all things… and THATS at his classiest. Oh, PLUS his rapier wit consisting of making fun of alcoholic dwarfs.
I’ve remembered another Steve Allen moment. Some time ago he was on “Politically Incorrect.” The subject must have been “New Age” beliefs. Bill Maher said something like “I believe in channelling. I believe in astrology. Does that make me stupid?” Allen replied, “Yes!”
One of his finest moments, I think.