Howard Stern is excusing the “weird” comments his friend Jerry Seinfeld made about him having no “comedy chops,” since Seinfeld had just “came off a really bad week” battling what Stern called “blatant antisemitism.”
Stern addressed Seinfeld’s comment that Stern wasn’t a comedian and that his show had been “outflanked” by other comedic interview shows on the air today, in a new episode of The Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM. Speaking about the comments, as first reported by The Things, Stern recalled how “Jerry had said that basically I’m an interviewer and that I’m not a comedian and that now comedians have podcasts and comedians are, you know, funnier or something than me,” adding, “I read it, and I went, ‘Oh, that’s weird’.”
During an appearance on the Fly On The Wall podcast with comedians and Saturday Night Live! alums Dana Carvey and David Spade this month, Seinfeld brought up Stern and compared their show to his. “Howard Stern invented this, right?” Seinfeld said, “Howard is interesting. Howard is a great interviewer, but comedy chops, I mean, can we speak candidly?” and concluded, “Let’s face it, he’s been outflanked.”
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Instead of getting offended, Stern acknowledged that Seinfeld had a tough week leading up to that interview. As Seinfeld’s movie Unfrosted was panned by critics, comments he made during the press run to promote the film landed him in hot water multiple times. His outspoken support of Israel has also drawn him some criticism, as Duke University students walked out of their own commencement ceremony to protest his speech. “I thought, well—I think he came off a really bad week, let’s put it that way,” Stern said.
“These anti-Israel protestors get up and they disrupt his speech,” Stern said, recalling the incident. “Why? Because he's a Jew. Ridiculous.”
Although the exact reason for the walkout is somewhat unclear, public criticism of Seinfeld as described on social media hasn’t centered his being Jewish—it’s centered on photos from 2018 circulating on social media that show him posing enthusiastically with Israeli soliders, as well as his relationship with a high schooler in the 1990s that people have seen as “grooming.” But Stern isn’t buying it.
“That’s Nazi bullshit,” he continued, in defense of Seinfeld. “What does he have to do with the policies in Israel? Nothing.” He added, “They’re yelling out ‘Free Palestine! Free Palestine!’ What does Jerry Seinfeld got to do with ‘Free Palestine’? He’s a Jewish man who supports Israel. What does he got to do with it? He isn't [Benjamin] Netanyahu. Blatant fucking antisemitism.”
As for Seinfeld’s comments about Stern, the radio host said that in addition to his public apology, where he called his comments “terrible and insulting,” he also wanted to come on The Howard Stern Show to apologize on air there as well.
“Jerry called me immediately and was like, ‘Oh, fuck, I fucked up, and I want to apologize,” Stern said. “He goes, ‘You know when you’re on the air, and shit just comes out wrong?’” he continued, recalling the phone call. Even though Stern said he found the Seinfeld’s comments weird since “Jerry is a personal friend of ours, especially his wife Jessica is really good friends with [my wife],” Stern said no further apology was necessary.
“I said ‘Jerry, you don’t even have to—please,” Stern recalled, “This is embarrassing. I’m the king of going on the air and having millions of regrets afterward. Apology accepted, I don’t care.” He added that “it wasn’t really that big a deal” and “I didn’t really think much about it.”
Seinfeld’s public apology certainly sounded sincere, as he told Page Six: “Of course, none of these little shows are any threat to his giant show,” and addressed Stern directly: “It was bad and I’m sorry, Howie. I still love you. Please forgive me.”
