Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf

Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf
File:Henry Joseph Nasiff Jr.jpg
Born	(1962-04-20)April 20, 1962 Fall River, Massachusetts
Died	September 4, 2001(2001-09-04) (aged 39) Fall River, Massachusetts

Henry Joseph Nasiff Jr. (April 20, 1962 – September 4, 2001), better known as Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, was an American entertainer. He appeared numerous times on The Howard Stern Show as a member of the show's Wack Pack. He began August 16, 1996 when he entered the studio of radio station WXRK (K-Rock) in New York City. Hank died in Fall River, Massachusetts, the same city of his birth. He was 4 ft 1 in (1.24 m) tall, and weighed 95 lb (43 kg; 6.8 st). He was of Lebanese descent.

Nasiff first came to public prominence in August 1996 after his debut on Howard Stern's radio show. Stern's producer Gary Dell'Abate recalled arriving at work and being met by an obviously intoxicated dwarf who aggressively demanded that he be permitted to meet Stern. Dell'Abate immediately answered, "Follow me." Nasiff's first radio appearance that day included a slurred reading of a series of insult punchlines against the Jews, politicians, the British, the Portuguese and several other groups, which Nasiff had scrawled on a piece of paper while waiting to get inside the building.

In 1998, People Magazine ran an online poll to determine the most beautiful people in the world, where somebody facetiously entered Nasiff as a write-in candidate. Nasiff won the contest, receiving hundreds of thousands of votes. At the time the online poll was launched, People led voters to believe that it would influence the print magazine's annual listing of "the most beautiful people." But People refused to allow online votes to influence the magazine results. However, following Nasiff's death three years later People Magazine acknowledged Nasiff's "landslide" victory, noting that he had "best[ed] Brad Pitt, George Clooney and other, more obvious candidates."

The poll was configured so that users could vote multiple times, by deleting a cookie given from the site. Many contestants had scripts written that would allow users to vote repeatedly, and the site "crashed more than once" during the voting period. Other unlikely candidates in that polls' top 10 included They Might Be Giants keyboardist John Linnell and pro wrestler Ric Flair.

In later appearances, Nasiff would sometimes appear in costume, including a tuxedo, a pink bunny suit, a leprechaun outfit and a Superman suit.

Despite his physical limitations and alcohol-related troubles, Nasiff was intelligent and had an exceptional knowledge of rock music trivia. In an April 2001 appearance, Nasiff competed in a rock and roll trivia contest with Dell'Abate. Despite being so drunk that he was unable to sit upright in his chair, he easily won the quiz. After Hank won the contest, Howard predicted, "He's gonna drop dead, I swear to God." Hank fell half-asleep on the floor shortly afterward, prompting Howard to say, "I don't predict a long life for Hank." He died less than 5 months later.

Stern revealed on his radio show that a show employee had attempted on multiple occasions to get Hank help for his alcoholism, which was refused. While medical experts ruled that his death was a combination of cirrhosis of the liver and internal organ compression due to his height, Nasiff's official cause of death was listed as a seizure disorder on his death certificate.

Nasiff had a brief acting career which included playing the role of God in the B-film Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV.

See also

• Howard Stern
• The Wack Pack

External links

• Template:Yahoo directory
• "An Unexpected Connection," by Dan Kennedy, Unitarian Universalist World, March/April 2002
• Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf at IMDb