Private Parts (1997)

Matt (00:00:21):

Hello, this is Load Bearing Beams for you. My name’s Matt Stokes. This is for you.

Laci (00:00:28):

For me?? And this is Laci Roth.

Matt (00:00:30):

We are talking about the movie Private Parts. I labeled a lot of things on my computer, private parts in the lead up to this, and I’m like, I don’t want anyone to see that and be like, why does he have a folder called Private Parts?

Laci (00:00:41):

It’s private. It’s none of their business.

Matt (00:00:44):

So which one of us picked this movie?

Laci (00:00:47):

I did.

Matt (00:00:48):

Why?

Laci (00:00:49):

Well, let me tell you. Well, it has a lot of the stuff I like, which is we go back in the way back machine. It’s got childhood stuff. It’s got great narration. I think I like the narrating. It demystifies a figure in, I would’ve just been starting to get into Marilyn Manson maybe, and I’d say Howard Stern is the Marilyn Manson

Matt (00:01:21):

Audio. How old are we talking?

Laci (00:01:25):

I would’ve turned 13 that summer that I started listening.

Matt (00:01:29):

This is 1997 then, which is when this movie came out 1997.

Laci (00:01:34):

Right.

Matt (00:01:34):

Do you remember seeing it? Did you see it in theaters? Did you

Laci (00:01:37):

No, I would’ve been in Bush, Louisiana. So

Matt (00:01:40):

Boy,

Laci (00:01:41):

Number one, there’s not a theater

Matt (00:01:42):

Number. That is a bleak sentence.

Laci (00:01:44):

It’s bad. Number two, my stepfather at the time, stepfather number three, did not let me watch The Simpsons. So there’s no way I would’ve been able to watch this, and that might be why I started to listen to Howard Stern because he couldn’t see what I was listening to. Maybe I don’t remember the origin or when it started. I just remember I failed science because of it,

Matt (00:02:10):

Because of the movie, because of listening to the

Laci (00:02:12):

Show. The show. The show. Sorry. Right. I’m all over the place as

Matt (00:02:15):

Usual. So you were a fan. You were fan of the radio show.

Laci (00:02:19):

Yeah, I found him laugh out loud, funny.

Matt (00:02:22):

Did you know anyone else who was?

Laci (00:02:24):

No, I felt very, it was like the most grown up thing I’d ever done. It felt very high highbrow.

Matt (00:02:32):

Do you remember how long you listened? Did you stop at a certain point at a certain age?

Laci (00:02:35):

God, I’m sure I got just a different routine or I needed to stop failing subjects because he syndicated. And so there was a class that I just knew I could get away with wearing headphones under a hoodie, and that’s how I listened in biology. It was a science. It wasn’t an easy one. It was one with lots of words in math or something, and I was like, Nope, that’s not for me.

Matt (00:02:58):

Well, was Bush, Louisiana, so it must have been intelligent design. Okay.

Laci (00:03:01):

No, no. This is the following year. The movie came out when I was in Bush, Louisiana. But me having a schedule where I really remember sitting and listening to it every single day, that was the following year in eighth grade when I came back to Jefferson, Louisiana, came back to normal area and resumed

Matt (00:03:29):

Two or more populated

Laci (00:03:30):

A more populated

Matt (00:03:31):

To the New Orleans area.

Laci (00:03:35):

That marriage failed

Matt (00:03:36):

Out of farm

Laci (00:03:36):

Like it do, and I was starting to become a bad girl. So this fit with my thing, listening to bad stuff, but I don’t remember thinking he was bad. Think that’s what I liked about him is that he’s also sweet and maybe misunderstood, but the movie honestly

Matt (00:03:59):

Could have. He has some thoughts on that in this movie. So yeah, because when you’ve talked propaganda, when you’ve talked about you loved Marilyn Manson, but you would pray for his soul,

Laci (00:04:08):

I pray, right? I was like, I’ll pray deep down. I’m sure he’s just the sweetest man. It turns out he was not.

Matt (00:04:15):

But that wasn’t how you felt about Howard. You felt Howard. He’s saying bad words. He’s talking about naughty stuff, but he seems like a

Laci (00:04:22):

Good

Matt (00:04:22):

Man.

Laci (00:04:23):

Good. No, I would never say good man. Thank you. I felt like he was a taboo guy that if people weren’t so prudish or if they could get past that, he says crude things, that they’d see that. But he’s intelligent and interesting and nice, and I liked that you could say the wrong thing and still be good at what you do and even be good because of it. I felt all the time that I said the not appropriate thing, but it was funny, right? I was becoming very funny, but the listeners don’t know that, but more and more I was realizing that I liked off color.

Matt (00:05:13):

You do kind of have a shock jock,

Laci (00:05:16):

Sense

Matt (00:05:16):

Of humor.

Laci (00:05:17):

Yep.

Matt (00:05:19):

Any family dinner with you will attest to that doing sound effects and ask appropriate questions.

Laci (00:05:27):

Oh, you

Matt (00:05:29):

Paint, but it’s charming

Laci (00:05:30):

Way. Oh, good.

Matt (00:05:31):

Yes.

Laci (00:05:32):

Just out of left field with Laci Roth. That’s the name of my show.

Matt (00:05:37):

But do you have memories of, did you just like the movie because it was a Howard Stern movie?

Laci (00:05:43):

No, and I think honestly, the movie probably is what made me like Howard Stern even more or understand that he’s a person. Disembodied voices were always, so it is before the internet, so you weren’t Googling the people you listen to. You just made up in your mind what they looked like. And I don’t know, just disc jockeys in general. Were an enigma, but I also remember wanting to be on the radio and my dad always telling me I had a face for radio, hilarious

Matt (00:06:12):

Jesus.

Laci (00:06:13):

And I would record fake radio shows with my cousins and by myself. They are not listenable and I hope they don’t exist anymore. But I loved to be able to do things with my voice and it didn’t matter what I looked like.

Matt (00:06:32):

Do you remember what you would talk about on these fake radio shows?

Laci (00:06:36):

Farting or no fake interviews, A lot of fake commercials. Product placement, product stuff. Mainly developing characters, figuring out voices and how to make mine sound different. I never did my voice. I think a lot of people feel that way about my voice, about their voice. I was very drawn to hard stern because he’s not much to look at and he has a big nose and I was nothing if I wasn’t a walking nose at that time. And I liked that it didn’t matter. He was cool anyway, and it seemed like good looking people found him attractive. Anyway, it was inspirational.

Matt (00:07:22):

And I find Howard Stern sexy thing is a big, seems like it’s a big part of his appeal, or at least a lot of really attractive women are saying that in the movie and in just things I’ve read, I don’t know. I just, he’s so sexy. What is it about him? Is it confidence?

Laci (00:07:39):

It’s the vulnerability. And I don’t find him confident. I find him unfiltered and honest and you know what you’re going to get with him and unapologetic and I guess that’s the kind of confidence, but it’s more

Matt (00:07:58):

Well and not

Laci (00:07:58):

I am who I am and he doesn’t change.

Matt (00:08:01):

That’s what I mean. Yes, outspoken and not

Laci (00:08:04):

Outspoken,

Matt (00:08:05):

Not worried about how this is going to come across.

Laci (00:08:09):

He was the opposite of me, which I was constantly worried about getting in trouble and I just knew he wasn’t worried about that. He wanted to be trouble,

Matt (00:08:17):

Which is what this movie’s about, I guess.

Laci (00:08:20):

Yeah, about breaking how you can still get advertising dollars while being trouble pushing

Matt (00:08:26):

Boundaries. I can’t believe it’s hard to imagine this being on regular radio

Laci (00:08:33):

Even now. And I am not a big radio stand, so I don’t know a lot of other personalities.

Matt (00:08:40):

It couldn’t be on. I mean, a woman couldn’t orgasm on actual FM radio today, I don’t think

Laci (00:08:47):

Have to be fuck me radio. Okay, but don’t you think he’s Donald Trump in a way that it seems like it was a template for things that were going to keep coming, people like him, but there’s still not been anyone to walk the line of just

Matt (00:09:07):

Crazy

Laci (00:09:07):

Enough, just weird enough. Well, like Donald Trump, he just so had no right being no business, no business running the business of the country, but he had this gravitas and he was magnetic and he made headlines and that people are just like, well, now it’s just going to be people wanting to grab headlines and do whatever they want to do and say whatever they’re going to say. There’s no limits. And it’s like, no, that’s not, it’s so much more complicated than that. There is a fine line in a whole persona he crafted that made it to where he could have that other side to him. He’s rich and he’s got all this stuff and he’s powerful and he’s a smart businessman. All lies. But that’s what you thought. So then you get to do the other part.

Matt (00:09:57):

Well, we both read the Vince McMahon biography that came out recently.

Laci (00:10:02):

I didn’t finish it

Matt (00:10:03):

Yet by Josie Riesman, where the author postulates that Vince McMahon is still to this day, able to get away with what he gets away with by playing the character of Vince McMahon. And now you can see that in Donald Trump, and you can see

Speaker 3 (00:10:18):

This in Har.

Matt (00:10:18):

Yeah, kind of the same way. It’s like, well, that’s just Howard. That’s just what he does. This is a character that he’s playing.

Laci (00:10:24):

Even

Matt (00:10:24):

If he never actually stops playing the character.

Laci (00:10:26):

Huh. That’s very obvious now that you say that. And that’s not why I was specifically why I thought, I guess I just thought there was enough. They know their brand and as long as the wrong stuff they’re doing is completely on their brand that they can just keep doing it. And that part of their brand is that. On the other side of it, they’re known for doing something really hard and being really special at something. So Vince McMahon just completely monopolizing and uniting the wrestling. So it became one big glob and a really profitable thing and just running a huge industry and business. And then Donald Trump, same thing. And Howard Stern, if you don’t need to know anything about him to know that he’s really good at radio, you

Matt (00:11:24):

By projecting Howard’s sternness out there, it can excuse any bad thing. It’s just being, that’s part of the bit and he’s going to make mistakes. And so reading about him today, and this is like surely there had to have been a me too thing or something with

Laci (00:11:42):

Him. That’s what I said. I can’t believe there,

Matt (00:11:44):

But there’s stuff like old sketches of him wearing black face and saying the N word came out. And the way he apologizes it for in the present, or at least in 2019 or 2020 I believe when this particular thing cropped up is he said, I was a fucking idiot. I didn’t know what I was doing. Totally, totally wrong what I did and

Laci (00:12:07):

Just full,

Matt (00:12:08):

It does seem to ruin other people if something like that happens. But because of who he is and by just, I think dealing with it that way, you kind of can forgive it or look past it for some people,

Laci (00:12:23):

Right? No caveats, no reasons why it was a different time. All of that is implied and it’s just like you guys know what it’s like to be young and to really dumb things come out of your mouth, especially when you’re a volume shooter, which I

Matt (00:12:39):

Am. Yeah, no, you’re just not understanding

Laci (00:12:42):

The context.

Matt (00:12:43):

Although the thesis statement of this movie seems to be, people misunderstand everything I say and do.

Laci (00:12:52):

It seemed kind of, what is the word I’m looking for? Kind of coming from a bad place for him to set it up like that because it doesn’t seem to be like the narrative doesn’t wrap around. He starts off with saying how misunderstood he is and he finishes saying it, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason for it. So that’s why it definitely seemed like he’s just laying the foundation for further mistakes. See, they don’t get it. And I think that’s a cop out. That’s boring. So that did bother me watching it this time.

Matt (00:13:23):

Well, that’s what I think the most interesting thing about this movie, which was, I’ll talk about the people who made it in a second, but this movie was very much, Howard Stern is the lead actor playing himself. This is a movie based on his book,

Speaker 3 (00:13:38):

And

Matt (00:13:39):

He had script approval. He’s very much the creative force of this movie, and this is the specific way he chose to tell his story. And this is the specific parts of his life he chose to put on screen.

Laci (00:13:50):

And in fact, it took years to even agree on a script because he was so specific. People kept writing it to wacky.

Matt (00:14:03):

The revealing things are things that seem like you’re trying to present yourself in a certain way and are actually doing something different and it’s presenting unintentional stuff about

Laci (00:14:15):

You. That’s kind of the interesting

Matt (00:14:16):

Thing, showing

Laci (00:14:17):

You’re showing us your insecurities rather than, I mean, you’re showing us what you want and that says a lot too.

Matt (00:14:23):

Yes. And it seems like reading about, oh, I should say I’m total Howard Stern newcomer. I’ve never listened to him. I don’t know pretty much anything about him up until the research the past few days, I’d never seen this movie. Yeah, I really knew nothing about it.

Laci (00:14:42):

And there was a certain point he started being on TV with his radio show. Do you know when that happened and what station that was? I

Matt (00:14:50):

Don’t remember when it happened, but it was on EE.

Laci (00:14:53):

Okay. And I watched it a lot then. So there’s huge gaps for me when I started in eighth grade listening to it habitually. And then I don’t know when I stopped, but I definitely wasn’t listening to the radio at the appropriate time to be. I didn’t have a job or anything. I was at school. So once it started being on E, that’s when I picked it up again. And that’s when it became a whole visual experience in a way.

Matt (00:15:17):

I could be wrong. I think at least one broadcast was played at night.

Laci (00:15:23):

I’ve that radio at night. Yeah, no, I would’ve picked up on you.

Matt (00:15:27):

I’m saying because I remember seeing it. I remember flipping on the channels and seeing a person who I knew, I learned, this is Howard Stern, this is what Howard Stern looks like. While not being aware of what a radio simulcast on TV is, I remember thinking, doesn’t he have a radio show wise? He on tv? And then I think I remember women Naked with Pixelated Out.

Laci (00:15:47):

Yeah, well, and him using people with disabilities and stuff as being recurring characters. And that was hard to watch watching the movie, how much he relied on. Haha, isn’t that funny? Because that person’s different. Yeah. Yeah. That was hard to watch.

Matt (00:16:05):

That is.

Laci (00:16:06):

And their are recurring characters. Beetlejuice is one. Did you Google him?

Matt (00:16:10):

No.

Laci (00:16:12):

He has that birth condition where your head doesn’t grow in a circus. You would’ve called a pinhead. I don’t know what it’s actually called, but it wasn’t like he had beetle juice on all the time. He was so brilliant.

Matt (00:16:28):

Well, tell me this, because I am not familiar with the show. My sense is that the people were in on the joke or were laughing at themselves too, he wasn’t getting over on people or playing a joke on them by exposing them.

Laci (00:16:42):

No, I mean, well, to the extent that they could consent, that’s what they were doing. And it did make them famous in a way. And I mean, I am sure they would’ve stopped if they were more downside, but it does feel like taken advantage of someone who’s maybe mentally too young to really be making that decision for themselves, even if they’re legally over at the age. And of course you think back, for instance, each scene in between, each jump in time that they do in the movie, they bring in some kind of person, usually someone attractive to be like, this is Howard when he goes to Boston. Or the Cuts, I dunno what you call that. And there’s one where there’s a husband trying to convince his naked wife to get out the car. He drove all the way to do this from Jersey, all the way from Jersey, and you’re going to get out and you’re going to do this. And it’s like, that’s a great example of, I’m sure the women on his show consented and was they got up and decided to get naked and whatever. But it’s like, that is a great example of did they, I mean, just the pressure

(00:17:54):

From whoever

Matt (00:17:56):

And examining that specific scene, trying to figure out, are these supposed to be legitimate footage, like real people that he shot for the movie, or are they recreating something? Is this an actor pretending to be a woman who doesn’t want to get out of the car and be naked? Or is this actually a woman who consented to being naked and then decided she didn’t want to?

Laci (00:18:16):

I’m not sure. And I don’t know that it matters because the sampling, the people he chose to do it, people who were transgender, female, bodybuilder a, that person that he had though the one that probably had autism that couldn’t say the thing he needed him to say that is a recurring person on his radio show. I remember him. I don’t remember his name though. He did definitely take a, if you think of it as a freak show or a carnival, his recipe of what makes for his staples that well, if alls fail, so bring on someone like this to my show if I don’t have anyone famous to bring one or whatever. Anyway, that was the selection process. But yeah, it’s hard to know if that was staged or if that was really him picking one of each and that was some real stuff. But yeah, it’s always about trying to get someone naked, having on a porn star, having on someone that sounds funny and some people from, what would you call that? The fringes, taboo lifestyle people.

Matt (00:19:28):

The defense I’ve, I mean, seen raised by trans fans and queer fans of Howard and of Howard and from Howard himself seemed to be like, even though he had made fun and was homophobic, made transphobic jokes, he also gave visibility and they brought them in and they got to be in on the joke too, maybe in a way, in a time when no one else was talking about this kind of stuff.

Laci (00:19:55):

I can’t disagree with it. And that’s what I meant to say is that at some point I completely stopped. I mean, I became a teenager with a social life and stopped watching engaging with this old Yeah, that’s right. So I have a decades long hole in my, I don’t know what Howard Stern’s been up to. I just knew he still exists.

Matt (00:20:16):

Yeah. Alright. This movie was directed by Betty Thomas. Betty Thomas is a very good director, and at one point was the highest grossing woman director ever, but she directed Can’t Hardly Wait, and the Brady Bunch movie. And

Laci (00:20:34):

Another I like

Matt (00:20:35):

Giant movie, or sorry, she produced Can Harley Wade, but she directed Dr. Doolittle, which is an enormous movie. And the Brady Bunch movie, or at least The Brady Very Brady Sequel might be a movie we cover on the show for me.

Laci (00:20:47):

Yeah, I know it by heart.

Matt (00:20:48):

Oh, really? All right. Maybe so. Yeah, she was

Laci (00:20:53):

Hired 28 days. That’s a random one in the middle of that little grouping.

Matt (00:20:57):

28 days.

Laci (00:20:58):

Oh, no, no.

Matt (00:20:59):

Classic joke.

Laci (00:21:00):

No, that’s another one that I really like. That’s what Sandra Bullock,

Matt (00:21:03):

That’s the joke from the office is Pam Rents 28 days later thinking it’s 28 days. It’s like I just kept waiting for Sandra Bullock

Laci (00:21:09):

To shut off. Oh, okay. Well, that’s what I thought. Yeah, it is what I thought it was 28 days later. But no, it’s a movie I’ve seen many times.

Matt (00:21:16):

And then so Betty Thomas also directed this movie for HBO, the late shift story of the David Letterman v Jay Leno War for Late Night in the early nineties, which I watched that movie a few years ago. It was pretty similar to Mean, similar vibes to this. And she listened a little bit to Howard Stern, but said she didn’t really like him in large doses. And the producer of the

Laci (00:21:44):

Movie listening, or the person

Matt (00:21:46):

Listening before she met him, the producer of the movie, Ivan Wrightman, the director of Ghostbusters and just big powerful producer and director in Hollywood, kind of made this movie happen after it was in development. Hell, for a long time. He thought that hiring somebody, one, hiring a woman and hiring a non-fan to make the movie is going to make the movie better because they’re not going to be in awe, and they’re going to be able to have more of a sort of neutral perspective on this material.

Laci (00:22:16):

That makes sense, because that, it does seem like why Howard kept rejecting scripts is they all were so over the top, I guess, written by people who thought they knew him. And maybe he is a much more tempered person than you might. I mean, he’s just a person. He can’t always be anything.

Matt (00:22:33):

And he has the scene in the movie where he, he’s in film school and he’s making his weird little experimental film.

Speaker 3 (00:22:41):

He enters me

Matt (00:22:42):

And I mean, this movie’s trying to be Annie Hall, it’s obviously in structure with the voiceover, the talking to the camera, with the interviews with the parents,

Laci (00:22:52):

The

Matt (00:22:52):

Jumping around time, and the screenwriter of the movie said that when he said, I see this movie as being Annie Hall for the nineties, he said, that’s when Howard decided you’re hired. Because that’s what he wants too,

Laci (00:23:05):

To be creepy.

Matt (00:23:06):

To be, I was going to say, the things that creep you out about Woody Allen don’t creep you out about Howard Stern, like the really, really close talking.

Laci (00:23:12):

Yeah, of course they do. Constant

Matt (00:23:14):

Talking about sex.

Laci (00:23:15):

The whispered talking the little sweetie that he becomes when he’s feeling it. Yeah, yeah, he definitely has those vibes. I’m much more confident talking on the radio powered. I in no way want to kiss that person.

Matt (00:23:31):

Gotcha. So you’re not, you don’t find him sexy.

Laci (00:23:33):

No, I see too much of myself in him. I don’t know his look, I dunno, he

Matt (00:23:41):

Looks too much like me.

Laci (00:23:42):

He looked like me when I was in high school. No eyebrows, big nose, dark hair,

Matt (00:23:49):

Original screenwriter of the film. Michael Aniko, who was fired before, was produced but wrote many different drafts. And I’m spotlighting these writers, including the eventual co-writer, Len Bloom, because people write movies and we stand with the WGA. I want writers to be paid adequately, and I don’t want the creative arts industry to just be populated by people who have really, really rich parents so they can afford to not get paid to do stuff.

Laci (00:24:21):

Cosign,

Matt (00:24:21):

Creative stuff. Yes. Thank you.

Laci (00:24:23):

You’re welcome. I fully support What do you fully support?

Matt (00:24:26):

Thank you. They’ll be so glad to hear it.

Laci (00:24:28):

Is that that is Gunner, that is the dog who needs to be let in or he’ll die me. This is bullshit.

Matt (00:24:37):

So the movie starts with Howard Stern descending onto the MTV Movie awards, I believe, presented by John Stamos,

Laci (00:24:46):

Who looked great legit snack. He’s

Matt (00:24:48):

Playing the character of Fart Man. I don’t know, is this a thing from the show

Laci (00:24:53):

That definitely happened? Oh, I don’t know. I know that it happened on the VMAs. I know. I watched when it did.

Matt (00:24:59):

Fart Man has a page on Wikipedia. So first appeared in 1979. Okay, well then we get his voiceover and he starts walking behind in the backstage area among the other celebrities, and Ozzy Osborne is there, and he’s saying, I don’t fit in at all with these people.

Laci (00:25:20):

It seems like he would’ve interviewed several of those people. But yeah,

Matt (00:25:24):

That’s another thing is this is the very beginning of the movie and it’s like, I just don’t fit in this showbiz world. But then

Laci (00:25:31):

That’s all he is. What else is he?

Matt (00:25:34):

Yeah, I don’t see the rest of the movie showing how he doesn’t fit. He seems to fit in fine.

Laci (00:25:39):

It definitely just, well, they don’t spend a lot of, they spend hardly any time in the current, but I guess it’s supposed to be like, this is just his psyche. This is how he frames things in the world,

Matt (00:25:53):

Feels like an imposter,

Laci (00:25:55):

Feels misunderstood, feels not given enough credit, which makes sense when you understand what his dad was like, which is just a person that he could have never pleased, who always called him an idiot who didn’t.

Matt (00:26:12):

And then we can get to that, to his parents.

Laci (00:26:15):

Great.

Matt (00:26:16):

Then the wraparound story for this movie is he meets a sexy lady on an airplane and he gets really close to her face.

Laci (00:26:23):

You know what, wait, I just realized it. That’s the message of the wraparound story is like to know me is to love me. That’s it. This whole message to everyone. You might think you don’t like me and you might not get me, but if you sat next to me for a couple of hours, you’d be schmit.

Matt (00:26:40):

Well, he says at the end of the movie, I grow on You a fungus.

Laci (00:26:44):

And I just realized that is the message of the fucking movie like me. Because you would in a minute, just go ahead and skip to that part where you like me,

Matt (00:26:53):

I guess.

Laci (00:26:54):

No, I know.

Matt (00:26:56):

Well, he is talking to this sexy lady who doesn’t want to be seated next to him, but she has to. And then he’s like, I know you think you don’t like me, but let me tell you. And then he tells the story of the movie. It’s very strange. So presumably this is the present tense, which means 1996 or seven, then we flash back to him as a kid. And this is the really Annie Hall portion of the movie is him growing up and his parents and how colorful this world, Roosevelt, New York, it’s on Long Island. And his dad works in radio as some sort of suit, not an on air talent, but that’s where his dad is, not his dad is not on air.

Laci (00:27:38):

Dad’s an engineer.

(00:27:40):

But I did read something interesting about that scene. That scene is supposedly what makes him want to become a radio personality because he tells Symphony Sid, who is the on air voice, who he being Howard’s dad Symphony said, is having a fit and breaking records and doesn’t want to go on the air and he’s causing a ruckus. And then Howard Stern’s dad stands up in his booth and out of nowhere says I by the power invested in me. He says, some stupid stuff makes Symphony Sid calm down and he makes Symphony Sid like, holy crap, this guy. And then Howard’s dad took charge in that moment. And then Howard’s like from then on, I wanted to be on radio, which does not make sense if you think about it free for one second. And then you read about that actual situation, and it’s the reverse. It is because of how deferential his dad was to the talent that made him want to be the talent because he thought, well then finally my dad will look at me, respect me, understand what I’m doing, and have an instant respect for it because that’s who he respects already.

Matt (00:28:54):

That makes way more sense.

Laci (00:28:56):

Way more sense.

Matt (00:28:58):

One of the elements that Recurs is him clashing with the business people in radio again and the bad stretch where he has to himself become one of the business people. So it is weird that the thing that inspires him is his dad yelling at the guy and then the guy deferring to him.

Laci (00:29:17):

And I think that was just a mistake in the way that the movie was cut, or it might’ve, I think at that time in the nineties and Howard Stern’s dad still being alive and his mom, he probably was trying to send a bit of a message to his dad in addition to, Hey, I’m successful. And that’s why he put all the, you’re an idiot. You’re moron. You shut up. At least trying to show his dad, look, this is how I felt as a kid. This is what you were like to me. But he probably didn’t want to be so heavy handed and make any kind of a fool of the dad at all, which he doesn’t, that he would show that on the movie. I think he even said, we listened to a Mark Marin interview from February of this year with Howard Stern, and he even says in that interview when they’re talking about their dad’s, how jealousy is of Mark Marin because Mark Marin stood up to his narcissistic disapproving father. And Howard Stern could just never have imagined he wanted so badly for his dad to love him and like him.

Matt (00:30:28):

So the movie itself is an act of trying to please and yeah, to be a absurdist

Laci (00:30:33):

Saying enough that, see Daddy, you made me sad and not at all hurting his ego in any way because that would’ve made him feel so much shame and fear that his dad might.

Matt (00:30:45):

Yeah. So this inspires his love of radio and his parents. When the actor is finally played by Howard, right, once Howard, the real Howard Stern takes over and the role of Howard Stern and they ask him what he wants to do with his life and he says he wants to be

Laci (00:31:01):

On the radio. No, that’s not the real Howard in that scene. At that scene. It’s not until he gets to college.

Matt (00:31:05):

Okay, well, they ask him what he wants to do. He says, I want to be on radio. And his dad’s like Radio, I don’t know about that.

Laci (00:31:10):

You hardly ever say a word.

Matt (00:31:12):

And he’s like, but I really want it. And his dad’s like, well, in that case, the best school in the world for radio is Boston University.

Laci (00:31:19):

It’s not what he says,

Matt (00:31:19):

And we’re going to send you there, son.

Laci (00:31:21):

It’s not what he said. He says, well, in that case, I heard of an opportunity to do that at Boston. That’s it. He just happened to hear something.

Matt (00:31:27):

Let’s pull it up.

Laci (00:31:28):

And his dad, it was in the military and ran a military radio show or that’s where his dad got, because his dad doesn’t seem like he has a love of the creative arts. It just makes sense that he was in whatever kind of radio program they had. Because in the military, that’s what he did.

Matt (00:31:49):

Beginning of clip

Speaker 4 (00:31:50):

Howard, you’re graduating from high school this year. You should be making some kind of plan for your future.

Laci (00:31:56):

You need a plan.

Speaker 4 (00:31:57):

I want to be on the radio.

Laci (00:31:59):

He wants to be on radio.

Speaker 4 (00:32:01):

But to be on the radio, you have to have a voice. You have to have some verbal ability. You hardly ever say a word

Speaker 5 (00:32:07):

This all from a guy who’s only told me to shut up about 50,000 times I talk.

Speaker 4 (00:32:14):

You really want to be on the radio. Okay. If you want a shot at radio, the counseling center says there’s a communications program at Boston University.

Laci (00:32:28):

See?

Matt (00:32:29):

And then they send him there. Very supportive.

Laci (00:32:31):

Oh, Jesus Christ. That’s how low your fucking bar is. He is like, I want to follow in your footsteps, Papa. And so the dad’s like, hell yeah, you do.

Matt (00:32:40):

And I have arranged for you to be able to do it, son.

Laci (00:32:43):

Okay. I mean, yeah,

Matt (00:32:43):

Proud of you boy.

Laci (00:32:44):

Right? He doesn’t say proud and you never

Matt (00:32:46):

No, I know. No, you’re right. He never

Laci (00:32:47):

Says one sweet thing. But I mean, yeah, to get him that opportunity,

Matt (00:32:52):

You’re right. I read this scene at first as being his dad. His parents are supportive even if they’re like, I don’t get this guy, but hey, they still pay for him. But yeah,

Laci (00:33:02):

They’re aff fluent.

Matt (00:33:02):

I do read it kind of differently after

Laci (00:33:05):

Again, did it do it again? They’re affluent.

Matt (00:33:06):

He did well enough. Ooh,

Laci (00:33:08):

That’s all right.

Matt (00:33:09):

Well, what happens next? He goes to college and he’s creepy and

Laci (00:33:12):

He’s asking, he’s a volume shooter. He addresses his need for sex, but he never outright says, I have a sex addiction. And I don’t know if he does or not. Is that just his? Does he just need love? So that’s why the opening scene is him asking woman after woman, just if I ask enough people out, someone will say yes. So is that for companionship? Because later in the movie he talks about how he wants sex all the time, but Allison doesn’t, I don’t remember it ever being something that he talked about on the show about having a sex addiction. It seems almost like a love addiction.

Matt (00:33:51):

I was wondering that myself, an

Laci (00:33:52):

Approval,

Matt (00:33:55):

But also the way he talks about it is kind of in a way that’s divorced from actual sexuality. So I suspect it is sort of just attention and approval because I don’t know real people who are horny don’t talk like this.

Laci (00:34:11):

Yeah, don’t.

Matt (00:34:12):

I’m just so horny. Oh, my girl.

Laci (00:34:14):

Right? It’s almost like he’s putting on a persona. It’s something to disguise that it’s actually an intense need for approval and attention. Which again, in the Mark Marin episode, he dresses that too, saying, I just wanted all of it. I wanted everyone

Matt (00:34:32):

To keep the attention. It gets your attention right away. It also makes you prone to just opening up because he just went ahead and said that. And the first time he meets Robin in the movie, he asks her, do women ever get horny? Do you ever get horny? And she just goes right along with it because I don’t know, he’s playful and he’s saying these super revealing things and you want to go along with it.

Laci (00:34:54):

You

Matt (00:34:54):

Don’t want to embarrass the man.

Laci (00:34:58):

No, you’re right. He’s instantly vulnerable. He’s already given away something huge about himself and he seems earnest. He really is curious. Teach me. I want to know about your ways woman. Did you know he dated Robin Quivers?

Matt (00:35:10):

I read that.

Laci (00:35:12):

That’s crazy to me.

Matt (00:35:15):

I mean the absolute best thing about this movie, and this is a good movie. You thought so, right?

Laci (00:35:20):

I did.

Matt (00:35:21):

I liked it. And we watched it twice the second time. I liked it even more. But the best things are just these filmed radio bits, and especially Howard and Robin have this incredible chemistry

Laci (00:35:33):

They do. And she’s got a magical voice.

Matt (00:35:36):

Yeah,

Laci (00:35:37):

God does.

Matt (00:35:38):

So I mean, they’re both great at playing themselves and make these radio bits very cinematic. That stuff is great. So he goes to college, he gets a job at college dj, but he’s doing it, but he’s not doing a great job of it and weird things. He’s dropping stuff on the record players and stuff.

Laci (00:35:58):

There’s only one clip of that, and it’s just a horrendous first start, I guess. Or to say, I was just a mess. And now look at me. He had to start from the lowest of the low.

Matt (00:36:10):

I thought that there would be more of a straightforward, here’s how I found my voice. It is kind of there, but you have to look for it. He’s just sort of trying to be typical dj. Oh, sorry, here’s a question. When you listened to him in the nineties, he did not play music. It was a purely talk show.

Laci (00:36:32):

Purely talk. This

Matt (00:36:33):

Is after therapy. But at these points of the seventies, I guess he’s still a traditional guy who talks and then introduces,

Laci (00:36:39):

That’s all he was. He wasn’t a personality and in the way that Stevie G and Teapot on our fricking 97 whatever, exactly who, but these are just on air personalities who are just there to talk in between songs and to give you a little information every now and then. But the more they started developing their own personality and then they started having a relationship with each other, that room for them to talk grew and grew and became more of a show with music around it rather than they are someone to introduce the new music in between

Speaker 3 (00:37:13):

More

Laci (00:37:14):

Music. So I’m sure his slowly, the music just kept getting less and less. All that mattered was that rating stayed up. And I think he probably just made it into whatever he wanted

Matt (00:37:26):

In the way. This is the birth of podcasts.

Laci (00:37:29):

Oh,

Matt (00:37:30):

Well, it’s mean. Why do people like podcasts? I can listen in my ears on demand and I feel like I know these people and you listen enough and it’s like, I don’t even, I like you guys more than I like the subject matter you’re covering. I find you guys interesting. I want to listen to you

Laci (00:37:45):

And

Matt (00:37:46):

Feel like you’re my friends. So this is also when he meets Allison, who’s played by Mary McCormick, very charming in this film, and she’s bemused by him.

Laci (00:38:01):

I felt it all three. I mean the two times we watched it this time, and I remember distinctly having this feeling of that is Howard Stern, that is really him. That is an actress that is not actually his wife. They’re being so intimate whenever he’s throwing up. He fired someone when he was forced to be manager of a radio station instead of being the on on-air personality. And he’s vomiting and she’s so sweet. And then the next scene is him laying on her lap inches from her face, her stroking his hair and him asking, would you still love me if I wasn’t? And it’s like, you just threw up. You’re two inches from this actresses. How disgusting is this for this actress? That’s how a pole.

Matt (00:38:49):

Oh, but it seems like it was an effective performance. I thought you were going to say the opposite of this is a real person and she just looks too much like an actress. I find that happens sometimes when people can just look too actorly too. Not even pretty, but polished. Just look polished. You’re saying words in a way that only actors say them, whereas he is not. He’s just being

Laci (00:39:12):

Himself. Right? He’s off the cuff. Yeah. I mean, yeah, that’s how I know I had no crush on Howard Stern’s like, oh, then she’s got a kiss

Matt (00:39:23):

Sick. She is starting her career and is supporting him, and he gets a job. He gets offered a position of program director for a radio station, which means he’s not going to be on air anymore. He has to be people’s bosses, and he doesn’t boss and he doesn’t like that. And this sort of seeds the feud with Paul Giamatti later in the movie, I think it is telling that we want to spend some time with him getting the perspective of having to be a boss and having to fire people and having to moderate their content and think about the bottom line and how that can clash.

Laci (00:40:02):

Enjoy art

Matt (00:40:02):

With creativity and art. Yes,

Laci (00:40:04):

Of course it takes both, Matt.

Matt (00:40:06):

It does.

Laci (00:40:07):

You got to have that money. That’s sweet.

Matt (00:40:08):

Yeah, it seems like maybe the part where he sort of stumbles into maybe the secret of his on air personas when he is doing this live read for a commercial, but he loses the lines and so he just improvs

Laci (00:40:23):

And completely gets caught in a lie.

Matt (00:40:24):

And I really liked his acting.

Laci (00:40:27):

I did too.

Matt (00:40:28):

So let’s just pull it up. Got these wigs.

Speaker 5 (00:40:32):

WCCC also wanted to remind you that our new sponsor, Stanley Sport, is a great place to go. I got to tell you something. When I was a child, I used to go to Stanley Sport all the time. I love Stanley Sport. My parents would take me through there and we just had a great time and we could walk out with tons of stuff, even though my parents didn’t make a lot of money. And there’s only one Stanley sports. And the grand opening is this weekend. Mark it on your calendar. The grand opening is this. I just realized that makes no sense. What I just said. I just told you I went there as a kid and now the grand opening. Well, I think I was just caught in a lie. Oh boy. You know what the truth is? I’m a dish jockey who makes $250 a week and I just want to do the right thing here on the air. I don’t want to get fired. So I guess I lied to you, but I’ll never let that happen again. You know what I mean? Oh boy. Do I feel stupid?

Matt (00:41:28):

Okay. So I like that he doesn’t say anything crude, nothing inappropriate. There he is. Literally just sort of being a dork, a very, very earnest dork and just being like, boy, I feel like a big dork, a big goober. I,

Laci (00:41:41):

That’s his secret sauce, his vulnerability. He is just a big fucking goober. I do though that, I mean he’s very specific about what he shows in this movie, and he very clearly gives his wife credit for identifying that and inspiring him to do what ended up making him really successful. I think that’s

Matt (00:41:59):

Nice because very shortly after that she’s like, I feel like

Laci (00:42:02):

That scene, the one that you just ended is when she just says, yeah, just like when you’re yourself.

Matt (00:42:07):

Yes.

Laci (00:42:07):

And identifies that exact moment as being the best part of his show so far.

Matt (00:42:12):

Yes. So what happens next? The thing with the actress, the actress who takes him to her bathtub?

Laci (00:42:21):

Oh yeah, I guess so. Morgan Fairchild, what a weird, did that really happen? What a weird way to kind of cheat on your wife.

Matt (00:42:31):

I don’t know. But this happens a different time in the movie where a woman, a porn star is naked in the radio studio with him and then is going to give him a massage and he’s wearing only boxers. And it’s like his wife is said, you can’t cheat on me. I don’t want, that’s not the kind of relationship I want air.

Laci (00:42:49):

I know, but on air, that’s you. That’s you playing a character. But when you’re off air, I got to be the only one. And that I assume is the difference. He was off air with mortar fan truck,

Matt (00:43:01):

So

Laci (00:43:02):

You could fuck all you want as long as it’s on air, I guess.

Matt (00:43:05):

So he could literally,

Laci (00:43:07):

I don’t think so.

Matt (00:43:08):

Okay.

Laci (00:43:09):

Yeah, that scene has always confused me too. It looks like they’re about to show you him take it way too far and then it just gets cut off in some big huge moment that ends up being important for a different reason.

Speaker 3 (00:43:24):

So

Laci (00:43:24):

It’s like they just, it’s like, well, why even bring it up? Or I guess that was literally what was happening. I guess the reason why the guy, why pig vomit, the producer that he hates so much. Oh, that was because he had gone so far that the guy that has it out for him that wants him to quit or to tame him tells the, what is that an engineer? What’s the guy in the other booth? Okay. Cut his mic. And that’s what he does. He just, all of a sudden he’s not on the air anymore and he’s like, what the fuck? And so I guess it had to be a scene that was going beyond in order for that to have happened.

Matt (00:44:08):

No, I understand that part. But if the movie is about his relationship with Allison

Laci (00:44:14):

Is it,

Matt (00:44:15):

And the tension

Laci (00:44:17):

It doesn’t.

Matt (00:44:17):

One of the big things, I mean he says at the end of the movie, the end of the day, it’s all about Allison. She’s my best friend, the perfect person

Laci (00:44:24):

I’ve ever had tell himself.

Matt (00:44:26):

Okay. But I’m saying the movie itself is about the love of Allison and Howard and their relationship.

Laci (00:44:32):

I don’t think so, but alright.

Matt (00:44:33):

You don’t think what?

Laci (00:44:34):

I don’t think so. I don’t think the movie’s about that. I think the movie’s about him and all the things he wants us to see about him, and I think Allison is just one tiny part of it, but he makes an equal amount of a big deal about a how good he is a radio and Robin, and

Matt (00:44:53):

It is a major, major theme of the movie is the relationship and how she’s this fulcrum in his life and this is the human part of him

Laci (00:45:03):

For sure that, but again, it’s just about him.

Matt (00:45:07):

So that sort of tension I don’t feel like ever gets Is he even aware of it of you’ve told me, I’m not to cheat on you. We don’t have that kind of marriage. You don’t want me being intimate with other women.

Laci (00:45:23):

Where’s that line? What counts is it?

Matt (00:45:25):

I’ll do it here, which is I’ll be in my boxers, then a naked woman will climb all over me and stuff. And that’s okay because in service of a bit,

Laci (00:45:33):

I guess

Matt (00:45:34):

They’re remarked upon.

Laci (00:45:35):

They don’t seem like they have that discussion is and isn’t cheating. He didn’t physically do anything with the other woman too, except for that. He got into his underwear, got into a bathtub, got an erection, she grabbed his penis. That’s it.

Matt (00:45:55):

My point is he should know this is not something she would be happy with but then doesn’t acknowledge in the movie.

Laci (00:46:03):

That’s what I’m saying,

Matt (00:46:03):

That I’m betraying her

Laci (00:46:04):

Again, that’s why I say this movie isn’t about their love story. It’s about him and that love story only interests Howard in the sense that we’re impressed at how hot his wife is and how smart his wife is. Doesn’t seem to matter to him at all. If what individual things might’ve made her upset if he didn’t have to deal with the fact that it made her upset. She didn’t seem to have a problem that day ended up being about his big altercation with the producer. And it also seems weird that that’s the only he’s known for naked people, for women being naked on a show. That’s his thing. That’s the only time they show that. That’s the only time it ever comes up.

Matt (00:46:50):

I think it maybe happens one more time,

Laci (00:46:51):

Just the lesbian talking about her lesbian first lesbian experience and then the one where the woman straddles a subwoofer and has an orgasm in her own apartment that’s not here with anyone. Yeah, she’s not in the studio. There’s no other naked part.

Matt (00:47:09):

At a certain part, Allison is rioting in a car with some other women and they’re listening to the show and she’s uncomfortable by the show and the other woman in the car is like, your husband’s such a character. And she’s like, only on the radio, he’s normal off the air or whatever. And then she turns it off. I just feel like that’s where the dramatic juice is.

Laci (00:47:27):

You’re right. And

Matt (00:47:28):

The movie doesn’t seem that interested in it.

Laci (00:47:31):

God, is that the only time they show Allison by herself as if she has an exterior life or any kind of,

Matt (00:47:37):

Yeah, it might be

Laci (00:47:38):

Except for her at her job. But those are parts of him talking about her knowing what she’s doing. This is maybe the only scene where it’s just something she experienced all by herself. It’s got nothing to do with him.

Matt (00:47:50):

It’s just funny that Yeah, acknowledges. Yeah, he’s just a character on the radio, but she doesn’t totally believe this clearly. And then the movie ends with Howard declaring their love is eternal and great, and then in reality, they divorce two years after the movie was made. I wonder if Betty Thomas detected that and was like, no, we need to put something in here. You say that this is all good, but clearly this is not all. Okay. How can you in a relationship with somebody like,

Laci (00:48:19):

Well, just the miscarriage part always bothered me and it’s supposed to, I mean, there’s nothing funny about it to me and so many people dealing with not being able to

Matt (00:48:29):

Get pregnant. What do

Laci (00:48:30):

You mean? Oh, I’m sorry. This is why I suck at this podcast.

Matt (00:48:33):

You don’t suck. You’re good.

Laci (00:48:35):

It’s

Matt (00:48:35):

A good podcast

Laci (00:48:37):

To show his progression into talking about his private parts, his real life. He says he’s making this big move to a new radio station and he says, Allison, the way I’m going to make this work is I can’t hold back anymore. I’ve got to be everything I’m thinking and everything I’m experiencing, I’m going to put it on that radio show. And she’s like, alright, do it. And the way they show, a big example of this is, well one, he accidentally gets Allison to say she’s pregnant on the air. So now his audience knows that and will be wondering, Hey, what’s up with the baby? So that does put him in a position where he does need to address the fact that she has a miscarriage weeks later. So he was going to have to do it anyway or else people were going to keep asking about Where’s the baby? But the way he does it is so graphic and God making fun of his. Well wait,

Matt (00:49:35):

But the scene before that is when they’re in bed and she’s talking about being sad over losing the baby and then he cheers her up by being similarly

Speaker 3 (00:49:43):

Disgusting

Matt (00:49:43):

Graphic about it. Disgust. And she laughs. It’s maybe the best scene in the movie. It’s very sweet and very funny.

Laci (00:49:49):

She has a very good sense of humor and gets him, she really gets him.

Matt (00:49:53):

Yes.

Laci (00:49:53):

Is how it looks.

Matt (00:49:54):

And so then he tries to basically recreate this on the air. And I grabbed this clip because it is very funny, somebody talking about this.

Laci (00:50:05):

I don’t find it funny.

Matt (00:50:07):

He’s talking to God and he’s playing crying, baby baby sound effects from

Laci (00:50:11):

Heaven. He should have done it right the first time, Howard. Yeah, but

Speaker 6 (00:50:15):

You tried to have a baby and you failed. Oh man. Now the baby is with me.

Matt (00:50:21):

And that’s his voice

Speaker 6 (00:50:22):

Is God.

Laci (00:50:24):

Yeah, I noticed that the second watching. Wow. He’s getting awfully personal this morning.

Speaker 6 (00:50:28):

Hey God, me and my wife are trying to have another baby. A real man would have done it right the first time, Howard. Oh, for God’s sake. It will be pleasant today. Rain tomorrow. It’s my kid up there. This is God with the weather on DC 1 0 1,

Speaker 5 (00:50:42):

You’re all wrong. God, you’re completely out of line this morning. I don’t think we should be talking about this. I went to the doctor that’s

Matt (00:50:48):

Tell you that

Speaker 5 (00:50:50):

Funny. It’s an awful experience that one moment out and there’s your kid. It’s so ridiculous. There’s a beautiful child and he’s no bigger than the size of an aspirin. How junior? No, bigger than

Laci (00:50:58):

The Well yeah, because the line, right? I mean for some people that’s hilarious. But for people who are actually going through shit like that, so not funny.

Matt (00:51:10):

Well, she gets upset and calls him an idiot and I’m not an idiot because there’s a difference. We were joking. That was just for us. Then you brought it out into the world and talked that way about our dead kid joking about it to the world.

Laci (00:51:29):

Yeah. That’s the problem with being Howard Stern. Where is that line? Because that makes these amazing moments when you go just far enough, but you got to hurt someone. You’ve either got to hurt the radio station you’re working for or someone in your personal life or then it’s not authentic if someone’s not the butt of your joke. It’s not funny.

Matt (00:51:52):

But nobody’s the butt of the joke. I mean, you’re saying Allison is the butt of the

Laci (00:51:55):

Joke. Yeah. Or that’s what makes it makes Howard Stern quality is that there are stakes like, oh shit, he went there. And you can’t do that without there being someone to care that you went to the place.

Matt (00:52:13):

The blood of the joke is on the,

Laci (00:52:14):

Okay, it doesn’t have to be a but dead baby doesn’t have to thank you, whose mother is still alive and very upset that the baby’s dead. Right. So no, but

Matt (00:52:23):

There’s

Laci (00:52:23):

Just someone very offended and hurt and that’s what makes it like damn like that.

Matt (00:52:30):

He never seems to actually understand her point here, but this is just how they’ll have to coexist. That again is what’s interesting about this movie is also knowing they got divorced shortly after this movie and he’s like, this is the understanding we’ve reached in our life. And clearly it was not. And you can just watch this movie and see she does not agree with the things you’re saying about how your relationship works.

Laci (00:52:52):

True. But he’s getting very right. He, he’s so famous now for being exactly this way. Maybe not quite yet. I can’t remember. He’s signing boobs at

Matt (00:53:03):

Which point

Laci (00:53:04):

Again, I’m just not sure. But he’s getting there once he’s got Robin and he’s got Fred and the whole crew’s there, and I’m not sure what studio, that’s what I’m saying. This movie jumps around to different studios and all three of them are together in three different places, I think. Anyway, what I’m saying is you’ve got Allison at home and she gets mad sometimes, but she hangs on and she’s still actively trying to have kids with you and then you’ve got eventually does, right? They have three daughters. So clearly she held on for a long time. And then you’ve got your fame that’s growing and growing the extent that you’re doing Prefs conferences in Washington DC Anyway, I’m just saying he is what matters to him. That’s why I don’t think this movie is about them. I think that that only is a big part of it because that is a big part that gets him clout. He’s got a smart, beautiful wife. Doesn’t matter that Allison is smart. Okay. I

Matt (00:54:05):

Mean he did agree when the screenwriter said, this is a movie about you two. It’s Annie Hall, it’s about your romance. And that’s what made him hire

Speaker 3 (00:54:16):

This

Matt (00:54:16):

Writer. And the director said, I didn’t want this to be so career focused. I wanted to be about the relationship. I mean, they can say whatever they want. It doesn’t make it true.

Laci (00:54:28):

He’s being pulled by two things he wants very badly love and true, like unconditional love and intimacy. Intimacy at home, and then just gobs of attention forever and adoration.

Matt (00:54:45):

He’s also inventing this role. I mean the superstar,

Laci (00:54:50):

Internationally

Matt (00:54:51):

Famous radio personality who talks for five hours a day and talks about his life and his very sharing shares, lots of stuff. Yeah. I guess wasn’t a model. It’s a

Laci (00:55:01):

24 hour news cycle about him. So it’s fucking hard.

Matt (00:55:04):

And Allison knows him before any of this happens and so has to, it’s like, well, I signed up for this level and then that level, but I didn’t totally know what I was getting into.

Laci (00:55:16):

And in that way, that’s why I’m thinking there’s no big tragedy here. He put his line in the sand, he was very clear he needed to keep sharing and she was very clear. Well sometimes I’m going to be really fucking pissed about that. And those things ran along parallel as long as they could until, and neither of them wanted to take back or to change their position.

Matt (00:55:39):

So then eventually he gets hired in New York to the Big W, basic to WNBC. We meet Paul Giamatti as Pig Vomit,

Laci (00:55:49):

Who was the only role I ever knew him in for years. And I hated the fucking sight of his face because of this fucking role.

Matt (00:55:59):

You would always refer to Paul Iati as Pig Vomit.

Laci (00:56:01):

And

Matt (00:56:01):

I’d be like, what is that?

Laci (00:56:02):

We’re watching Sideways a movie I love like Oh Pig Vomit.

Matt (00:56:06):

And eventually knew it was from the Howard Stern movie. And so I was like, I guess he plays some wacko Morning Zoo character. No, he’s an executive in the suit.

Laci (00:56:16):

He’s his dad,

Matt (00:56:18):

This guy. So they said that the character Jamati is playing is a composite that seems to be kind of a lie. This is just a real guy who they changed his name and in real life he called him Pig virus. In the movie they’re calling him Pig Vomit. I’ve watched a clip from an interview of Howard Stern with Paul Giamatti in 2010, and Giamatti says, I didn’t know this was a real guy.

Laci (00:56:41):

The director, the accent. The accent was the guy Southern for real? Is that why they gave him an

Matt (00:56:46):

Accent? I don’t know.

Laci (00:56:47):

It’s very specific. I mean, the guy’s in New York, why is he talking like that?

Matt (00:56:50):

The director said just do like a bumpkin Kentucky accent.

Laci (00:56:53):

Oh, Kentucky. That makes sense.

Matt (00:56:56):

And then he never saw a picture of him or anything. Yeah.

Laci (00:57:01):

Okay. Are they friends?

Matt (00:57:03):

I don’t know if they’re friends. This was a delightful interview to watch.

Laci (00:57:06):

Well, I’m just saying why that many years later, 13 years later, are they doing an interview?

Matt (00:57:10):

He was probably promoting something. Who? Jamati.

Laci (00:57:13):

Oh, it’s him at Howard’s Place on

Matt (00:57:15):

The show.

Laci (00:57:16):

Oh, okay. I thought you meant they were being dual interviewed by a third person. Oh no. What kind of press and junket were they doing this for?

Matt (00:57:24):

No.

Laci (00:57:25):

Private or parters? No,

Matt (00:57:28):

It’s funny, he was talking about a movie he made after this starring Rupert Grant who played Ron in the Harry Potter movies as a who superpower is farting. And he gets hired by MI six and Paul Giani is like, yeah, despite my turn into private parts, my career didn’t totally explode after this. You said he’s a great interviewer. I mean, just from what I’ve heard, he’s outstanding and he can get people to talk

Laci (00:57:55):

About

Matt (00:57:56):

Stuff and talk. I just don’t hear actors talking that way about their careers like that

Laci (00:58:01):

Ever. It comes right back to, he’s so disarming because he is an open book. There are no private parts. He makes you feel like you’re just the only two people in the room. You’re whispering each other and you know how much I hate whispering?

Matt (00:58:20):

Yeah, I fucking hate it. It’s fucking gross.

Laci (00:58:25):

You just quivered Robin.

Matt (00:58:26):

I was thinking we’re watching the television show justified 15 years after it was made and

Laci (00:58:32):

Meaning we’re watching it right now.

Matt (00:58:34):

Jeremy Davies plays a Jeremy Davies character, so he’s always talking like this.

Laci (00:58:40):

Wait, which one’s Jeremy? The guy from Lost?

Matt (00:58:42):

Yeah.

Laci (00:58:45):

That’s just how he sounds. He’s always out of breath

Matt (00:58:49):

And all I can think about is how much of a nightmare must be to record for the sound guy and then mix it and then just like his breath probably stinks.

Laci (00:58:56):

You think that about him? I always think that about the other about Boyd

Matt (00:59:01):

Bad Boyd. About Walton Goggins,

Laci (00:59:02):

Yeah. Because they make such a big deal in vice principals about how his breath stinks in multiple occasions. So now every time I see him, I’m like, don’t get in Eva’s face like that. Boyd.

Matt (00:59:14):

And both of us hate that. They say that about Bob Belcher.

Laci (00:59:18):

Well, and Tina Belcher

Matt (00:59:19):

Really?

Laci (00:59:19):

I know. Yeah. So I mean they make comment after comment about Tina’s breath and

Matt (00:59:25):

Bob’s just somebody saying, bad breath about a cartoon will make

Laci (00:59:29):

Me unhappy. Ruin that person for me. Ruins.

Matt (00:59:32):

Yeah.

Laci (00:59:32):

Done. Me too. There are two people I know that have halitosis

Matt (00:59:37):

Now

Laci (00:59:39):

From my past and I cannot conjure their faces without smelling their breath. It’s so unfortunate.

Matt (00:59:48):

I’m having trouble with this conversation we’re having.

Laci (00:59:50):

If I had that issue, there are no links. I wouldn’t go to make that not be one of my issues. So, alright, I’m stopping.

Matt (01:00:02):

Well, pig vomit probably smells like pig vomit and he is not. That was a professional radio

Laci (01:00:10):

Segue, I guess. Got it.

Matt (01:00:14):

He’s like, I’m going to get Howard under control. He is out of control. He’s saying inappropriate things and what happens whether you got to submit your scripts to me ahead of time and I have to pre-approve bits.

Laci (01:00:27):

A part that I didn’t realize until watching it the second time is that they site unseen sign him to a million dollar contract that they have to pay half, $500,000 if they fire him before that contract expires. And so the big muckety muck at WNBC sees Howard on the news for being a shock jock. And they’re like, what the fuck? This is who you hired? What? You’re all fired. Get out of here. And good old Kentucky pig vomit says, don’t worry, I’ll either get him into shape or he’ll quit. And then that’s why he’s so, I always wonder, why are you being so mean? You guys hired him. He’s so nice. He’s just shocky and why are you being So anyway,

Matt (01:01:12):

Yeah, it happens all the time though.

Laci (01:01:14):

I’m dumb for not.

Matt (01:01:16):

But that specific thing is

Laci (01:01:17):

I was a kid, I wouldn’t have understand contracts and that $500,000 is a lot of money. I wouldn’t have gotten that. Totally.

Matt (01:01:22):

No, but your question of like, well, why hire him then if you don’t want him to do his thing? But that happens all the time in business and entertainment and sports.

Laci (01:01:30):

It’s obvious to zap him from the other market so that you’re not competing with iis the person who’s in your market who he was completely blowing out of the water. Now it’s like, oh duh.

Matt (01:01:44):

It’s

Laci (01:01:44):

A catch and kill.

Matt (01:01:45):

And then just disconnect between people who make these business decisions and people who are like, does this fit our creative vision or do we want this kind of thing on the air?

Speaker 3 (01:01:53):

Or

Matt (01:01:55):

Why would we hire this person and then not let them do their thing That made them so popular in the first place. And so they fire Robin because she helps Howard with a bit that pig vomit hates and he can’t fire Howard so he can fire Robin. And Howard doesn’t really do much to stand up for Robin. I mean he objects, but he doesn’t say, well, then I quit. She says that to him, you should have quit unsaid is this, I’m a black woman in this largely white man industry and you have so much more power than me.

Laci (01:02:39):

I’m always going to be vulnerable and you’re always going to be protected.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):

And

Laci (01:02:43):

Honestly, he could have quit. I mean, well, I don’t know the terms of his contract. He could have left and then not had the money, but he’s the biggest fucking thing ever. So he just go to the second biggest whatever market for that and then take Robin with him. Get her written into the contract. I mean, there are probably things he could have. He should have. Wait, no. I don’t know. I always saw she was being unreasonable. It’s like he said he didn’t like it, Robin God, but yeah.

Matt (01:03:13):

Yeah. If you’re Rob and you’re like, I am the most important piece to what makes this all work, this thing doesn’t work without me and you’re not showing that I’m valuable. And then what else am I going to

Laci (01:03:28):

Right? What’s the skillset going to take me? Where am I going

Matt (01:03:30):

To go? That’s going to be anywhere near what I can make here, what I can do here. But then he gets her back by hiring a series of even less competent people who just, he hires the guy or they set him up with the news guy,

Laci (01:03:49):

But he makes him so uncomfortable That guy quits.

Matt (01:03:51):

Yes.

Laci (01:03:52):

And then his excuse is, it’s Robin. She reels me in. I’m going to keep fucking people over like this and not interacting correctly with the people you hire unless you get you.

Matt (01:04:04):

So they bring Robin back and he says, Robin’s the voice of reason. Although she doesn’t seem to be, she actually, she’s an enabler more than anything. She seems reasonable.

Laci (01:04:12):

She does, but no, she’s a sneaky up to no good grandma. Oh, I’m just take, you guys need to go to bed and then the parents go candy. She just does. She fuels the fire in a very covert way. Am I saying the right word? She’s always bothered me. I really like her and in this movie I love her. But on air, if you watch and listen unto enough of it, she can be sometimes the meanest person because she is the only rail stop guard. What am I trying to say? She’s the only thing to slow down the train and if she is on board with whatever mean thing he’s saying to somebody, then it just gets really bad. Oh,

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):

Okay.

Laci (01:05:01):

She’s the buffer. And if she doesn’t buff, which isn’t really fair, she should be able to be funny too. But sometimes she, I don’t know. It always hurt my feelings more for the person they’re talking about or talking to

Matt (01:05:12):

If she joins in, if she

Laci (01:05:13):

Was mean. Yeah,

Matt (01:05:15):

You’re getting really choked up about

Laci (01:05:16):

It. It really upset me.

Matt (01:05:17):

Yeah. This gets resolved by, or the big climactic sequence is when Howard is doing the thing with the naked massage and pig vomit pulls them off the air and then he retaliates by, once they get back on the air, he takes a phone and goes into his office live on the air and he is like, why aren’t you? We hit him back. So let’s play. This is really great. This is really well done.

Laci (01:05:45):

And I like that. He’s in his socks.

Matt (01:05:46):

He’s walking very funny

Laci (01:05:48):

In his socks and he’s in a fucking, yeah, everybody

Speaker 7 (01:05:50):

Can hear. Okay, I’m right outside Pig vomits office. I’m going to knock on his door.

Matt (01:05:54):

And so he’s on the air

Laci (01:05:56):

By being patched through a phone call to the,

Matt (01:05:59):

And you can hear there is a radio in this office playing it. So you’re hearing everything he says on a five second delay, which makes everything feel really disoriented

Speaker 7 (01:06:10):

Up. It’s funny, Alex. Oh, it’s not funny. Are you talking about It is funny. I think it’s very funny. And how would you know? It’s funny. Anyway, you’re not bringing that. I don’t see anybody in here to meeting do you? I got to go. Why do I have to go? Why don’t you explain to my audience why you had to shut down the show us? Right. Your big idiot scumbag. I’m your boss. I’m your boss. I’m your boss. Lets go. What’s this, Robin? Is everybody salary on his desk hitting me? He hit me, Robin, he’s hitting me back. I’m going to hit you back. I hit him back. Hit Get the phone from me. Kenny. No, hit him back. Kenny just hit himself in the face. He’s Come on. Oh my God. What’s going on? Ben just got hit by Kenny. Kenny, just Ben. I didn’t do anything. What are you okay? My nose okay. Wasn’t my fault. I just came in here to find out why the show was called Get Out of Here. I was just going to,

Laci (01:07:10):

I’ll shoot your ass.

Matt (01:07:12):

I’ll sue your

Laci (01:07:13):

Ass. Oh, that makes sense.

Matt (01:07:14):

I’ll shoot your ass.

Laci (01:07:15):

I’ll shoot you in the ass. I’m from Kentucky.

Matt (01:07:18):

The resolution to this is that Pig Vomit sees the ratings books and they’re really good. So hey, we’re good with you now.

Laci (01:07:25):

But then Pig Vomit goes to his house and says, look, I’m so sorry from now on I’m totally on board. I’m your man. And then Howard shuts the door in his face and I never thought of that part as being like, wow, way to go hard. You really stuck it to the man I always thought of as Pig vomit is being nice. Why are you being mean?

Matt (01:07:44):

You still feel that way.

Laci (01:07:45):

He came all the way to your house.

Matt (01:07:47):

Don’t come to my house. That’s horrible. No one come to my house. I don’t know. No, he’s saying, Hey, you can make money. So now we’re partners and I think it’s saying we’re partners. You don’t contribute anything.

Laci (01:08:03):

But part of me also was worried for Howard like, oh, well now you don’t have an enemy to rail against. Who knows if you’re going to be any good? You’ve never had the guardrails. Totally. I mean here I go, guardrails and bumpers again, motherfucker, this analogy’s not working for me. I did wonder, did he need the nemesis? Turns out, no.

Matt (01:08:21):

Well, this is

Laci (01:08:22):

I guess the FC who

Matt (01:08:24):

This is the early eighties, I mean, and then

Laci (01:08:26):

Early eighties.

Matt (01:08:26):

This is, I didn’t realize this whole, pretty much all of the movie just takes place up until 1984. That

Laci (01:08:32):

Explains his

Matt (01:08:32):

Hair. And then the wraparound on the airplane, that’s 96, 97.

Laci (01:08:37):

Oh wow. God. Okay. Yeah. I guess a lot would have to happen for him to be on the VMAs.

Matt (01:08:42):

So that’s the other thing is like that’s

Laci (01:08:44):

Weird.

Matt (01:08:45):

This is the specific part. It’s the rise. The rise is the story I wanted to tell about

Laci (01:08:49):

This, but that explains the AC CDC being the concert as well, right?

Matt (01:08:53):

Because AC CDC would be a concert. Now they’re always,

Laci (01:08:56):

But there wasn’t a big enough, they needed time to become vintage and cool. It makes sense that in the eighties that would be a hot thing to get rather than 10 years later. 10 years later isn’t far enough distance. They need time to become uncool to be cool again, don’t disagree with me.

Matt (01:09:14):

Well, I think that might be true about just about everybody, but But A CDC,

Laci (01:09:19):

I don’t want to hear it.

Matt (01:09:19):

Alright. By being part of big corporate media and being allowed to get away with that, you always have that tension. And so even if you don’t literally have a nemesis, the thing is he’s allowed to say this on national radio working for NBC,

Laci (01:09:41):

Is it the FCCA,

Matt (01:09:43):

F-C-C-F-C-C?

Laci (01:09:44):

That’s it. And I would assume that that’s a constant. He’s going to cost them money all the time for fines and he’s always going to be a liability. There will always be someone to push back against probably

Matt (01:09:58):

Right until he Well,

Laci (01:10:00):

What about when he gets in serious read

Matt (01:10:01):

He and goes serious.

Laci (01:10:02):

Okay.

Matt (01:10:03):

I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean I don’t do, that’s the thing. I tried to really get informed about all this, but I saw this is a world that is so huge. Howard Stern fandom is so massive, so much like mythology and history built into it that I’m going to sound dumb if I even try and I have sounded dumb. I’m sure. And we don’t know what we’re talking about.

Laci (01:10:23):

I’m getting a divorce. Anita, that her name,

Matt (01:10:25):

Dare you say her name.

Laci (01:10:27):

I forgot her name until just

Matt (01:10:29):

Of our divorce lawyer slash counsel

Laci (01:10:31):

Who lives here just in case I need a divorce asap.

Matt (01:10:35):

It is expensive housing worth it. Yeah. I don’t know what the legacy of his move to Sirius is if it’s like the show went downhill once he got to Sirius because of the Don’t you

Laci (01:10:50):

Went downhill.

Matt (01:10:51):

No, I’m saying I don’t know if that’s something everybody thinks.

Laci (01:10:54):

Where is he now?

Matt (01:10:55):

Sirius?

Laci (01:10:56):

No part of the hill. Did he go up, down, up, down. Now he’s up again. What is his? That’s the thing. I don’t know his reputation now.

Matt (01:11:04):

I don’t know. Well, he has really toxic old fans who are like, I don’t like woke coward,

Laci (01:11:10):

But

Matt (01:11:10):

I read stuff Woke Coward says, and it sounds just like Howard, but just

Laci (01:11:14):

Evolved with the Times.

Matt (01:11:17):

Yes, but not in a, I don’t know. He asked to a tone for how much of a platform he gave Donald Trump and he’ll still talk about like, well, Donald’s a friend. That’s another thing this movie doesn’t get at is what does he think about art? What does he think about politics and the things he’s doing and contributing to and what is it all in service

Laci (01:11:42):

Of?

Matt (01:11:42):

Does he have an animating philosophy?

Laci (01:11:44):

Does he think of himself as being responsible for things? And the way that Oprah is, and it probably is hard to think of yourself as being someone that did a thing when you always kind of feel lesser than just inside of yourself.

Matt (01:12:04):

Well, here’s what I was,

Laci (01:12:05):

Oh yeah, sorry

Matt (01:12:06):

About Sirius is like a radio show that I listen to every day for almost 15 years is the Dan Labard show, which I started listening to before they went to ES ESP N Radio when they’re just a Miami station. They just uploaded their whole show as a podcast and I would listen to it there. And then they moved to ESPN radio. So they were nationwide and two years ago they left ESPN and now podcast, self-funded podcast only. And this isn’t the only reason, but once they were on their own and out of the corporate machine, it did kind of lose some of its appeal because they were their show that makes fun of the very idea of sports talk radio, of being serious and stuffy. And once you start listening to them, it’s hard to then listen to serious sports radio. You can only hear them talk in the cliche,

Laci (01:12:53):

You can only hear parody

Matt (01:12:55):

That the Leo avatar show exposes, but because they were doing it from inside ESPN, which is the purveyor of this kind of stuff, it does kind of lose its edge. It’s like, well now you don’t have bosses and you can say whatever you want. And also you don’t have the natural rhythms of radio, the breaks, the not being able to go back and edit yourself,

Laci (01:13:13):

Your guys in the living room. You’re being too windy. You don’t have to stop. You’re just like,

Matt (01:13:20):

Some people need the restraints, the restraints make it entertaining. And because it’s coming from some, you hear the tension of, I have bosses who don’t totally approve of what I’m

Laci (01:13:29):

Saying and last week tonight, it’s also, I don’t know if he sprinkles that in. John, why can’t

Matt (01:13:35):

John Oliver,

Laci (01:13:36):

John Oliver, I don’t even know if there really is tension with him and whoever is producing his show, but he always puts that element in there

Matt (01:13:44):

On HBO, which is owned by Warner Brothers Discovery, and he’s always making fun of Warner Brothers discovery. Yeah. Oh, I’m sure. Yeah. There’s some Warner Brothers executive who’s like, why are we paying him to say this?

Laci (01:13:54):

I know, but because it is a formula that works. This I’m the bad boy of this station. I wonder if John Oliver even really has an issue with the person he’s making fun or the entity he’s making fun of. It’s just like putting this little layer on here makes it even better. I like it. Business daddy is what he calls him.

Matt (01:14:12):

Do we miss anything?

Laci (01:14:14):

The movie ends. I

Matt (01:14:14):

Ms. Howard. Howard. We then resumed. We suddenly remember, oh, he’s narrating because he’s telling this whole movie to a woman on the plane next to him

Laci (01:14:24):

Who gives a fucking shit.

Matt (01:14:26):

And then he looks directly in the camera and says like, I

Laci (01:14:29):

Could,

Matt (01:14:30):

No one understands. Yeah, that’s what he says. I could

Laci (01:14:32):

Could

Matt (01:14:33):

Fuck this lady.

Laci (01:14:34):

I could make love to

Matt (01:14:35):

Her. Like Woody Allen. We could make

Laci (01:14:38):

Love, right? He’s so black.

Matt (01:14:41):

Oh, we can be making love in my apartment on Central

Laci (01:14:44):

Puck. Oh my God. I could put my penis on it

Matt (01:14:48):

With a typewriter. It’s

Laci (01:14:49):

Too intimate.

Matt (01:14:51):

So suddenly the narration is not him telling the story, but him directly addressing the camera. Then he gets off the plane, he meets his wife and kids and he’s like, so that’s my story. No one understands me. My wife rules. And maybe we’ll have a threesome one day verb. That’s the end of the movie.

Laci (01:15:06):

Yep.

Matt (01:15:07):

So what is the movie about? It’s about evil.

Laci (01:15:10):

Slice of life. Yeah. He rules.

Matt (01:15:14):

Yeah,

Laci (01:15:15):

That’s what I’m saying. That’s the theme of the movie. It’s not Allison Theme is about Allison only in the sense that it reinforces that he rules what you doing.

Matt (01:15:28):

Looking at my, did I miss anything? Alison, when she’s pregnant says she’s huge. She looks like an elephant. She looks like Baar.

Laci (01:15:34):

You don’t

Matt (01:15:35):

Look like Babar. That was funny. That was funny.

Laci (01:15:37):

Well, yep, we did it.

Matt (01:15:41):

We did it. We did another one,

Laci (01:15:42):

Folks.

Matt (01:15:43):

That’s another one

Laci (01:15:44):

In the cane.

Matt (01:15:44):

Another one of these things. Hey, if you want to watch this episode, you can watch it on YouTube.

Laci (01:15:49):

Yes. You have been painstakingly cutting these together and they’re entertaining individual sense. YouTube, you can see the clips. You get to see our faces one at a time.

Matt (01:16:01):

Load-bearing beams is the handle. Please do subscribe. We need subscribers.

Laci (01:16:06):

We need money.

Matt (01:16:08):

Money,

Laci (01:16:08):

Please.

Matt (01:16:09):

Hey, thanks to Wade email and Rural Route nine for our brand new beautiful theme song. And

Laci (01:16:15):

It’s very polished, very profesh. Listen

Matt (01:16:19):

To our music on Spotify. If you please

Laci (01:16:22):

Roll Route nine.

Matt (01:16:23):

Yes. R, that’s the band. Rural Route Nine.

Laci (01:16:28):

It is a Simpsons reference, if that helps anyone.

Matt (01:16:34):

It never does. Rural Route Nine!

Laci (01:16:35):

That’s what it sounds like. All right. Okay. I love you. Goodbye.