Howard Stern takes cosplayers down a peg…our reaction

Howard Stern takes cosplayers down a peg…our reaction

By John Blabber

I’ve been listening to The Howard Stern Show since I was five, and continue to do so each morning on my way to work. During this morning’s broadcast, Howard and one of his ‘man-on’the-street’ interviewers got into an interesting discussion about cosplaying. Tuns out, Howard is NOT a fan of people who dress up in costumes for fun and go to Comic Cons as Wolfie recently stopped by the Wizard World Con over in Philadelphia, PA where he interviewed a bunch of people that, arguably, did make asses out of themselves as I could not help but laugh at listening to Wolfie’s coverage of people dressed like Deadpool answering his questions.

Even with the constant hilarity, the only part of Howard’s rant that I somewhat disagreed with is when he mentioned the majority of the people who go to Comic Con as cosplayers are grown men in their 30s who live in their mom’s basements. While Comic Con probably is a male-dominated show,  there are LOTS of sexy women out there that cosplay, and if you don’t believe me go to ANY Venture Bros. panel because those are usually filled with girls that look really good. Less we forget that a decent number of families go to these conventions where Dad, Mom, and the kids all dress up, and I don’t find anything wrong with more family activities being available to people at a reasonable price, especially when you consider the costs of going to sporting events have gone through the roof! Seriously, go right now to stubhub.com, and look up the price for four tickets to the upcoming Stanley Cup Finals, come back and tell how much it is. Then factor in food costs and transit, and you’ve got yourself an expensive evening.

Personally, I am not a cosplayer, and have yet to really partake in dressing up as anyone for a convention, but I do think Howard should recognize a few things the next time he goes off: 1) there are TONS of women at Comic Cons and a bunch of them look really, really good as they go to events dressed like Wonder Woman, Triana Orpheus, and/or Poison Ivy, and as such I implore women everywhere to continue to do so! 2) A LOT of people that guest on the Stern show are fans of cosplayers with the most noted being the likes of Seth Green, Seth MacFarlane, and others, all of whom have built rabid fan bases by way of Comic Cons the world over 3) while I personally don’t cosplay, I think there are WAY worse things that people could be spending their time and money on. In a world where some kids are turning to guns and knives to get their points across, I think cosplaying is a great way for individuals whom feel like outcasts, to meet like-minded individuals that share some of the same interests and eventually create bonding friendships that last. We need more events to bring people together, not keep them apart.

So Howard, while we share some similarities on our thoughts on cosplayers, if it’s an activity that makes people happy and allows them to build friendships with those who do the same, then it can’t be THAT bad can it? And anytime I can see scantily clad women in bulk, you aren’t going to hear me complain about cosplaying anytime soon…unless if you ask me to dress up.