Comedian Artie Lange slams Detroit on Howard Stern Show

March 11, 10:42 AMDetroit Entertainment News ExaminerGary Thison

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Hopefully Artie Lange won't discover Detroit's great restaurants.

First, let me say that I really like Artie Lange. He's remarkably funny and entertaining, both as a stand-up comedian and as the funny sidekick of Howard Stern on his satellite radio program. But, when he’s not trying to be funny, he should make sure he knows what he’s talking about before he opens his big fat mouth.

On today's Howard Stern Show, Howard was discussing Jay Leno's free comedy concert at the Palace of Auburn Hills on April 7th. Howard is not a big Leno fan, and the two have been in an on-air feud for many years, partially as a result of Jay snatching away Stuttering John Melendez to be the Tonight Show announcer. Howard believes that Jay is really doing this free concert to keep himself in the limelight and promote his new prime time comedy variety show which airs in the fall on NBC.

Howard went on to discuss the city of Detroit and his days as a radio personality at WWWW-FM in the late seventies. After pointing out the culture shock of driving down Jefferson Avenue from downtown Detroit to the Grosse Pointes, the bloated Artie Lange chimed in that he recently performed in Detroit and that the downtown area was "nothing more than General Motors and a bunch of  burned out houses." Where in hell was Artie? Not in the downtown Detroit that I’m in every day.

The city certainly has its problems and issues, but even the drive down Jefferson that Howard referred to has improved over the years with new housing and condo developments and the stores and amenities that the people who live there require.

I understand exaggerating and enhancing for comedy's sake, but Artie was just making an ill informed comment about a city which doesn't really need to be kicked when it's down. Especially not with such an asinine untruth.

The feud aside, Jay is coming to the Detroit area to perform and people who generally couldn't afford the tickets to a show at the Palace may be able to attend. Sure, he may be looking to promote his future projects, but so does Stern. And no one pats themselves on the back more than the self-proclaimed King of All Media.

Artie, stick to the funny, where the truth is not required.