Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Phil Hendrie
I’ve got a new addiction, which is just what I need. I’ve started listening to old Phil Hendrie shows that I downloaded. You’re probably asking who the hell Phil Hendrie is. I can’t blame you. He’s had quite possibly the best radio show on the face of the earth. And this is coming from a huge Howard Stern fan. (Phil Hendrie retired from radio last year, so sadly he has no new shows. But fortunately, the internet is awash in dorks like me who gladly taped and then posted his shows online.)
What makes Phil Hendrie so funny? Quite simply, he has the best guests. Just today I was listening to a show where the guest was this father whose daughter convinced him to adopt a weiner dog. Well, when he picked up the weiner dog, it peed on his shirt. So, the dad is suing his daughter for $200 for a new shirt. He’s also trying to sue the dog. Oh, and he’s trying to have the dog evicted from its dog house, but according to him, California law stipulates that he has to give 30 days notice before evicting.
Sure enough, the listeners call in and get on the dad’s case. They call him an idiot and a jerk. He only goes on to say more moronic things. And that just makes the callers try harder to convince him that he’s an idiot. And so it goes for 30 minutes or so.
Now, that alone would be funny. But what makes it hilarious is that the “dad” is really Phil Hendrie. He uses a fake voice and a fake “phone” sound effect so it sounds like he’s calling in. And Hendrie purposely has the “dad” say outrageous things to egg on the audience. (It’s doubly funny to hear Hendrie tell the “dad” that he’s being inappropriate.)
I lost it at my desk yesterday as I was hearing Phil talk to his friend, who donated a few of his courtside Lakers tickets to Phil so he could use them to take some underpriviledged kids to the game. Well, once the friend found out that the kids were deaf, he reneged the offer and said they couldn’t go to the game. The friend is a successful restauranteur and he didn’t want the kids to be associated with him because then people would stop eating at his restaurant for fear that they too would go deaf.
And so the calls came pouring in. One old lady called to chastise him and then you hear “whump” and she says, “I’ve crashed!” And no, this wasn’t Phil faking another voice. The old lady was so upset that she managed to crash her car.
Anyway, I’m going to look into how to post some of these clips up here so you too can join in the joy that is Phil Hendrie. And I have a feeling that I’ll be posting some of his ridiculous calls here because they’re just too damn funny to keep to myself.
What makes Phil Hendrie so funny? Quite simply, he has the best guests. Just today I was listening to a show where the guest was this father whose daughter convinced him to adopt a weiner dog. Well, when he picked up the weiner dog, it peed on his shirt. So, the dad is suing his daughter for $200 for a new shirt. He’s also trying to sue the dog. Oh, and he’s trying to have the dog evicted from its dog house, but according to him, California law stipulates that he has to give 30 days notice before evicting.
Sure enough, the listeners call in and get on the dad’s case. They call him an idiot and a jerk. He only goes on to say more moronic things. And that just makes the callers try harder to convince him that he’s an idiot. And so it goes for 30 minutes or so.
Now, that alone would be funny. But what makes it hilarious is that the “dad” is really Phil Hendrie. He uses a fake voice and a fake “phone” sound effect so it sounds like he’s calling in. And Hendrie purposely has the “dad” say outrageous things to egg on the audience. (It’s doubly funny to hear Hendrie tell the “dad” that he’s being inappropriate.)
I lost it at my desk yesterday as I was hearing Phil talk to his friend, who donated a few of his courtside Lakers tickets to Phil so he could use them to take some underpriviledged kids to the game. Well, once the friend found out that the kids were deaf, he reneged the offer and said they couldn’t go to the game. The friend is a successful restauranteur and he didn’t want the kids to be associated with him because then people would stop eating at his restaurant for fear that they too would go deaf.
And so the calls came pouring in. One old lady called to chastise him and then you hear “whump” and she says, “I’ve crashed!” And no, this wasn’t Phil faking another voice. The old lady was so upset that she managed to crash her car.
Anyway, I’m going to look into how to post some of these clips up here so you too can join in the joy that is Phil Hendrie. And I have a feeling that I’ll be posting some of his ridiculous calls here because they’re just too damn funny to keep to myself.
