Joe Pyne - Confrontations and Controversy

Confrontations and Controversy

Pyne spoke out against racial discrimination and supported the Vietnam War. He ridiculed hippies (a favorite target), homosexuals, and feminists. Though generally a conservative, Pyne spoke in favor of labor unions. His tendency toward insult and vitriol offended most critics, who called him "outrageous," "belligerent," and "self-righteous." Groups like the Anti-Defamation League accused him of catering to bigots; however, audiences kept listening and watching.

Pyne was rude and confrontational with guests, often attempting to throw them off, but there are stories of the rare times when someone got the better of him. One famous tale recounted by Steadman Upham, president of Chapman University, in his address Wooden Leg or Table: The Changing Landscape of American Education (1999) is how he lost a verbal duel with rock musician Frank Zappa. Pyne insulted Zappa by saying, "So I guess your long hair makes you a woman." Zappa replied, "So I guess your wooden leg makes you a table." While it sounds plausible, no one who was around at that time recalls it happening, nor is there any evidence that Frank Zappa was ever on the Joe Pyne Show.

But there are many documented cases of Pyne getting into altercations with people on his show. He preferred controversial guests such as Sam Sloan and invited members of the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party and followers of murderer Charles Manson. Pyne argued this was educational, since it exposed these violent groups to the public eye. The Joe Pyne Show was not only verbally aggressive: at times it became physical with chairs being thrown at him by the person being interviewed. If the "discussion" got too heated, the guest would often walk off, or Pyne would himself throw the guest off the show. Still, Pyne once described himself as an "overly compensating introvert."

There was another story of a notorious confrontation, involving Paul Krassner, the editor of The Realist, who was a guest on Pyne's TV show. Pyne made insulting remarks about Krassner's acne scars. Without missing a beat, Krassner asked Pyne if his wooden leg caused any difficulty in having sex with his wife. Pyne was flummoxed, so he sought comments from his audience, made up at this point in his career by whoever KTTV could bring in from Hollywood Boulevard. The audience happened to include musician and activist Phil Ochs, whom Krassner had brought along to the studio. Ochs very calmly remarked, "What Paul Krassner has just done is in the finest tradition of American journalism." No videos of this incident survive, though Krassner insists that it did occur and was edited out.

Ron Karenga, an African American author, Marxist political activist, and creator of Kwanzaa, was a frequent guest on the show, as was Robert Dornan ( B-1 Bob), later to become a congressman from Orange County.

Gay activists Harry Hay and John Burnside — who were a couple from 1962 until Hay's death in 2002 — appeared on Pyne's show in 1967.