Comedian Lange crosses the line on 'Joe Buck Live'... rips Romo, Jess (Irvin blurb)

[WoodysGirl]

By Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — It was train wreck TV Monday night as comedian Artie Lange of The Howard Stern Show took over the maiden taping of HBO's new show, Joe Buck Live.
Lange unleashed a barrage of obscene and homophobic jokes about Buck and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, while calling singer Jessica Simpson a "fat chick" who resembles the late Saturday Night Live comic Chris Farley.

At the end of the live taping in Manhattan, Buck thanked Lange for putting an end to his show after one episode. Fellow guest Michael Irvin grabbed the microphone and joked: "It's refreshing to see white-on white crime."

The show is sure to draw comparisons to author Buzz Bissinger's tirade against bloggers during a live episode of Costas Now last year.

Buck told USA TODAY he couldn't wait for the Lange segment to end. "I thought that spending time on a treadmill felt long. That was like 8 or 9 minutes that turned into an eternity. You know, it's cable, you can get away with it. It's not my style. But, you do one show and you learn and you move on."

Buck told reporters he thought Lange had an "agenda" when he came on stage to discuss the intersection of sports and celebrity. He was sorry Lange took time away from actors Paul Rudd and Jason Sudeikis of SNL. But Buck said there was little he could do to control the invited guest without "kicking him off the set" or hitting a "trap door."

"It's a thought. A gigantic hook," said Buck.

Standing nearby, HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg said Lange "bordered on bad taste" with his "mean-spirited" tone.

"Look, live television is all about risk-reward. We know who Artie Lange was when he was booked," said Greenburg. "We knew there was a certain degree of a risk factor in where he would go and where he would take us. I think at the end of the day, we'll let the public decide. Much the same way the public decided on the appearance of Will Leitch and Buzz Bissinger. ... The public will have the last say in what they thought of Artie Lange tonight."

Greenburg hoped Lange's antics wouldn't overshadow Buck's one-on-one interview with quarterback Brett Favre who opened up to Buck about his recent shoulder surgery and possible return to the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings.

"He's had a lot said about him and he's had zero chance to answer anything and put it in his own words," said Buck about Favre.

Buck said HBO booked Stern's Sirius Satellite Radio sidekick because he's a "funny guy" and an "enormous" sports fan. "We didn't book him to be crude. We didn't book him to walk and cross some line. We booked him because he's a comedian, he's in town, he's a funny guy and somebody who loves sports."

Controversy's not a bad thing in the TV business, especially when networks are trying to get viewers to try out new shows. Clips of Lange's performance on Joe Buck Live were already ping-ponging around YouTube last night.

"Do I think it went too far? Yes," said Buck. "Will he be back? If it's up to me, no. But again it's live TV man."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2009-06-16-artie-lange-joe-buck_N.htm

[Rampage]

he's never been funny and has some nerve calling somebody else fat.

[Hoofbite]

You ask a guy from Howard Stern to come to your show and then get shocked at the results?

I haven't heard of Joe Bucks show but it seems like they want to be taken seriously.

Mistake #1

Having anything to do with Howard Stern.

[tomson75]

He called Jessica fat? Hmmm...

That guy is a worthless, fat ***, yankee fan POS. God I hate "New Yorkers".

Irvin should have gotten up and beaten his rotund ***.

[Danny White]

I listen to the Stern show regularly, and Artie is just not that funny. It has only a very little to do with being crude, it's more that he's completely self-absorbed and doesn't have a very good internal filter for figuring out what's genuinely funny and what is simply shock value material.

[BrAinPaiNt]

He was funny in animal house as flounder.

;)

[Phrozen Phil]

He was funny in animal house as flounder.

;)

A one hit wonder, perhaps? :drunk:

[WoodysGirl]

The video is on youtube if anyone's interested in find it. Obviously, it can't be posted here. It's quite raw.

--------------------

Joe Buck, Way Out Of His Element
Posted by Mike Florio on June 16, 2009, 10:28 a.m.

Watching celebrities attempt to survive outside their normal element makes for compelling television.

When it happens, the producers usually are delighted.

We can’t imagine that “delight” would describe the feelings of anyone remotely connected to HBO’s Joe Buck Live right now, with the exception of anyone whose secret goal was to torpedo the entire effort.

For Artie Lange, his mission to destroy Buck’s non-sports career (and, possibly, his sports career, too) became obvious, both during the show that aired on the official HBO network and the extra segment that appeared on HBO.com.

In our view, the paddles now can be removed from Buck’s attempt to cross over from sports. The only remaining question is whether the folks at FOX will now regard Buck differently — or whether enough members of the FOX audience will do so to prompt the executives at FOX that it’s time to begin to groom someone else to be the network’s ubiquitous face of sports announcing.

Meanwhile, we assume that whoever booked Lange for the show already has cleaned out his or her desk. (And that’s no small task, since we also assume that Lange stopped by a took a dump on it as he was leaving.)

The best line actually came from Michael Irvin, who said in response to the Lange-Buck verbal awkwardness, “It’s refreshing to see white-on-white crime.”

If you don’t know what we’re talking about, our friends at Deadspin have posted the video of the “bonus” portion of the show.

Here’s the primary on-air segment:

Vid deleted

[vta]

I listen to the Stern show regularly, and Artie is just not that funny. It has only a very little to do with being crude, it's more that he's completely self-absorbed and doesn't have a very good internal filter for figuring out what's genuinely funny and what is simply shock value material.

I agree. I used to listen to Stern when he was on regular radio and after Jackie left and they brought in Lange it really went downhill. The best he could come up with was a 'hick' voice that he constantly pulled. That and jokes about his constipation. Lame.

And whoever said it is right: he comes from the Howard Stern show and he knew it would make great material for the following days show. Stern is going to have a field day with this.

[AbeBeta]

Funny thing is I heard Lange on an NPR show last week and he was interesting, polite, and very funny.

[vta]

Funny thing is I heard Lange on an NPR show last week and he was interesting, polite, and very funny.

It's not surprising that people change their behavior based on their company and format. People take advantage where they can and don't where it's not prudent to.

What show was he on?

[AbeBeta]

It's not surprising that people change their behavior based on their company and format. People take advantage where they can and don't where it's not prudent to.

What show was he on?

I think it was Fresh Air.I actually had never heard of him and was surprised to hear he was on Stern

[bbgun]

I like Artie, but he was a nicer guy when he was hooked on smack. Ever since he got clean, he's been mean as hell. He claimed today that the HBO producer told him to "go wild" if things got boring, so who knows what the truth is.

[WoodysGirl]

I like Artie, but he was a nicer guy when he was hooked on smack. Ever since he got clean, he's been mean as hell. He claimed today that the HBO producer told him to "go wild" if things got boring, so who knows what the truth is.
From the snippet I saw posted on PFT, he went wild at the very beginning. The show never even had a chance to get boring.

Not saying a HBO person didn't tell him to do it, but if the segment I saw was anything to go by, he started off as soon as he got introduced.

[bbgun]

'Joe Buck' Starts With a Bang, Artie Lange Fires Back


Joe Buck said he wanted to create a sports talk and comedy show where he could "loosen up and have fun," and that's exactly what Artie Lange did on Buck's new show, "Joe Buck Live."

Except that Lange's version of "fun" isn't exactly appropriate for live television.

Lange launched an expletive-filled attack at host Buck and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo that included homophobic jokes about the two and a slam against Jessica Simpson, calling Romo's singing galpal a "fat chick."

HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg said Lange "bordered on bad taste" with his "mean-spirited" tone in an article in USA Today.

The Howard Stern sidekick then chose to respond on Stern's Sirius-XM radio show this morning by telling Greenburg, "Go **** yourself, I don't care how important you are in this business."

"And Ross Greenburg, you ************, you came up to me and said, 'If [fellow panelists] Paul [Rudd] and Jason [Sudeikis] get boring, you go nuts," said Lange.

As for Buck, the foulmouthed Lange said the sportscaster was "very friendly" toward him after the segment.

[Doomsday]

Why would they think any of us would want to listen to a fool who has been riding Stern's coat tails the last 10 years? Artie is a moron and not even close to being funny.

[WoodysGirl]

HBO's 'Joe Buck Live': The day after
10:44 AM Tue, Jun 16, 2009 | Permalink
Barry Horn/Reporter E-mail News tips

Joe Buck''s debut HBO show will forever be remembered for a segment that included Howard Stern funnyman Artie Lange rip Buck's taste in websites. It was vulgar to say the least. Lange hi-jacked the live show. If it was buzz that HBO was looking for when it invited Lange, it is buzz they will get.

Can't blame Lange. He was who he is. What was HBO expecting? The look on Buck's face after Lange questioned his sexual orientation was priceless. Youtubes are coming and going today with HBO claiming copyright infringement. Here's a link to one that was at 1 p.m.

This will be a storyline with legs. Some folks will contend HBO and Buck will love the buzz. I think not. In a conversation I had with Buck on Friday, we talked about the appeal of live TV. He was excited that his show would be live.

"The show is 100 percent live," Buck said. "Letterman and Conan tape at 5 pm or 6 pm and appear live. People will be seeing our show as we are doing it."

Lange, a Giants fan, had this to say about the Cowboys: "I hate the Cowboys...It's like a white trash gift from God that the (bleepin') Cowboys have a quarterback whose last name rhymes with Homo." Then he went on to rip Jessica Simpson. It wasn't really funny. The camera did catch Michael Irvin, who had been on stage earlier, in the audience laughing it up.

About Buck and Lange, Irvin later told The New York Times: "It's refreshing to see white-on-white crime."

It will be interesting to see how HBO handles all the upcoming replays it has scheduled of the show that is scheduled to be broadcast quarterly.


Comments (1) Leave comment | TrackBack (0) | E-mail entry

[MetalHead]

First off,I want to apologize to the Simpson family...

[jswalker1981]

Umm, WOW! Artie apparently really hates the Cowboys (especially Romo), he blames Irvin for betting losses, and, well, just really goes a little crazy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/16/artie-lange-rips-joe-buck_n_216163.html

[Rampage]

First off,I want to apologize to the Simpson family...
oh snap! that fat ******* giants fan posts here at the zone!

[zack]

Umm, WOW! Artie apparently really hates the Cowboys (especially Romo), he blames Irvin for betting losses, and, well, just really goes a little crazy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/16/artie-lange-rips-joe-buck_n_216163.html

Sorry, never heard of the guy and clearly don't care about him either.

[Bleu Star]

I listen to Stern a few times a week on the way to work during the week. Good entertainment. Artie's pretty funny too.

[Wood]

Artie has been hating the cowboys for a very very long time. He is staunch Giants fan. Does Artie still look like he is gonna die at any moment because he is eating himself to death ontop of his little heroin habit. Funny guy though

[bbgun]

Artie has been hating the cowboys for a very very long time. He is staunch Giants fan. Does Artie still look like he is gonna die at any moment because he is eating himself to death ontop of his little heroin habit. Funny guy though

I loved it when he swapped insults with Yukko the Clown recently.

[Big Dakota]

oh snap! that fat ******* giants fan posts here at the zone!
The real AL is a Rhodes Scholar compared to this jem.

[The Ominous]

Pretty tasteless and the Cowboys stuff is to be expected.

But in all honesty, I laughed very hard at Lange's first comment regarding Joe's "favorite websites".

I've been wanting to tell Joe Buck that for quite a long time.

[Bleu Star]

Artie has been hating the cowboys for a very very long time. He is staunch Giants fan. Does Artie still look like he is gonna die at any moment because he is eating himself to death ontop of his little heroin habit. Funny guy though

He has actually lost some weight. He's down about 30-40lbs.

[REDVOLUTION]

So NOW everyone is aware that Joe Buck has a show.


I just saw Joe Buck cut Arty a check.

[The Ominous]

So NOW everyone is aware that Joe Buck has a show.


I just saw Joe Buck cut Arty a check.

Yep. Should of added this in my post because I was thinking the same thing.

Joe Buck should be thanking his lucky constellations that Artie Lange is bringing publicity to his disaster of a show.

It was one of the worst things I've ever seen. The audience knew it. The guests knew it. Even Joe himself knew it.

Artie Lange was the only bright spot and that is saying A LOT.

[SLATEmosphere]

I listen to Stern a few times a week on the way to work during the week. Good entertainment. Artie's pretty funny too.

Howard Stern and the show are funny. Artie is trash. He acts like he's all tough by saying "shock value" things but someone needs to punch that guy right in his fat face. He sucks up to Howard and it's pretty pathetic how obvious it is.

[Achozen]

I thought it was funny. I hate Joe Buck, so....

It is, what it is.