Benjy Bronk’s Shirt Doesn’t Quite Pass the Sniff Test

Photo: The Howard Stern Show

On Tuesday, Benjy Bronk was accused by some in the back office of not changing his allegedly smelly shirt for weeks – a “subtle protest” in order to win his seat in the Stern Show studio back after it was taken away from him as punishment for being late to work. Howard brought Benjy into the studio as well as Sal Governale, a witness to the reported stench.

“I absolutely adore Benjy … I think something really is wrong with him,” Sal told Howard. “You know when you’re speaking to someone and it takes about 30 seconds for the stink to hit you and you don’t feel it coming?” he explained. “It was like sour cheese and … just like the bottom of a dumpster.”

Gary Dell’Abate agreed, adding that he’s seen Benjy wear the same shirt for five or six days in a row before swapping to a second shirt for another week and subsequently swapping back to the first.

Benjy took exception with the characterization by his coworkers and insisted that they were simply exaggerating it for comedic effect.

Shuli Egar was convinced that Benjy was wearing the exact same clothes as the previous day, but Will Murray remembered the stain patterns of Monday’s shirt and came into the studio to confirm it was a different shirt.

As for the smell, Sal took another whiff at Benjy’s prodding and offered a second take. “I’ll tell you exactly what he smells like: hamper clothes,” he said.

Benjy maintained that if they brought an impartial sniffer up from the street he would by rated in the top five best-smelling staffers. Howard begged to differ, though. “I agree with Sal – it has a musty smell to it,” he evaluated.

Fred Norris finally got to the root of the issue when he asked if Benjy bothered to wash his shirts. “These are non-iron shirts, non-wash shirts,” Benjy responded, a bit surprised.

“If you don’t wash them then there would be a problem!” Fred scolded him.