Artie Lange was asked to leave the Howard Stern show on so called, “disciplinary grounds”. Lange had a fight with his personal assistant Teddy off air. The duo were asked to put forth their points of view on air. The discussion escalated, Lange became furious and even physically lashed at Teddy.
Stern expressed his displeasure in this issue for which Lange responded by offering his resignation. It was probably in a threatening manner, because Stern accepted his resignation. This event has brought mixed feeling among the (SFN) Stern Fans Network.
For those of you who have known Artie Lange, this episode would not come as a surprise since he has been responsible for many such things in the past, which have been quite turbulent.
Lange was one of the original nine cast-members of MADtv when the series debuted in 1995. Unlike some of his fellow cast-members on MADtv, Lange came to the show with limited sketch comedy experience as a stand-up comedian. Around this time he became heavily involved with drugs, particularly cocaine. He had stated that his lowest point of cocaine use occurred during a shooting of the MADtv sketch “Babewatch” (a parody of Baywatch) in which he played a pig lifeguard. Because the sketch involved going through hours of make-up to transform him into a pig, he snorted cocaine in his car in full pig make-up during a break in the shooting of the sketch. Upon returning from the shoot, he passed out in his hotel room, and woke up to find that he had defecated in his own bed.
After Lange served a short jail term and successfully completing a drug rehabilitation program, comedian Norm MacDonald offered him a part in the 1998 movie “Dirty Work”. While promoting the movie, McDonald brought Lange to The Howard Stern Show. Lange appeared on the show several times after, and was eventually asked to take over Jackie Martling’s chair when Martling left the Stern Show in 2001.
Even his personal life has been listless. He has always had health issues. From increase in weight to drug addiction to Sexually Transmitted Diseases Lange has experienced it all.The website artielangedeathwatch.com was started to predict when Lange would die if he continued this lifestyle. The site had projected that he would die at the age of 53.
