E-Paper
Howard Stern’s rape jokes about Columbine shooting surface after Lauren Boebert comment
Stern's remarks about Republican Representative Lauren Boebert led to a torrent of criticism.
Note: The following article contains language which might be offensive to readers including remarks about sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
America's favorite shock jock, the newly-minted and self-professed woke, Howard Stern recently tore into Republican Representative Lauren Boebert after her ‘date’ during the Beetlejuice play went viral. While many criticised Stern, others drew up his old comments about the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre when Stern had commented on-air“why the shooters didn't sexually assault some of the high-school students”.
Stern’s remarks about Columbine surfaced after his comments about Lauren Boebert’s Beetlejuice date in which she was seen fraternizing with a card-carrying Democrat at a Denver theatre. Many users pointed out that Stern's remarks were deeply offensive, particularly given Stern's own history of misogynist comments. However, to understand the outrage about Stern’s comments, one needs to start from the beginning:
The BeetleJuice Date
Recently, Republican representative Lauren Boebert (36), who’s infamous for her anti-LGBT and anti-drag stance, was caught getting hot and heavy with Aspen bar owner Quinn Gallagher at a screening of Beetlejuice. According to a report in The New York Post, Quinn Gallagher and Boebert had been dating for a while. The pair were filmed making out during a screening at the theater where they were ‘vaping, singing, and causing a disturbance’. The pair were later thrown out of the Denver theater for bad behavior. Reports stated that Boebert caused a scene before exiting and even commented: “Do you know who I am?”
She later said that there would be no further dates with Gallagher and commented: “It’s always hard whenever there’s gravity put on the voters. I’m here to provide levity and lift burdens off of people. Ultimately all future date nights have been canceled, and I learned to check party affiliations before you go on a date. But all in all, it was mostly a lovely time, and I’ve taken responsibility for my actions.”
She added that voters were ‘understanding’ that it was part of her personal life. Boebert is amid a divorce with her husband Jayson who she married in 2005 and with whom she has four kids. In March, Boebert announced that her 17-year-old son Tyler was expected a baby with his girlfriend, which makes her a 36-year-old grandmother.
The incident led to a torrent of abuse from both sides of the aisle for Boebert who was accused of hypocrisy for fraternizing with the enemy, a charge that was also levelled at Gallagher who co-owns an establishment called the Hooch Craft Cocktail Bar. Gallagher’s critics have accused him of hypocrisy and making money off members of the LGBT community – Hooch has hosted drag shows in the past – while dating the hard-right Rep Boebert. This has led to Hooch getting numerous bad reviews on social media.
One man wrote on Facebook: “Apparently whatever core values co-owner Quinn Gallagher claims to possess were thrown out the window when he met Trailer Trash Queen Lauren Boebert.”
The Howard Stern Comments
Some of the harshest comments for Boebert, came from radio shock jock Howard Stern who said in a rant: “Lauren Boebert is a disgrace to this country! Forget the politics. She’s in a t—- dress. She’s with some dude. Looks like she’s obviously vaping, but also looks like she might be grabbing his penis during Beetlejuice. It’s a very erotic play, evidently. I remember the movie — there was nothing sexy about it.”
Stern added: “I don’t know what’s going on in Colorado. How do you elect someone like her? Isn’t she the one who’s screaming about drag queens all the time? … I mean, how did she win an election? How does a woman like that win an election? You know, there’s certain standards. Once you get caught lying like that, goodbye!”
Stern, sticking to his history of saying outrageous things, added: “I gotta admit, when I watch that tape, I go, ‘She must be so much fun to f—‘ … we need her in a strip club and we need her to give lap dances and play with guys’ d—- … she’s my kind of gal.”
The audio clip of the rant was shared by Mike Sington of NBC on X:
Conservative columnist Ben Shapiro called out Stern on X and wrote: “Howard Stern spent his entire career degrading and humiliating women. But he's off the hook because he mirrors all the political priorities of the Left.”
Several users also shared Stern’s older remarks about the Columbine High School Shooting of 1999 when Stern’s comments had sparked nationwide outrage.
Columbine Shooting Comments
In 1999, two twelfth-grade students murdered 12 students and a teacher at the Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado before committing suicide. It was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in US history before being surpassed by the Parkland high school shooting in 2018.
After the incident, Stern made some hugely crass remarks about the shooting in which he jested on air wondering why the killer didn’t “sexually assault” a few girls, adding for good measure that if had been him, he would have done it.
Stern had said: “'There were some really good-looking girls running with their hands over their heads. Did those kids try to have sex with any of those good-looking girls? They didn't even do that? At least if you're going to kill yourself and kill the kids, why wouldn't you have some sex? If I was going to kill some people, I'd take them out with sex.”
His comments had triggered major condemnation with Denver Rocky Mountain News saying in an editorial: “Either we are serious about showing respect for the dead and their families or we aren’t. Either we care about the quality of our culture or we don’t. Let Howard Stern make his millions in other broadcast markets. He does not belong in Denver.”
The radio channel hosting Stern’s show was asked to be dropped. Both houses in the state passed a measure which formally censured Stern for the remarks. Stern even lost a host of advertisers over the incident.
Stern is known for being polemic and making unpalatable remarks, and in the past has made fun of a plane crash that killed 74 people, parodied the death of a Hispanic singer Selena by speaking in an offensive voice and discussed the Paris Hilton sex tape with her partner Rick Salomon, but the Columbine comments have often been considered the most distasteful of all his remarks.
Thanks to Stern’s comments on Boebert, the internet again remembered the shock jock’s disgusting remarks on the Columbine massacre.
