Howard Stern has addressed backlash after a skit resurfaced on social media last week showing him in blackface and using the N-word.
The video shows Stern, 66, with his face painted black, along with white lips, as he repeatedly uses the racial slur.
The video, posted by filmmaker filmmaker Tariq Nasheed, is edited to include a clip from a past appearance on The View where Stern insisted he’d never used the N-word.
‘I was crazy’: Howard Stern has addressed a decades-old clip of him wearing blackface and using the N-word which resurfaced on Twitter last week
The 1993 sketch shows Stern parodying Ted Danson’s infamous blackface performance alongside then-girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg that same year.
Stern plays Danson in blackface, as his sidekick Robin Quivers asks him questions. The answers are punchlines that involve the use of the N-word.
When the audience reacts with shock to his use of the word, Stern defends himself saying ‘Whoopi wrote that’.
On Monday, Stern addressed the video on his SiriusXm radio show, explaining that he’s a different person now and does not condone his past actions.
Lampooning: The 1993 skit showed Stern parodying Ted Danson’s infamous blackface performance alongside then-girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg that same year
Joke: Stern plays Danson in blackface, as his longtime sidekick Robin Quivers asks him questions in which the answers are punchlines that involve he use of the N-word
‘The sh** I did was f***ing crazy,’ he said, as reported by Deadline. ‘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.’
‘The big headline is this, and this is my fear in all of this,’ Stern continued. ‘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.’
Stern had some choice words for the Donald Trump Jr., as he hit out at the president’s son for retweeting the clip.
‘The sh** I did was f***ing crazy,’ Stern said on his show on Monday. ‘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.’
It’s happened more than once: Another Twitter user chimed in with another clip of Stern in blackface
Trump Jr. retweeted the clip with the caption: ‘Yikes! NSFW: Howard Stern says N-word too many times during awful blackface impression that should have Libs yelling “CANCEL!”’
‘Am I a bad guy? I don’t think so,’ Stern said. ‘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… I remember how badly Donald Jr. wanted to take a picture with me. Dude, if you’re the president of the United States and you want to worry about me, go ahead.
Yikes: Stern hit out at Donald Trump Jr. after he retweeted the clip goading liberals to ‘cancel’ him
Stern continued, ‘It f**king distresses me that Donald Trump Jr. and Donald themselves won’t go into psychotherapy and change… Attacking me during the coronavirus and Black Lives Matter is absolutely f**king crazy, concentrating on me.’
‘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.’
He continued to slam the Trump family for focusing on the wrong issues at a time of crisis in the US.
‘At the same point, I will say, it f**king distresses me that Donald Trump Jr. and Donald themselves won’t go into psychotherapy and change… Attacking me during the coronavirus and Black Lives Matter is absolutely f**king crazy, concentrating on me.
‘You want to concentrate on me and bully me, and expose me, with all the TV shows I’ve done? They’re all out there. There’s nothing new here. We all know. I was the craziest motherf**ker on radio.’