Howard Stern is breaking his silence after a 1993 sketch showing the radio shock jock repeatedly using the N-word in blackface has resurfaced online.
USAToday reports the footage was unearthed on Twitter by filmmaker Tariq Nasheed, who combined Stern's controversial comedy sketch with video of the longtime radio host claiming he's never used the racial slur during a 2019 appearance on "The View."
"I didn’t use the N-word, let's be very clear," Stern said to co-host Sunny Hostin, who challenged his use of offensive language on his show.
However, in a sketch from his 1993 pay-per-view New Year’s Eve special, Stern says the racial slur repeatedly in blackface while parodying Ted Danson's infamously divisive Friar's Club Roast of Whoopi Goldberg earlier that year.
During the skit, Stern's 'Danson' tells a number of N-word jokes while sitting next to comedian Sherman Hemsley, who impersonates Goldberg, Danson's girlfriend at the time. Stern follows up each of his offensive jokes saying, "Whoopi wrote it," to mock Goldberg's defense of Danson's 1993 Friar's Club performance. (Following the roast Goldberg said she wrote most of Danson's offensive jokes.)
The video was re-shared on Twitter Friday by Donald Trump Jr. "Yikes," he wrote.
On his SiriusXM show Monday, Stern explained that he doesn't regret "lampooning" Danson, but the radio host said he now would have done it differently.
"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," Stern said. "But would I go about it the same way now? Probably not. Not probably, I wouldn't."
Stern said he's "evolved and changed" with the help of a therapist in the years since the comedy special, adding that he doesn't view his old work.
"The (stuff) I did was (expletive) crazy," Stern said. "I’ll be the first to admit. I won’t go back and watch those old shows; it’s like, who is that guy?"
He continued: "I cringe when I look at myself 30 or 40 years ago, and that was 27 years ago. I go, I can’t stand it. Am I a bad guy? I don’t think so."
Stern also criticized Trump Jr. for sharing the video and focusing on him amid the coronavirus pandemic and rising racial tensions in the country.
Stern added that he fully supports people protesting police brutality and racial inequality.
"I'm excited about gay rights, telling you not to beat up gay people. I'm excited about the changes that are coming out of Black Lives Matter," he said. "Watching (George Floyd) choked to death, as I've said before, it's sickening and appalling and I think real change might be in the air."
Stern, who has been on the air for nearly four decades, is an outspoken critic of President Trump, who Stern says appeared on his show 27 times over the years.
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