Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

It's All About Self-Promotion

It may have been P.T. Barnum who did it first...or it might have been Mark Twain...heck, it could have been Genghis Khan for all I know. All I know is that it works. Unabashed self-promotion has been based on the notion that "any publicity is good publicity," and even if we hate the self-promoter, we are intrigued. Gorgeous George? Loved him or hated him...no middle road there. And so it is with Howard Stern.
His latest flap involves ripping Ellen DeGeneres in her new role as a judge on American Idol: "She looks like she got punched in the face" as well as broadly hinting that he will be taking Simon Cowell's place as a judge at the end of this season. This, of course, set off a firestorm of comments from bloggers, tweeters and watchdog groups: some hate the idea, but some think it will make the program at least bearable to watch. Whether you are a fan of Stern's or not, his latest salvo has generated a buzz...and it's all about him: a guy who's been on the radio and TV for more than 20 years with his faithful sidekick Robin and an assortment of low-life (according to some) guests. The humor is junior high male, but who's to say it's any more suggestive than this week's Sports Illustrated...which is available to young boys everywhere. Anyway, not to promote Howard any more, but it just piques my curiosity as to what a program might be like:

(Singer finishes):
Randy: "I could tell you really felt the emotion in that song, that you were elevating yourself to a new level."
Ellen: " That was very uplifting. Let's do a little dance with that."
Howard: "That was the worst piece of s--- I've heard. You are so f----ng bad that you deserve to be thrown out of here. But, you'd look pretty good without a top on. Would you take your top off?" What do you think, Robin?"
Robin: "She's hot all right."

Ryan Seacrest: "Whoa, Howard. That's a little bit over the top there."
Howard: "Right. Can we get her top off?"

While I have never watched an entire episode of either program, that's what I would imagine. Of course, it's all pretend. Ellen wouldn't be on the show after getting punched in the face by Howard Stern.

Once again, we're talking about a tireless self-promoter...one whose contract with Sirius is up after this year. Gee, I wonder why this came up now?

1 Comments:

At 8:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think your characterization of Howard Stern on American Idol couldn't be more dead on. I could hear his voice as I read it. Scary.

 

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