Why Howard Stern Isn't Funny

A discussion of humor in many, many parts.

I understand a lot of people don’t listen to our radio show TV Without Pictures yet, or really know what it is since it’s so new. But, we have a blog here, damnit, and we may as well use it for the same kind of navel-gazing everyone else does and talk about ourselves. Otherwise, wouldn’t we be letting down Time Magazine and all the other old-style press who have spent the last 18 months patting our heads and congratulating us for creating and then consuming our own media content in a masturbatory Ouroboros of otters holding hands and LonelyGirl15 doing whatever it is she… does… I don’t know, I can’t make it through a whole one of those videos.

Anyway, what TV Without Pictures is, basically, me with my friends trying to make each other laugh. That’s not new, but I’d like to think we have two things going in our favor that makes us more enjoyable than the average radio show – 1) Our format – I write questions before the show and send them out to my friends, who , on the show are referred to as panelists. They answer the questions in any way they see fit and try to make me, and each other, laugh. There’s a competition aspect to the show, in that I award points based on how funny I find the answers in a manner similar to Who’s Line Is It Anyway, except that while I can be arbitrary or fickle in my rulings, I try to make the points matter at least a little.

The other thing I think we have going for us is – 2) Our humor – which is the focus of what I’m writing about today.

A lot of people don’t put a lot of thought into it, but there are lots of different kinds of humor – things are not simply funny for the same reason. Dane Cook is not funny for the same reasons that Bob Odenkirk is funny (or not funny at all depending on who you ask). Everybody Loves Raymond is not funny in the way that The Colbert Report is funny. Also, and this is the most important one for my purposes – Howard Stern, the standard-bearer for all that is radio, is not funny – IN ANY WAY – like we on TV Without Pictures is funny.

I’m adamant about that point because of an incident that occurred on the original TV Without Pictures back at my college. One of the questions on the show was “Who would win in a fight – Hitler or Stalin?”

Essentially, the funnier answers to this question came from my friends comparing which despotic dictator was a better or more efficient mass murderer. While Stalin killed far more of his own countrymen, Hitler got a lot done quicker, etc.
After the show, the board member from the station, another student, took me aside and explained while he understood I was going for the whole “shock-jock” thing, I should tone it down lest I offend someone.

Ironically enough, I was actually offended at his insinuation because I felt that it was so obvious that that was not what we were going for. “Who would win a fight” questions especially in the my-dad-can-beat-up-your-dad-sense or the bar fight don’t-look-at-my-girl sense are at their essence, all about machismo, demonstrating strength and flexing nuts. Say, Stalin and Hitler are half drunk and belligerent in a bar, one-upping each other about how strong or accomplished they are; invariably it’s going to descend into, “well, I killed more than you, so nyah!”

Juxtaposing, the already ridiculous prospect of proving your manhood in a fight, which is inherently ludicrous and unimportant, with the ultra ridiculous concept of the mass-murdering dictator, which is inherently far-reaching with massively important consequences is – well – funny.

It’s not funny because “Oh, lots of Jews died, and that’s funny because human suffering in and of itself is shocking and har har har, I just like to piss people off.” It’s funny because you’re imagining two of the most powerful men in the history of the earth basically comparing dick size because no matter how many people we force our will onto, we’re still idiotic tough guys trying to prove to every girl in the bar that we’re the king of the mountain.

It’s the absurdity that’s the funny. The shock is only visceral and fleeting, and you only get so many of those before it gets boring. It has to be actually funny, as well. And that’s what I want TV Without Pictures to be – the finest in absurdist and surrealist comedy for the nerd inside all of us.

Check back on Monday the 8th, when episode 2 goes up to see how we did. And check back for more of me talking about what we’ve done wrong and what I’m doing to fix it.