This film documents the life and times of radio talk host Howard Stern. While his younger years are displayed in a hit and miss fashion, the years concerning his radio heyday are nicely done. He started out as a local d.j., merely spinning records and doing weather. Becoming bored with this format, he chooses to do a more spontaneous show which causes trouble with his employers. When he reaches the top of the pile at NBC, his antics become even more outrageous which catapults him to enormous fame. Vulgar, but very funny. Go on and watch it.

I saw a clip of this featured in one of those Channel 4 countdowns, I didn't acknowledge that the film was based on reality, so I was very keen, from director Betty Thomas (Doctor Dolittle, John Tucker Must Die). Basically, Howard Stern always wanted to be a disc jockey, working for a radio station, playing popular music and speaking his mind, and during the 1970's it was his goal to do it. Howard started out in college with not a lot of zing in his approach and hardly any personality on the Mic, but then he got his big break on a Detroit radio station. It is soon after starting out that Howard has a snap, his glasses and moustache come off, and his more vibrant and opinionated personality is brought out. He is joined on his own show with news anchor Robin Quivers, who shares his unorthodox approach to expressing his opinions, talking whatever he wants to, and doing whatever he can to get high ratings. The radio heads don't share all of Howard's ideas of what the listeners want, but his hilarious off-the-wall antics are getting the listeners, to the point where he is the most famous disc jockey on air. After a little misunderstanding between Howard and wife Alison (Mary McCormack) about her baby miscarriage, where he joked about it, and her forgiving him, Howard gains a bigger opportunity with NBC in New York. Howard also has the good fortune to have Alison pregnant again, but with his new bosses not understanding how he got such high ratings, it is only after taking him on board that they experience it. It is the job of Kenny Rushton (Paul Giamatti) and one or two other crew members to keep Howard in line, or force him to quit with the limitations of what he can do on radio, but this won't stop him. He has many troubles on and off Mic, high demands, including having Robin with him once again, and of course another hit with being the number one disc jockey again, but he also stays true to his family. Also starring Fred Norris, Gary Dell'Abate, Jackie Martling, Carol Alt as Gloria, Richard Portnow as Ben Stern, Allison Janney as Dee Dee, Jenna Jameson as Mandy, Ozzy Osbourne, Mia Farrow, David Letterman, AC-DC (including Brian Johnson, Iggy Pop and Wendy Whoppers as Big-Breasted Woman. Stern completely steals the show with his madcap radio hosting, and the real people playing their own parts keeps the momentum high. The best sequence is Stern using his voice with a stripping woman turning the bass up high on her speakers to have vibration style sex, it was number 28 on The 100 Greatest Funny Moments. A hilarious shock jock, a cast of well-knowns as themselves and in cameos, sexually explicit radio broadcasts, the story is based on facts, this is everything you wants in a biographical comedy. Very good!

When Betty Thomas's "Private Parts" came out, I had only loosely heard of Howard Stern, and usually in a negative context. But the movie really opened my eyes. It turns out that beyond his sometimes shocking radio content, it's all about free speech. Stern may pull some of the grossest stunts on air, but he's just showing what the First Amendment is all about. Like Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Larry Flynt, John Waters, and the Farrelly Brothers, Stern always goes for the funniest shock value. And the movie does a great job showing that.

And yes, it's true, I once got to know Aimee Luzier, who played Pig Vomit's wife. She was the assistant in a history/literature class that I took in high school.