And, if you loathed his R-rated observations, you could always turn off the radio. That simple truth exists today, but it’s rarely evoked in our Cancel Culture age.

“Private Parts” couldn’t exist today. Nor could the Stern of the mid-90s. He might thrive as a podcaster, where some of the cultural forces that censor raw talent are kept at partial bay.

The entertainment mainstream wouldn’t accept his high jinks no matter how successful he proved. If ABC could fire Roseanne Barr over one awful Tweet, acknowledging it would cost her and the network millions, then Stern would get canned after his first problematic moment.

No more “Private Parts.”

[Probably true, although Stern’s status as a cultural icon went a long way toward getting the film made back then as well. If the same script had been written about a fictional character, I’m not sure it would have been made even in 1997. Oddly enough, I was just talking about this film with some conservative friends of mine, who teased me for enjoying it. It was and still is the only time I ever saw Stern in a sympathetic light. — Ed]