Howard Stern is back from his epically long summer vacation and he’s desperately trying to stop critics from making him feel bad about taking a more than two-month break.
“Over the summer – that Olympic star, the girl who said she got the twisties,” Stern recalled, with help from his co-host Robin Quivers who confirmed he was referencing US gymnast “Simone Biles.”
“Yea Simone Biles, she goes ‘I have the twisties I can’t compete.’ Hey, I’m a fucking old dude!” Stern ranted. “What about me over here? Why are you busting my balls? I didn’t even quit, I just took a couple of weeks off…I should have just said I had the twisties. Whatever that is.”
Earlier this summer, Biles notably withdrew from team events at the Tokyo Olympics citing mental health concerns and “the twisties,” an experience that can cause a gymnast to become disoriented in the air.
Biles received support and criticism from competing judgements for her decision to opt out of certain Olympic events.
Stern has preached the importance of mental health in recent years, crediting therapy sessions and psychoanalysis for helping him to grow as a person. That growth includes becoming a more mature radio host and avoiding some of his past “shock jock” antics that would never be accepted today, which not every Stern fan is always happy about.
When the SiriusXM radio host casually announced he was taking the entire summer off, many listeners viewed it as
“I was even looking at these podcasts that everyone’s all hopped up on,” Stern said. “Us just doing three days a week for three, four hours a day is 10 times more than any of them do…fuck you all.”
Listen above via SiriusXM