Howard Stern Struggles with Satire, Too

The satirists at ChristWire have struck again, fooling the King of All Media by calling him "the most vile person in the universe"

The satirical website that snookered Rachel Maddow after she took it seriously last week has claimed another scalp. On his Thursday morning show, Howard Stern went on air astonished that a Christian website had labeled him "the most vile and inhuman person in the universe."

"This is for real," grimaced Stern. "This is from ChristWire."

He then proceeds to slowly read a blog post accusing him of spreading profane pictures on Twitter including "naked lesbian women" and "drunken gay midgets."

ChristWire is run by Bryan Butvidas and Kirwin Watson who, along with a team of unpaid writers, publish satirical articles condemning immoral cultural figures. Though its articles are decidely over-the-top, its ostensible targets and the media have a track record for confusing it with actual Christian conservatives.  Embarrassingly for Stern, it never occurs to him that something is not on the level, even as he references the site's other articles, like "Is My Husband Gay?" and "How to Spot a Masturbator."

After the show, members of the Stern Fan Network, a fan forum, continued their idol's outrage. "Check it, they have the article that howard read on air," writes PittsburghMike, linking to ChristWire. "Of all the religious people in the world, Christians have got to be the fucking stupidest," writes Gretsch_Man. "Sure Jews get picked on for being cheap or whatever, but you never see them say retarded shit like that... or Buddhists for that matter."

A word to the media, if a site references "drunken gay midgets" it's probably worth doing a quick Google search on its authenticity. Stern's publicist declined to comment on the story. Audio of Stern's show is below. Warning: Stern is on satellite radio for a reason; you probably don't want to listen to this at work.