Howard Stern has responded after getting slammed for appearing in blackface and using the N-word in a sketch from 1993.
The video recently resurfaced from Stern’s pay-per-view New Year’s Rotten Eve Pageant, where he was playing white actor Ted Danson in blackface with Sherman Hemsley playing Whoopi Goldberg. The clip was first posted by Tariq Nasheed, and it was edited with Stern’s appearance on The View, where he claimed that he never said the N-word.
“The sh*t I did was f***ing crazy,” he said, according to Deadline, after the clip resurfaced. “I’ll be the first to admit. I won’t go back and watch those old shows; it’s like, who is that guy. But that was my shtick, that’s what I did, and I own it. I don’t think I got embraced by Nazi groups and hate groups. They seemed to think I was against them too. Everybody had a bone to pick with me.”
“I was able to change my approach, able to change my life, and change how I communicated. If I had to do it all over again, would I lampoon Ted Danson, a white guy in blackface? Yeah, I was lampooning him and saying, I’m going to shine a light on this. But would I go about it the same way now? Probably not. Not probably, I wouldn’t,” he added.
The video was retweeted by the Celebrity in chief’s son Donald Trump, Jr., and Stern had lots to say about that as well.
“I never go back and look at that stuff,” Stern said. “I cringe when I look at myself 30 or 40 years ago, and that was 27 years ago, I go, I can’t stand it. Am I a bad guy? I don’t think so. Donald Trump didn’t think so, he was on my show 27 times. Donnie Junior did the show. On TV he said, I’m really disappointed in Howard, he’s changed, that I’ve gone Hollywood. Which is it? Do you want me to get in blackface and make fun of Ted Danson? I have changed. They leak TV shows that have been on TV to the press. I remember how badly Donald Jr wanted to take a picture with me,” Stern added.
“Dude, if you’re the president of the United States and you want to worry about me, go ahead,” Stern said. “I don’t think I have much influence honestly. And breaking news: Howard Stern was absolutely insane and out of his mind. I would take on anything and say anything and do anything. All the old shows prove it. I’ve heard a rumor they’re working on leaking out the movie Private Parts. I own everything I did. I never did it behind the scenes; I did it right in front of your face. Always. Tried to make a point, sometimes, sometimes not. If you solve the pandemic, then we can go and review all my old shows. I paid a fortune to fix me, it ain’t easy. I would do anything. By the way, if you did some more digging, you would find I was fired by a ton of radio stations for a lot of different reasons.”
