Media mogul Howard Stern is defending himself from accusations of racism after video from a skit he performed in the early 1990s drew renewed scrutiny.
In the 1993 skit, part of Stern’s pay-per-view New Year’s Rotten Eve, Stern is seen wearing blackface and parodying Ted Danson’s New York Friars Club roast of Whoopi Goldberg.
Stern is heard using the N-word multiple times during the segment, a clip of which has recently been shared thousands of times on social media.
Remember that time Howard Stern wore blackface and said the N-word a dozen times?
I do pic.twitter.com/s28vrv4qQ7— PG Howie (@PGHowie2) June 12, 2020
“The shit I did was f—ing crazy,” Stern told Deadline in a story published 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. 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.”
President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was among the prominent pundits to criticize Stern, who has made unflattering comments about the president since he has been elected.
“Yikes!” Trump Jr. tweeted.
Yikes!
NSFW: Howard Stern says N-word too many times during awful blackface impression that should have Libs yelling “CANCEL!” https://t.co/b9XJg2krnS
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 12, 2020
Stern, who recently said on an episode of ABC’s The View that he had never used the N-word, said he does not regret wearing blackface but does regret using the racial slur during the skit.
“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.”
The death of George Floyd last month has started a renewed national conversation about racism in America and controversial messages or symbols in movies, television, and culture.
