In his pomp, crude dude radio personality Howard Stern was a
force to be reckoned with. In a twenty-year run with WXRK, his syndicated radio
show drew in 20 million listeners at its peak. His crass antics would be a
frequent source of juvenile myth and controversy. This was back when the media
monoculture meant something, however. Now, in his seventies, Stern is still a
decent draw on subscription-based satellite radio station, Sirius, a move made
to avoid the ever-watching eye of the FCC and their broadcast regulations. Joe
Rogan now rules the roost of somewhat problematic audio presenters, however,
it’s difficult to see the existence of the latter without the presence of the
former.
I became aware of Stern through pop culture osmosis. The DJ
would turn up in shows like The Simpsons (1989 – present) and The Critic
(1994-1995) without any real context of his radio controversies. His
unconventional appearance and minor ridicule on certain American shows were all
I knew of him at the time. Then came Private Parts. Betty Thomas’ 1997 comedy
biopic of Howard Stern was one of the mid-level 90s oddities that occupied my
brain space in my formative years.
Private Parts, alongside Serial Mom and The People versus Larry Flint,
were movies I gleefully indulged in due to the advent of satellite TV entering
the house. I watched Private Parts before I knew that Betty Thomas was the
director of Stern’s quasi-fictional biography and The Brady Bunch Movie, the
latter being a delightfully subversive and underappreciated comedy.
As part of my mini-marathon of movies centred around radio,
I watched Private Parts to see if it held up. Does something like a Howard
Stern biopic fit into today’s fractured media era? Shock Jock Howard Stern was
far more of a prominent entity back then than he is now. Then again, the idea
of radio shock jocks a la Stern feels passe in an era of Andrew Tate and Joe
Rogan. So, watching this nearly 30-year-old film gave me a feeling of
discombobulation.
Private Parts is a product of its time of a character who
now feels like a relic. Watching Stern descending from the rafters as
"Fartman" during the MTV Music Awards doesn’t have the same allure as
perhaps watching the scene as an adolescent. By the summer of 1997, South Park
unleashed a different wave of vulgarness. Far more unrepentant in tone and by
1999 (with a movie in tow) having far more to say. Private Parts takes a lot of
time to establish Stern as a far more sympathetic creature than considered by
his detractors. This softening of Sterns's edges helps slot himself into a
typical biopic plot. However, it feels odd, even possibly disingenuous at
first, to see Stern exclaim that he’s a misunderstood artist. Particularly when
considering this is a DJ who openly mocked pop star Selena, days after her
fatal shooting, causing widespread controversy two years before.
However, with history written by the winners and Stern, with
his power of final script approval, Len Blum’s screenplay happily portrays him
as a misunderstood loser. Narrating himself as a near-do-well that no one
believed in. With his gangly frame and rockstar hairstyle doing much to hide a
more vulnerable young man who almost stumbled upon his success while obtaining
a very understanding wife at the same time. However, when reading articles
about Stern and the making of this movie, many of the film’s key players have a
particular view of the gangly shock jock. At first, they are indifferent and
hostile due his personality on his radio show. However, after interacting with
the man, their perspective is transformed, as they can now see him as a nice guy with a bad-boy persona.
Because of this, Stern’s sympathy angle gains a fair amount
of weight, with the film’s more dramatic scenes having a good dose of
compassion. One of the film’s stand-out scenes is Stern making jokes on air
about his wife’s miscarriage. In the previous scene, the couple were happy to
crack wise confidentially, as part of their private healing process. Stern’s
need to turn his own life into content at that moment raises the conflict
between the personal and the person that has travelled throughout my mini-marathon
of movies involving radio. However, the swift quashing of that issue, along
with the absence of Sterns's more contentious moments expressed on his show,
reducing much of his antics to juvenile horniness, highlights that Stern, who
rejected a multitude of scripts before settling on the one which got made, only
wants to grapple with the battle of free speech on his terms.
But while Private Parts’ humanism of Stern feels more
shocking than its protagonist’s profanities, this may be due to the outright
psychopaths who try and ape people like Stern these days. Today’s media thrives
even more on directing people towards some outrageous yet needless controversy.
The scenes focusing on how Howard Stern's radio persona affects those close to
him are fascinating, as they argue that Stern cares about those around him.
This cannot always be said about the controversial industrial complex to the
social media superhighway these days. When Stern states he is merely
misunderstood, the film builds a case that there may be truth to the
claim.
Furthermore, Private Parts is still funny in a juvenile, nineties way. Stern is a relic, but he and the film can set up a decent guffaw or giggle, partly because Private Parts is a looser comedy in terms of theme than the comedies released now. Where jokes nowadays are funnelled down even more narrow parameters than in the 90s. But much of this stems from Betty Thomas' decent comic directing chops, while Stern, for his worth, is a watchable comic leading man. Private Parts may have sanded some of Sterns's sharper edges, and the lesbian sequences go beyond sophomoric and more into the realms of Neanderthal. Yet the film captures that element of Stern that makes him an engaging figure.
Strangely, perhaps the most notable thing about Private
Parts now is that it’s the breakout role for one Paul Giamatti who has a
fantastic role as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton. A composite of different
network executives who encountered Stern during his life, including one
real-life character he disliked immensely, Rushton is Private Parts’
unfortunate “Walter Peck” character. In hindsight, Rushton’s attempted mission
to contain Stern is understandable. And when you consider what Stern has said on
air in the past, it’s not surprising, but this biopic portrays Howard Stern as
more morally righteous than on his actual radio show. Private Parts had already
done the groundwork. Providing sympathy to Stern through Thomas' direction.
Meanwhile, Giamatti’s performance has him oozing with smarminess, making him
the perfect antagonist to get under the skin. What Pig Vomit wants to do makes
sense, yet we call him Pig Vomit because he's mean to Howard.
Much like Talk Radio and Pump up the Volume, Private Parts’
lead argues for freedom of speech on the airwaves. But while Barry Champlain
and Hard Harry used provocation to advocate something greater than themselves,
Stern’s war of words with Pig Vomit seems to be for him to make dick and fart
jokes with impunity. Partway through their dispute, Stern and his co-hosts
Robin Quivers and Fred Norris (both played by their real counterparts) re-enact
his “match game” skit: A sketch which has the team skirting around FCC rules on
obscene language by using words which have double meanings implied through
tone. It's an amusing use of language, smartly utilised by the man
whose alter ego is Fartman. Yet it’s interesting to look at this with a 2025
lens. Watching Stern bending the rules while avoiding accountability, wherein
the film Robin, a Black woman is consequently fired after his antics, hits
differently now. The internet is rife with copycat edgy podcast tryhards
inadvertently doing their best Stern impressions with none of the wit but all
the intention of punching down on their perceived opponents. All for the laugh
and none of the accountability. In addition to this, Stern is also known for a
car crash interview with Different Strokes star Dana Plato, who took her life a
day later. Private Parts highlights its banter as merely the freedom for its
misunderstood star to have some shits and giggles. For the most it is. However,
this only enhances the erasure of the DJ's darker controversies, leaving a
strange taste in the mouth.
But the modern-day flattening view of media doesn’t wholly
upend what is an amusing feature. The Brady Bunch Movie leans more effectively
into Thomas' sensibilities as a comic director, as its protagonists are chirpy,
friendly cyphers, who are thrown into a then hyper-ironic, deeply cynical
decade. There’s simply a lot of fun to be had there. But Private Parts holds
its own as a comic trifle. It understands why Stern became successful,
particularly in the 90s. Stern and Quivers are entertaining in playing tweaked
versions of themselves, while Giamatti has a blast stealing scenes as if he had
a starving orphanage to feed. There are plenty of gags, and the timing is solid.
And yet, watching Stern (dressed as Fartman) in the film's opening, he walks
backstage at an award ceremony while catching poisonous looks from a crowd of
famous celebs. He looks around, somewhat confused as to why such a humble DJ
would gain so much scorn. But this is Howard Stern, the self-proclaimed king of
all media, a man whose persona has been buffed and shined for his Hollywood
biopic. Private Parts showcases Stern as a goofy man who prides himself on
saying what's on everyone's mind. However, it’s also a film that knows when its
star should keep quiet.
Private Parts can be found on various streaming platforms
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