Howard Stern doesn’t always watch sports, but when he does, he wants broadcasters to stop dancing around “penis.”
On his Wednesday morning SiriusXM show, Stern set up a Swap Shop radio prank call by discussing the tendency of sportscasters to act like “penis” is one of those seven words you can’t say on television.
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“You know when a Major League Baseball player gets hit in the nuts on TV or if you’re listening on the radio,” Stern said. “The announcers will never say, ‘Hey, the guy got hit in the nuts.’ They dance around it.”
The Howard Stern Show proceeded to air a montage of MLB broadcasters doing everything in their power to avoid saying “penis” on air.
“I love when radio announcers or anyone in media is still pretending like our world isn’t a f*cking mess and there’s no internet and there’s no porn,” Stern continued. “These guys are dancing around the words like, ‘Hey, the guy got hit in the nuts or balls or testicles.’ They’re acting like it’s still the 1940s or 50s.”
Unbeknownst to Stern, this rant interestingly occurred the morning after John Kruk said “testicle” during Tuesday night’s Philadelphia Phillies broadcast. Albeit occurring as Kruk urged people to get checked for testicular cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 1994, resulting in surgery to remove one testicle, but he said “testicle” nonetheless.
Stern isn’t the first person to call for the normalization of “penis” and any affiliated terms during sports broadcasts. The King of All Media would be proud to learn of Chris Wittyngham’s previous efforts to normalize broadcasters saying “penis.” Stern, however, would be disappointed to know Wittyngham has since given up on his quest. Wittyngham’s failed quest did at least unearth two other penis normalizers in media, WFAN’s Al Dukes and WGN’s Pat Tomasulo. Maybe Stern’s interest can help unite those who want to insert more penises into sports broadcasts.
Ironically, Howard Stern’s penis is the only one that ever consistently gets mentioned on a sports broadcasts. But it usually comes from someone in the crowd, not the announcer.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com