Best known for being on the Howard Stern Show. He apparently stabbed himself with a knife nine times. Three deeps wounds and six "hesitation" wounds. His mom found him bleeding out when she stopped by his apartment to dropoff food. He is recovering and is said to be okay physically...but holy crap. Sad news. One of my favorite comedians of recent times. http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/stern_sidekick_in_suicide_try_5m9Hwhn1OvpONlzbsiW3oJ
Love the show, love Artie... it's messed up. Wonder what happens now, I mean he's almost been kicked off the show numerous times. Look at how AJ Benza was kicked off the show. I always wanted Billy West back because him and Fred's sound effects are the best parts of the show. F Jackie!
You'd be surprised at how many comedians are depressed and/or lonely people. Laughing at the world keeps them sane.
if he's still on drugs or alcohol or both, not sure what he was addicted to, him getting kicked off might be the best thing for him. Addicts need a bottom so to speak.........................
Everybody knows what it is. Heroin Booze Cocaine all at the same time. What is interesting here is that usually, when suicide attempts fail...it is a cry for help. People that REALLY want to kill themselves do a pretty good job of it. (My cousin painted his wall with his brains) But this guy STABBED himself 9 times. Jeeez. This tells me (putting on my shrink hat) that some self loathing is involved. I hope he gets better...He is very talented.
I dont know. from what I know suicidal people also have a knack for just not thinking clearly and out of desperation can sometimes not do it "right" so to speak. I would also assume he is doing the drugs because of whatever it is that is driving him to suicide as well.
It takes a special level of self loathing to try to kill yourself with stab wounds instead of one of the faster ways out.
i just started to listen to the show last week. Havent heard HS since he went to satellite. Sucks to hear about Artie.
This should come as a surprise to no one. He's been a train wreck for years. The only thing that makes me sad about this is that he'll get press and attention for this like no other due to his association with Howard, yet far more talented and just as troubled comedians like Richard Jeni and Mitch Hedberg's deaths went unnoticed.
What I wonder is whether the six hesitation wounds came before or after the three deep ones. I'm no expert on suicide.
Yeah, exactly!!!! Isn't this the same guy that sabbotaged a certain Sports talk show a couple of months ago? If so, I don't feel quite as bad for him. Ruining other peoples livelyhood isn't funny.
A couple of things. As probably the biggest Stern fan on this board ( I listen daily, multiple times), and as someone who had dabbled in standup/sketch comedy, I feel the need to clear a few things up. First off, Mitch Hedberg was pretty damn sad...and covered fairly well when he died. Richard Jeni had sunk into the abyss, to the point where he was talking to himself and had cut himself off from everyone before shooting himself. Just as sad, but lets be honest, if you aren't in the spotlight and basically a club comic, you won't get the press as someone who is in movies, on a popular radio show daily, a number one selling author and one of the highest paid comedians on the road. The level of "talent," people fele he has is irrelevant. It is subjective as all art is. I doubt Florentine, or any other comedian will take his seat. Remember, Howard, as it currently stands, has less than a year left before he retires (he will re-up), and will not fill Artie's chair. He may have the usuals come in and sit in on the news (Attell, Florentine, Fitzpatrick, DiPaolo, etc.). And yes, a LOT of comedians are very depressed. They cope by cracking jokes and saddling themselves with booze, drugs, etc. It is a very dark business, one of the darkest I have been exposed too (still way behind the wrestling and stripping industry). And I agree with Section about the stabbing. Simply a harsh and gnarly way to try and off oneself. I guess you give him points for being original (bad joke)? I imagine that he had to have been on something. Also it probably is worth noting that he was sent home from the Stern show in early December for not looking too hot (drugs) and he HAS tried to kill himself previously (after getting fired from MadTV). And as for the Joe Buck show, Artie didn't sabotage anything. He was asked to go out there and do exactly what he did. It is fairly well documented that Buck and the producer threw him under the bus. Look no further than the second episode where they brought Artie BACK to film some skits.
Terrible news about Artie, hopefully he gets help. I only have heard a little of his stand up act and heard him on a few podcasts (Bill Simmons and Adam Carolla) and enjoyed them. Not quite right. It was Joe Buck's show. The producers told Artie to stir the pot and do his act. It was only after people complained that Artie used bad words that Joe Buck and his staff said Artie didn't listen to them and went off on his own. The only good part of the show was the stuff Artie did, the rest of it was pure crap. What Artie did actually helped Buck's show.
+1 on the Mitch Hedberg comment. What a horrible, horrible loss that was. I would have the think the hesitation wounds came first. Not a huge fan, but I feel bad for the guy. Here's hoping he gets some things figured out.
Bro...WAY off base on this. Jeni was NOT a club comic. He was in movies, had his own TV show, (albeit short lived) had four GREAT HBO specials, and did numerous LARGE events. He was at the top of his game when he killed himself. Calling Artie a "best selling author" is a stretch too. He sold cause Stern fans bought the book. Let's be reasonable here. If that's the case then Jim Norton is a best selling author too cause all the O&A fans bought it, and Stern himself is a best selling author cause all his fans bought the book. You probably won't find too many people outside of Stern fans saying "Oooh look, Artie Lang wrote a book!"
Not exactly true. Look no further than me. I buy ALL of Jim Norton's books and I don't listen to O&A (by the way, Norton's books are hilarious). And so what if Stern fans bought his book? The point is, LOTS of people bought his book, you can't take that away fro him. It is not skewed, it is not made up, people bought his books. WHICH, by the way, I can list at least five people that I know that bought and loved his book who DON'T listen to Stern. One of them is my mother who actually tries to talk me out of listening to Stern. As for Jeni, you don't have to convince me of anything. I loved his act. But the fact remains, he was not as popular as Artie, so it stands to reason that Artie will generate more news. And I know you don't like Artie's act, but a lot of people do. Again, comedy is subjective. Jeni was in the abyss at the end. He was telling himself to "just do it," days before shooting himself and completely ignoring his girlfriend as she tried to talk to him. He had mental problems and was regressing. Very sad. Anyhow. I was just reporting the news I heard today.
Thats the thing about suicide, its hard to become an expert and stay alive. Really hope he is able to get some stability in his life, very sad.
Difference is, I knew Jeni and his comedy, before the Joe Buck incident, I had NEVER heard of Artie Lange
The point I was making was that it was a pre-packaged audience bro. I mean c'mon, you know as well as I do if Stern told his fans to buy the Bible sales would go through the roof. I actually like Artie's standup. I understand he's way popular...again due to Stern's exposure. Would he be as famous without him? Anyone hear about Jackie anymore? As far as across the board though, Jeni was more widely known due to his exposure on late night TV and HBO specials. I know man...VERY sad.
I think Artie would be the first to tell you that Howard Stern's Show revived his career. Before that, he was in a few movies, and a MadTV alum. Good stuff, but no where NEAR where he is now. However, at some point, you have to give the man credit for running with the ball when he was handed it. Stern's influence only goes so far. Look no further than Yucko the Clown, Reverand Bob Levy and a couple of other Stern favorites who get plugs and exposure on Stern, but realyl just aren't that good when you see them live (I once saw Yucko hump the air with a dildo for 10 minutes of his set...fun ). And Jackie always sucked...bad example.
We all have our favorites. Louis C.K. is probably my favorite comic of the past few years, but the "average" person will like Carlos Mencia, Dane Cook and George Lopez before C.K., even though I happen to think that C.K. is the best in the biz right now. But it is all subjective. I recognize that if Dane Cook and C.K. die tomorrow, Dane Cook is getting the headlines. I think to the average person, Artie Lange is probably more well known than Jeni.
to debate him as a tortured man is one thing and that's where my sympathy lies. As a comedian, I can certainly take or leave him as I have always thought the Howard Stern show and all of the people that pass through it are mediocre at best and largely forgettable and get by on shock humor not genuinely funny material.
i think the question we should be asking is why are things like suicide, murder, and death big news anyways. JMO.
The E! channel actually had a great special involving the dark side of comedians such as Richard Pryor, Phil Hartman, Sam Kinneson, John Belushi, Chris Farley and others. Worth checking out if you can find it. I think 'Funny People' was supposed to characterize this loneliness/sadness comedians go though, but didn't do a very good job of it.
I think anything I had to say on the matter has already been covered. It's sad news. Who cares how successful the guy is. Doesn't make a suicide attempt like this any less of a tragedy. I love the show and love Artie, but not sure if we'll ever hear Artie on the show again. Am I the only one who would like to hear Jackie fill in for the rest of the contract?
And not really funny. That movie could have been so much more if they just cut out the stuff with his ex-girlfriend and focused ont he friendship part of it all.
i thought the bar scene was pretty funny. Having everyone kind of play their onstage personas was funny.
Yeah but that lasted what maybe 5 to 10 minutes? Funny People did have a few funny parts but the other 2 hours and change was just pure crap. And this is coming from a big Apatow/Seth fan.
meh. it was too long of a movie, but it had funny parts for about the first hour, then dragged with fewer funny parts. It was no where near crap really. It wasn't a great movie, but it wasn't horrible either IMO.
As I mentioned in the 'what movie have you seen recently' thread awhile ago they actually had some really good stuff in the script and I felt if they focused more on the comedy friendship between Sandler and Rogan and Sandler's sickness and made it into a black comedy/more of a drama about how its not easy being a comedian/famous while cutting out the ex-girlfriend stuff completely it would have been a hell of a movie. Instead we got really two different movies in one. I agree the first hour of it was pretty good, so me saying it was crap might be being too hard on the movie but the other hour and a half with the ex-gf and her family is painful to watch. I felt like it was really forced and it seemed like Apatow was just writing something for his real wife and kids so they can be in a movie and to use Eric Bana in it as a cute wink to an Eric Bana line they used in Knocked Up.
