Last week, I was flipping the channels and come upon, for the umpteenth time, 'Good Morning, Vietnam," the Robin Williams classic. There's a scene where his character, Adrian Cronauer, hops out of his jeep and engages the soldiers in conversation, hitting the heart of their fear and their deepest thoughts, bridging the gap between on-air theatrics and genuine empathy. It's one of the most seminal moments of the film.
It reminded me of Howard Stern.' Howard Stern, the Shock Jock?' you may utter, but that moniker no longer applies and became outdated many years ago due to the personal growth of Howard and the relaxing of taboos in society. Is Howard sophomoric? Indeed! Is he offensive and sexually charged? Of course! Is he neurotically complex and emotionally tortured? Certainly!
But that's what makes Howard, 'Howard,' and it's that depth and empathy that makes him one of the greatest communicators of our time. This is less an homage but rather a look at his impact and his ability to inflame, perplex but most importantly, connect.
Now these days, any reference to gender may get me a body check, but except for a handful of friends who love him, those who don’t, also don’t like The Three Stooges. Ask my wife. But she does love his interviews and a sense of common sense and compassion that he, himself, will tell you was an evolution.
And let’s make this political. We shake our heads at some of the comments he makes but we have a country that is embracing the most offensive beliefs that is about marginalizing race, faith, gender etc. A stupid reference to a vagina, is nothing compared to what we hear coming out of the mouths of leaders and pundits and last I checked, no one was shot with a tampon.
His Wack Pack are less misfits than they are a sampling of all of us. Boring, insightful, off-the-charts-crazy, outcasts, annoying but sometimes, inspiring. His Wack Packers is not too different from those that a frequent guest of Howard, Lady GaGa has embraced; those who feel they don’t belong. And they are in on the joke. He’s taken asocial people and made them social, in their own way. And it is probably offensive to many. I sometimes wince.
But people are stuck on what they see as poking fun or meanness when in essence, he's bridging a gap between generations, scholars, computer programmers, doctors, law enforcement, and sanitation men, to name a few, not to mention all the celebrities who have opened up and given us a glimpse into what makes them tick. For every Beetlejuice, there’s an Anderson Cooper, Hillary Clinton, Neil Young, Tom Brady, Dave Grohl etc. who has sat down and given us insights that no one else has managed to draw out in the media. And along the way, we see what makes Howard tick. And we all tick to the same clock in so many ways.
I recall a listener called in who was preparing for his bar mitzvah. Howard spoke to him as a kid going through the pains of teenhood, if he liked anyone special, asked him to recite some prayers which Howard joined in on, pulling from his tortured past. the kid was great, Howard was great and they related. In his lonely and scared moments, he is worried about his parents’ health and rapid aging but to deal with that pain, he still gives a zets. If people take the time to peel away the skin or outdated perceptions, there’s really something there.
In his own 'Private Parts' movie, scenes cut to policemen, office workers and the like, laughing like crazy when someone gets on a Sybian. For those who don't know what that is, you're not old enough to read this column.
Like Cronauer, Stern gives us the time to laugh, cover our ears in mock shame and guilt, but there are those many moments when he really hits his mark and it's at those times, he's Adrian stopping to talk to many of us, resonating, whether we agree or disagree. And we take stock of our lives. We, like Howard, challenge perceptions, we laugh when we think we shouldn't but we always learn something..about special needs, pet humanity, loss, failure, success, embarrassment, vanity and humility, and ourselves. We often think 'should we be laughing at that?' Probably not but if there ever was a melting pot of America that the Lady in the Harbor welcomed, these are his minions. I'm one of them. And I bet many of you are as well.
For those who disagree with me, I say: “change the channel, or in this case, this posting page.”
Howard would never let anyone be put on a pedestal unless he could look up their dress but I think the character Evey (Natalie Portman) in the dystopian movie "V for Vendetta" summed it up and I'm taking editorial liberties here: "He was Howard Stern (not Edmund Dantes.) And he was my hard-of-hearing father, and my annoying mother, my gay brother, my idiot friend, Ass Napkin Ed, Lenny Bruce. He was you, and me. He was all of us.”
And Howard would probably reply: "Hey now!"
I have been a fan of Howard since DC101 when I was in High School in Baltimore. Good article Barry. I hope you are well!
Howard has changed but so have we all. I always appreciated the fact that underneath his humor there was something to think about. “ You had to be there “ hits home with me.