Wack Pack

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The Wack Pack is the name given to a wide assortment of personalities heard throughout the history of The Howard Stern Show. As a parody of the Rat Pack or Brat Pack, they are a considerable part of what the radio show became notable for. Members of the pack, known as "Wack Packers", tend to be unusual in some way such as being blatantly racist, mentally disabled, perverted or having a comical voice, appearance or ability. Not every regular guest on the show is considered a member, nor are any of the show's staff members.

Through their appearances on the radio show, some Wack Packers have gained notoriety for personal appearances around the country and occasionally, played small roles in films and television programs.

Contents 1 History 2 Current Wack Packers 2.1 Beetlejuice (Lester Green) 2.2 Crackhead Bob 2.3 Crazy Alice 2.4 Eric the Midget (Eric Lynch) 2.5 Evil Dave Letterman 2.6 Mariann from Brooklyn 2.7 Rappin' Granny 2.8 Siobhan 2.9 Underdog Lady 2.10 Yucko the Clown (Roger Black) 3 Former Wack Packers 3.1 Bigfoot (Matthew McGrory) 3.2 Blue Iris 3.3 Gina Girl 3.4 Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf 3.5 Irene the Leather Weather Lady (Irene De Cook) 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

In the 1993 book Private Parts, Howard Stern lists early members of the Wack Pack, including Irene the Leather Weather Lady, who is essentially the first Wack Packer, having met Stern in May 1980 when he was broadcasting from WWWW in Detroit, Michigan. The introduction of Fred the Elephant Boy on the radio show on November 28, 1988 however, among a collection of others, made Stern call these group of show personalities as the "Wack Pack" on July 6, 1990 as documented in The History of Howard Stern.

On October 20, 2005, it was announced that the Wack Pack were to elect their own "Pope" from the group. In addition to the honour of "leading" the group, the winner would receive a $10,000 prize. The contest however, seemed to be scrapped, as it has not been mentioned on-air since the show's move to SIRIUS XM.

On June 19, 2006, the show organised a contest for the next Wack Pack member, with the winner receiving $10,000. The winner was Bigfoot.

[edit] Current Wack Packers

[edit] Beetlejuice (Lester Green)

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Crackhead Bob

Crackhead Bob first appeared on November 7, 1995, being the first in line at the release of Miss America, Stern's second autobiography, in New York City.^[1][2] During a heavy binge on crack cocaine, he suffered a stroke that left him with a severely altered cognitive and speech patterns. Bob starred as himself in Stern's biographical film Private Parts.

[edit] Crazy Alice

Crazy Alice first appeared on July 30, 1997^[3] as a caller who has a dislike for black people, although claiming to be half African-American and half Italian. She soon after made her first studio visit on October 7, 1997,^[1] and got her nickname from her mood swings and rants, though she prefers her name to be "Angry Alice".^[4] On January 2, 2007, Alice, along with Wack Packers Elliot Offen and Bigfoot, won the show's Football Pool contest, winning $8,300 each.^[5]

[edit] Eric the Midget (Eric Lynch)

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Evil Dave Letterman

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Mariann from Brooklyn

Mariann from Brooklyn is a frequent caller obsessed with Howard Stern and Artie Lange. Due to her gravelly and grating voice, Fred plays sounds of crows cawing when she calls (She likes to sing the line, "All I need is Howard in my life" to the tune of Enrique Iglesias' The Rhythm Divine). The first time the Stern crew met her in person, they were shocked to discover that she is not ugly. She recently rode the Sybian fully clothed and did not like it.

Mariann called the show on September 12, 2001 to report her sister-in-law missing from the September 11, 2001 attacks, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. It was later revealed she had perished that day.

Her sympathy, guidance and friendship with Wack Packers has lead to her be referred to as "The Wack Pack Den Mother."

On May 17, 2006, she called the show and tried to talk to Artie Lange about the dysfunctional situation with his girlfriend Dana. Lange became defensive, calling Mariann an "unfunny cunt", to which everyone responded in mild disgust, as Mariann seems to have good intentions. She "diagnosed" Lange with "Sad Clown Syndrome". She did not ask for an apology, but instead participated in Lange's roast on the evening of June 8, 2006. The two have since patched things up, though they are still known to be critical and occasionally butt heads with one another. On July 23, 2008; she called to criticize Lange after he spent several minutes insulting frequent Wrap Up Show caller "Pittsburg Pete," Artie responded by impersonating her and accusing her of being best friends with High Pitch Eric. When she defended Eric's problems by comparing them to Artie's heroin abuse, Lange said "I do heroin to forget that I know High Pitch Eric." It was later learned that he was in the midst of a drug relapse at the time.^[6]

[edit] Rappin' Granny

Rappin' Granny (a.k.a. Fruity Nutcake) is a coquettish 87-year-old, who performs rap songs for the show.

On May 8, 2006, she rode the Sybian^[7] and had an orgasm. Several staffers were especially upset by the use of a combination of the Sybian and a cane. On September 12, 2006, she came into the studio for her birthday, and rode the Sybian again, this time with her granddaughter, Stacey.

[edit] Siobhan

Siobhan (pronounced /ʃɨˈvɑːn/) is a male-to-female transsexual often mocked by Stern and staff. In October 2006, Siobhan had sex with Dave Caron known as 'KDK', co-founder of Prank Call Underground Radio, for the first time. Richard Christy, assigned to document the event, supposedly vomited at the sight of her.

High Pitch Mike, a news producer for Howard 100 News, had Siobhan sit on his face as part of a contest to win a 50 inch TV. Mike won, however the prize allegedly still sits in a box, untouched because of the trauma he suffered.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Underdog Lady

Underdog Lady^[8][9] is a woman who does performance art pieces focusing on the exploits of the cartoon character Underdog, and believes the character was underserved by being comically portrayed on television. She often asserts that Underdog deserves to be considered among the pantheon of great superheroes, and uses her performance pieces to emphasize this belief. After a falling out with Stern, whom she came to view as vulgar and crude, she described him in an interview as a "classic supervillain". During attempts at reconciliation, Stern often tries to curry favor by mentioning that his father Ben Stern did the audio for the Underdog cartoon show. She made her longest show appearance yet on October 5, 2006, in a nineteen minute telephone interview before hanging up.

[edit] Yucko the Clown (Roger Black)

Yucko the Clown is a foul-mouthed insult comedian who dresses like a clown. He is a street performer who has been featured in several show contests and bits including the World's Meanest Listener contest in 2002, where he ended as runner-up to winner "The Reverend" Bob Levy.

He wears clown make-up, including the signature red clown nose, and carries a bugle horn which he honks to punctuate a punchline. He also refuses to be photographed or videotaped without his clown makeup with the exception of the Stankervision promo images and internet sketches from The Damn Show. It has been noted on the show that Yucko has never once washed his clown outfit.

Yucko was featured on a sketch comedy show titled "Stankervision" on MTV2, but was not renewed for a second season. Many of the skits and gags featured originated on a DVD that Yucko produced called The Damn Show.

[edit] Former Wack Packers

[edit] Bigfoot (Matthew McGrory)

Known on the show as the original Bigfoot, Matthew McGrory was an actor and was known for his height (7 ft 4 in (2.24 m)) and large feet. After gaining attention in films such as Bubble Boy and Big Fish, he stopped appearing on the show. He later gained fame as Tiny in the Rob Zombie films House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. He died shortly after filming of The Devil's Rejects ended in 2005.

[edit] Blue Iris

Blue Iris (born Ellen Niermer Pinsky in Seaside, Oregon; January 21, 1947–May 8, 2009)^[10], was a pornographic actress who starred in "granny porn" scenes. Her first appearance on the show was on February 4, 2004,^[11] and guest hosted an edition of Tissue Time with Heidi Cortez on December 7, 2005 during the developmental stages of Howard 100 and Howard 101. When the radio show moved to Sirius XM in January 2006, she rode the sybian machine on April 6, 2006.^[12] She occasionally performed stand-up comedy with her comedy troupe, The Ding Dong Show. She reportedly had shock therapy in her twenties.

Her popular catch phrases include "I love a black cock," "Can I put my finger in your ass?", "This is better than rejuvenation," "I'm getting myself hot!", "I'm wearing a negligee," "I'm massaging my breasts," "Black girls, Black girls" and "Hurry up sonny, I've got a hot shit in the chamber!"

On October 18, 2006, Artie Lange engaged in a ten-second French kiss with Blue Iris to settle a bet made with professional wrestler Chris Kanyon, when the New York Yankees failed to advance past the New York Mets in the 2006 Major League Baseball playoffs.^[13] On January 30, 2007, the Howard 100 News team reported that Iris was hospitalized after suffering a stroke.^[14] The following day, she called in the radio show, describing weakness on her left side, as well as impaired verbal and math skills. In 2008, she had a seven-pound tumor removed from one of her ovaries. In April 2009, she suffered a heart attack which left her brain-dead and on life support.^[15] Her family later removed her from life support.

[edit] Gina Girl

Gina Girl debuted on Stern as a protégé of Crazy Jerry. Around `88 or `89 Howard invited undiscovered potential Wack Packers to call in to try and get invited to the Christmas party show. With her weird speech impediment (combined with Jerry's prodding in the background) she expressed her desire to come to the Super Bowl party on the show and do what she called, "a `gina-dance" (Jerry was trying to get her to say: "vagina dance"). Everyone looked forward to seeing the person that matched that voice and she did not disappoint.

The infamous `gina-dance ended in a chorus of the entire room chanting, "put it on, put it on..." Howard said, "probably the only time in my life I've ever averted my eyes to the sight of a naked woman."

Later she spoke of her "Mini" skirt and her love for "Tom Fruise" (Cruise). Within weeks her guardian found out about this and ordered Howard not to have her on the show, which Howard reluctantly had to accept. Previously, recordings of her were no-longer played on the air, and her parts had been edited out of produced bits she was a part of (e.g., the Speech Impediment Christmas Carol). This changed on the May 29, 2008 edition of the "Dracula Gottfried Meets the Wack Pack" special in which Gina Girl's segments were played in full.

Jerry later went out and found a postal worker who also had mental problems called, Gina man and basically at Jerry's prompting would yell out non sequiturs, the most famous being "This is Mother Theresa speaking from the bed, God don't want me yet, man, I got more feet to taste." Jerry and Gina Man can be seen on Howard Stern's US Open Sores video. Jerry has since retired to Florida.

[edit] Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf

Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf was an alcoholic dwarf known for his tirades and ongoing feud with Beetlejuice. Hank was a Rock 'n' Roll trivia expert winning a contest against Gary Dell'Abate while so intoxicated that he was literally falling off his stool. His death in September 2001 from complications due to alcoholism were mourned on the Howard Stern show until it was wiped from the front pages by the events of September 11th, 2001.

[edit] Irene the Leather Weather Lady (Irene De Cook)

Irene De Cook, (played by Kathy Griffin) depicted in Howard Stern's Private Parts was a leather designer and costumer for several recording artists including The Romantics, Eric Burdon of The Animals, Alice Cooper and Blondie's drummer, Clem Burke. She is also a radio personality, a make-up artist (on-call for Pope John Paul II for his 1987 Papal visit), and works as a webmistress.

DeCook was heard on The Howard Stern Show in Detroit, Michigan on WWWW Radio as "The Leather Weather Lady" from May 1980 through January 1981 (making her effectively the first Wack Packer). She also guested on 89X (Detroit/Windsor) morning drive radio from 1991–1992 as "The Leather Weather Lady". She appeared on an interview for "The History of Howard Stern" that aired on December 17, 2007.^[16]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Wack Pack at the Yahoo! Directory
• Wack Pack Profiles on HowardStern.com
• Howard Stern Wikia A Howard Stern Wikia Project

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