YMMV / The Howard Stern Show

• Awesome Music: The jazzy tune that opened the show for many years, the current theme written specifically for Howard by Rob Zombie, or any number of the musical performances done by profession musicians, many of which are rare acoustic performances that aren't to be heard anywhere else.
• Broken Base: There are a group of fans who feel the show started going downhill after Howard's divorce and when Jackie Martling left during 2001. Another argument among the fanbase is whether or not the show became better after the move to censorship-free satellite radio, or if the show was better when Stern had enemies like censors and meddling executives to fight against.
  • There are plenty of people who believe that the years with Artie Lange were a great turnaround for the show, and the show once again went downhill after his leaving.
  • There is a perennial debate among fans as to what the "golden era" of the Stern Show was. It tends to come down to the early-to-mid 90s (which was on terrestrial radio) or the mid-to-late 2000s (which was on satellite). Proponents of the former cite the groundbreaking nature of the show in that time, as well as many classic bits that would become forever memes in the HSS universe. Proponents of the latter claim the show took a huge step forward without the censorship, as well as citing the many sagas around Artie, Sal & Richard, Eric the Midget, etc. as both captivating and hilarious.
• Creator's Pet: Eric the Midget, while not a member of the show, he makes numerous calls into the show and Howard devotes a lot of time to him. Eric is polarizing to say the least and turns off many. The Stern show always had characters like him around, but never allowed them to dominate or be on as much as Eric.
  • Ralph Cirella to an even bigger extent (See The Scrappy below). Howard's stylist since the early 90s, he's one of Howard's best friends and has a direct line to call Howard to comment on whatever is being talked about. Seemingly the overwhelming majority of Stern fans can't stand him, and Howard has stated he receives more hate mail than the KKK Grand Wizard Daniel Carver who's on occasionally. It doesn't help that it's perceived (and seems to be true) that he really has no other job than laying out Howard's clothes in the morning and fixing his hair, and essentially mooches off him. But Howard loves him and likes him on the air, so he'll never go away.
  • Benjy Bronk, as specified in The Scrappy below.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Opie & Anthony.
• Harsher in Hindsight: During an interview on the show, John Kricfalusi noted with some pride that the very fanservicey character Sody Pop was underage. Kricfalusi would later be accused of sexually preying on teenage girls.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Back in 1988, Howard once subbed as a guest announcer/panelist on The Hollywood Squares, as normal announcer Shadoe Stevens was subbing as host that week. One year later, Howard parodied the series multiple times on his Channel 9 show- Homeless Howiewood Squares is notable for having Jaye P. Morgan and GENE RAYBURN, who even occupied his lower-left seat from MG-HS!
• Hollywood Homely: If you only listened to the show on the radio, you would think Gary was physically repulsive with horrible ugly teeth. He is actually a pretty average looking guy.
• Memetic Mutation: "Bababooey." (an isolated audio clip of Gary Dell'Abate misremembering the name of the Quick Draw McGraw character Baba Looey from the July 26, 1990 episode, which became memetic during The New '10s due to the Inherently Funny Words aspect of the misnomer, as well as it being an oddly clean and crisp audio sample.)
• Once Original, Now Common: During his rise to fame, Stern was considered by many as the most hilarious man in morning radio, and even his detractors would call him different and original, hence why they wanted to stamp him out before he could spread. Skip forward some years, too many imitators to count, and the censorship free internet, and many are left wondering why he was considered special to begin with. As for being different and original, no one did Howard's style of material when he first arrived. When he became a hit, everyone wanted to do a Howard Stern style show, yet many competitors were so bad that when Howard was syndicated into their market, he conquered them in the ratings very swiftly. And since Howard hasn't changed his act much, and a smaller number of people have access to him on satellite radio, so many other radio shows now do a "Howard Stern Show" styled radio show, and people have no idea that Stern was ever that unique. His impact has diminished because of this.
• Periphery Demographic: Sal and Richard's phony phone calls have a fandom of their own thanks to ubiquitious collections on YouTube.
  • YouTube compilations of old Stern shows are arguably more popular than the show itself at this point. Plenty of people who have never listened to Stern live still find the YouTube comps interesting due to the sheer amount of dirty laundry the show has chronicled over the years. Artie's on-air battles with addiction, Sal's marital problems, and the many sagas of Eric the Midget can still make for pretty captivating radio even if you aren't all that familiar with the show.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Gilbert Gottfried as a guest was loathed by half the audience and loved by the other half during his lifetime. After his death, most audience members ended up loving him and miss him dearly.
  • Ronnie the Limo Driver (briefly) got this with his handling of Artie’s on-air fight with his assistant Teddy.
• The Scrappy: Although there are plenty, one of the main ones is Ralph Cirella. Ralph has been part of the show for over 20 years, but is generally disliked. Howard once responded that Ralph gets more hate mail than KKK member Daniel Carver.
  • Howard's wife Beth also qualifies.
  • Benjy Bronk can come off as this in spades, mainly for his obnoxious behavior, his tendency to constantly be late for work, his annoyance of other cast members and various other strange ventures. Many hate him so much that they wish for Howard to fire him, which doesn't seem to be the case considering Howard finds him amusing, though he has made Howard mad on a few occasions.
  • A few Wack Pack members qualify, such as Eric the Actor, who got so bad with his selfish behavior that Howard threatened to ban him from the show at one point. Other famous notoriously hated Packers include Elegant Elliot Offen, High Pitch Erik, Joey Boots, Daniel Carver and Melrose Larry Green. That hasn't stopped people from finding them funny and/or entertaining as all hell, though.
  • Ronnie walks the line between funny and annoying quite frequently. While he undoubtedly gets some hilarious lines in from time to time, many fans find him to be very needy and thin-skinned.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The change from terrestrial radio to satellite along with changes to staff and segments along with it. Many have stated that part of the show's original humor was seeing how much they could get away with on terrestrial radio, and that the show has lost that edge now that anything goes.
• Vindicated by History: As mentioned above, Eric the Midget was a pretty divisive caller in his time, with many listeners believing he slowed down the pace of the show with his boring and often miserable personality. Quite a few listeners even said they stopped listening to the show because it became too focused on Eric. However, thanks to YouTube compilations, Eric's calls have soared in popularity in the years since his death and he is now widely considered to be the most legendary Wack Packer of all time. By not giving in to popular demand of the day and continuing to take Eric's calls despite listener complaints, Howard created a repository of radio gold that would end up being massively appreciated years later.
• The Woobie: Again, Gary. Artie with his substance abuse.

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