John Melendez - The Howard Stern Show

The Howard Stern Show

On Stern's show, Melendez's primary role was answering phones and screening listener calls before they're allowed on the air. That often entailed intentionally "stirring the pot" by putting through callers willing to say something outrageous or to bring up something that would get a reaction from the guest that's on the air.

However, he's best known for segments in which he asked celebrities confronting questions at red carpet events, functions, promotional appearances, and press conferences. The puerile questions, written by Howard Stern, Fred Norris, and Jackie Martling, centered around a given celebrity's private life and were premised on the idea that a celebrity would not want to look bad by refusing an interview from a stutterer. Melendez sported long hair and metal t-shirts and asked questions by reading them from a sheet of paper. As he became better known, he occasionally wore a disguise consisting of an overcoat, fedora and fake mustache. His interviews were characterized by punchline-free "joke" questions, such as asking actress Melanie Griffith how her father, Andy, was.

The absurdity of the questions Melendez asked were often amplified by the fact that he himself appeared to lack common pop culture knowledge and often did not even seem to know who the subjects of his interview were or what they were famous for. Sometimes celebrities were a personal target of Stern's, such as Ted Williams, who was interviewed by Melendez because Stern disapproved the idea of athletes charging money for autographs. Oftentimes the celebrity would react angrily, but other times the celebrity would take the questions in good humor. Melendez notably interviewed Gennifer Flowers, Ringo Starr, and the Dalai Lama. He asked the Dalai Lama, if anyone ever greeted him with "Hello Dolly!", in a joking reference to the play and movie; the Dalai Lama's translator whispered the translation to the Dalai Lama, who chuckled. Another time Stuttering John interviewed Debbie Gibson losing an award to Wilson Phillips, to which she jokingly agreed with his idea that "the fat one would eat the statue". Stuttering John also provided comic interest with his misadventures, poor grammar and sloppy pronunciation.