Penn Radio - Memorable Penn Radio Moments

Memorable Penn Radio Moments

• Penn recounting the story of inviting a Chimpanzee and a dwarf to the same party, and the creation of Monkey Tuesday.
• Penn being called away from the May 22, 2006 show because his wife was going into labor with their second child (Zolten Penn), and continuing the rest of the show from his cell phone while in traffic.
• Penn claiming Mother Teresa had a sexual kink for death and suffering. KIFR radio personality John London, whose show followed Penn Radio, offered to pay a listener to murder Penn. He was fired by CBS Radio CEO Joel Hollander after making on-air prank calls to Penn Jillette and Hollander. This, and other legal complications, were never discussed on Penn Radio. Fans have commented on the similarities between this chain of events and the storyline to Penn and Teller's 1989 movie, Penn & Teller Get Killed.
• During Lent, Penn requested his listeners go to McDonald's restaurants on Friday morning and purchase all the Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, thus forcing Catholic families with screaming children to eat beef. Penn hoped that the children would realize that eating meat would not send them to hell. More than a few involved with the show got sick after eating those fish filets.
• Comedians from The Aristocrats who have been guests on Penn Radio: Lewis Black, David Brenner, Drew Carey, Carrot Top, Phyllis Diller, Judy Gold, Gilbert Gottfried, Lisa Lampanelli, Wendy Liebman, Howie Mandel (set a record for use of the c word), Merrill Markoe, Jackie Martling, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, The Passing Zone, Kevin Pollack, Paul Provenza, Bob Saget, Bobby Slayton, Doug Stanhope, and Fred Willard.
• Penn interviewing his hero Norman Borlaug on August 9, 2006.
• A September 11 anniversary episode conducted in a somber fashion without Michael Goudeau.
• The October 18, 2006 show featured the first time Penn ever purposely hung up on a caller. Penn asked caller Mike (not to be confused with regular caller President Mike) to demonstrate his Spanish fluency. After a very hesitant start, Mike began speaking in Spanish only to have Penn dump his call after a few words. The hang up was meant only as a joke on Penn's part and not intended to be rude to Mike. On January 16, 2007, Penn hung up on Bill, who was attempting to abide by the topic of "mandatory false dichotomies" by stating that "Monkeys are just not funny, man." During a later show Bill called in to complain about a radio show that dumped his call. Penn and Goudeau incorrectly claimed on air that Bill was the first person Penn had ever hung up on.
• On the December 19, 2006 show while Goudeau was on a ski vacation, Penn revealed on air the password to their Gmail account (dawkins) and followed this with "Goudeau uses that password for everything." Later in the day, Penn found out that fans of the shows had logged on and started getting e-mail addresses from the account. Before much damage was done, one teenage fan stepped up, changed the password, and then got in touch with Penn, thus saving the day. The teen suggested, with no sarcasm, that the new password should not be borlaug.
• On the January 3, 2007 show (the show's one-year anniversary) Penn, as promised, told his "Blow-Dryer Story". This involved Penn burning his penis (Penn uses the euphemism Little Houdini throughout) on a blow dryer element during an attempt to win back an ex-girlfriend. The show featured a live audience which included Mike Jones. Penn first mentioned the "Blow-Dryer Story" on the January 27, 2006 broadcast.
• On the January 4, 2007 show Goudeau treated a deep cut to Penn's left thumb (caused the evening before while Penn was juggling broken bottles on-stage at the Rio), trying twice to cover the v-shaped injury with a Krazy Glue pen. This happened live on air with callers phoning in advice.
• Penn-brand Viagra: on the February 1, 2007 show, a listener alerted Penn to a strange photo of him gracing the cover of a Chinese herbal "Viagra". The Chinese box copy claims the box contains fast acting pills that will increase a man's stamina, increase the volume of his semen, and win him respect among other men. The box depicts an illustration of a man that looks disquietingly like Penn Jillette (complete with his signature one painted fingernail) choking a woman during intercourse. The product does not identify Penn by name but seems to label him as the "impetuous man". One can purchase a bottle here for 1000 yen. It was later revealed the art work was of Penn. The artwork accompanied an interview with Penn in an American magazine. It is unknown how the art made its way to Asia.
• Two full episodes on February 5 and February 23, 2007 devoted to a debate between comedian Joe Rogan and Phil Plait of BadAstronomy.com about moon landing conspiracies.
• Penn Jillette announced on March 2, 2007 that the show would be his last on Free FM. He said multiple times that he will be back elsewhere.