The Shady Side Of Howie Mandel

Oddball comedian Howie Mandel has charmed audiences for years. In the '80s, the Toronto native was a standup comic notorious for stunts like inflating a latex glove covering his face, until L.A. beckoned him to portray prankish physician Wayne Fiscus on the primetime medical drama "St. Elsewhere." Mandel has been busy ever since, hosting shows like "Deal Or No Deal" and paneling "America's Got Talent." Through it all, Mandel has dealt with childhood disorders from ADHD to OCD and mysophobia (a fear of germs), which almost destroyed his family. Unsurprisingly, Mandel calls humor his salvation.

"Comedy saved me, because I've always battled mental-health issues, and that's the most comfortable place I ever went to, because you're so in the moment," he said to CTV. "You don't think about what bothered you before, or what might happen, when you're on stage."

While the stage might be his solace, there have been plenty of times when Mandel took his comedy a little too far for his audience. Both on and off stage, not everyone has understood or taken kindly to his gaffes. However, at 68, still working and performing like a roadrunner, this crazy Canuck isn't expected to stop his joking anytime soon.

Howie Mandel found job stability in 2010 when he joined the panel of NBC's "America's Got Talent" to adjudicate contestants displaying a wide array of skills. That gig enabled him to engage in more side projects from comedy specials to cable programs, one of which was executive producing "Deal With It," an unscripted, hidden-cam comedy that aired on TBS. "I think television in itself is a diversion and, you know, gets you away from just your everyday life and news and whatever," Mandel explained on "The Steve Malzberg Show" in 2013. "We're just looking to make people laugh, give people money and hopefully, ultimately entertain."

That objective ultimately resulted in legal consequences for Mandel, who on one episode, enlisted an actor to belt out an array of expletives inside an LA restaurant before trashing its interior. The result was a $103,408 repair bill, covering everything from broken dishes and floor tiles to outdoor patio heaters, furniture, and a piano. Other ruined items included irreplaceable interior furnishings, including its ornate Indian front door, estimated at $3,000 to fix.

Baba Ji, the owner of the restaurant, Cowboys and Turbans, which specialized in Mexican-Indian fare, sued the star and the network for negligence and breach of contract, after Mandel and company refused to pay for the damages. "This damage causes plaintiff to lose about $500 per day in business, which to date amounts to a loss of $45,000," read the lawsuit, per Courthouse News Service.

It goes without saying that one contestant on "America's Got Talent" in 2015 was hard to stomach, although Howie Mandel managed to utter one gutsy accolade of approval. That candidate was Stevie Starr, dubbed The Regurgitator, and known for swallowing and choking back up common objects like coins, light bulbs, razors, locks, keys and cue balls. After Starr finished his routine, Mandel remarked (via CBS), "This would probably come out wrong, but you, sir, make bulimia entertaining."

The comedian would soon put his foot in his mouth, as social media immediately reacted with disapproval over the comment. This prompted Mandel to backpedal later in the show. "I just want to take a second to apologize," he said. "I made a comment earlier, it's live television, I wasn't thinking. I made light of bulimia, which is a very serious eating disorder and mental health issue. I deal with mental health all the time, and I did something stupid. I should never make light of it. I apologize to anybody that was offended. I'm not perfect, I make mistakes."

He later repeated the last two lines of his apology on his X, formerly known as Twitter, account, where several of his fans forgave him for recognizing the insensitivity of his retort. "You like us are only human," noted one respondent. "Sometime people forget that."

It's no secret that Howie Mandel has delivered a brand of comedy that has offended plenty of folks. Sometimes he apologizes for that material, especially on "America's Got Talent." But what sticks in his craw is what he thinks is the threat of cancellation against anything deemed offensive, which has comedians imposing self-censorship. "Even with the number one show on television right now, I have a fear that I'll say something that will get me in trouble," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017.

Back in 2018, he vented at a TMZ street crew about how lame he believed comedy had become. "No, I'm having a tough time right now," he expressed. "We're too politically correct. I have really funny answers for you that I can't give you anymore ... It's not fun anymore. Comedy was fun. When I came out here, I couldn't wait to hit the stage and try my wares and step over the line and find out where the line is. No more!"

Mandel's position on comedy's lack of edginess would not have likely garnered sympathy from detractors, including media personality Piers Morgan, who shared an "AGT" panel with the funnyman and was subjected to many of his pranks a few years earlier. "I actually want to torture and dismember [Howie]," Morgan said in 2011 (via NBC Los Angeles). "He is, without a doubt, the most annoying man in the history of planet earth."

Howie Mandel often declares he hasn't forgotten his roots. "I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be a Canadian," he said in 2009 when being honored on Canada's Walk of Fame. But several comedians on his home turf challenged that sentiment in 2019, when Mandel joined a partnership to run a Sirius XM Canada channel airing segments from Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy festival. However, the channel was to replace one called "Canada Laughs," that featured 100% Canadian content and provided performers with critical royalties. Because of the partnership's multinational makeup, the "Just for Laughs" channel was going to limit that content, jeopardizing the livelihoods of many Canadian comics.

"For some people, this is their primary source of income," Toronto comedian and head of the Canadian Association of Stand-up Comedians Sandra Battaglini explained to CTV. "It's devastating for people, because these changes have already started happening, and people have stopped being played." The outcry compelled Mandel to respond on Facebook to explain that the channel would include other comedians to satisfy American, Australian, and British partners. "But the big thing is, Canadians will still be involved," he stressed.

"That doesn't seem promising for independent Canadian comics and with that, our dreams of having some extra cash in our pocket feels dead," declared comic Jordan Foisey in a Vice op-ed. Shortly after the Vice piece garnered traction online, Sirius XM Canada announced the contentious channel would run 100% Canadian content.

Over the years, fans of "America's Got Talent" have seen panelist Simon Cowell repeatedly cut down contestants to the point where some viewers call him "Mr. Nasty." But in recent years, that same audience has noticed that Howie Mandel has also hopped aboard that sharp, sarcastic bandwagon.

During one audition episode in 2021, Mandel encountered the mother of a then-9-year-old dancer that he had lambasted in a previous season, compelling the young contestant's mother to call him rude. "I would like to say you are actually really, really rude," said the boy's mother, Alla Novikova (via USA Today), who received similar treatment from Mandel as part of a mom-and-son ballroom team a few years earlier. "You saw a little kid performing on the stage, dancing his heart out. He was dancing with joy. He was doing his best and you were so hard on him." Mandel then apologized.

In 2023, Mandel was criticized on social media for blasting a pair of dancing sisters, dubbed the Rybka Twins, for their dated choice of material. "That would not go viral on TikTok," declared Mandel (via TV Insider). "Pick different music and pick different moves and make it for a younger audience. You're 27." That same year, a comedic improv troupe received the same drubbing from Mandel, who said of the act (via Hello!), "It feels more like a party gag." Not surprisingly, those who dug the group's humor lambasted the panelist. "Howie, that was unnecessarily rude!" read one irate response.

For someone in his 60s, Howie Mandel is remarkably adept with adopting social media to interact with his fans, while still keeping his offbeat humor somewhat PG. But in 2022, when COVID-19 was just as viral as his TikTok videos, the comedian crossed the morality line when he digitally grafted his face onto a naked butt afflicted by a prolapsed rectum. "When my friend Neil bent over this happened," noted Mandel (via Hello!). "Does somebody know ... is this COVID-19 related? And if it is, what do we do about it? Ow."

The TikTok entry stayed online for almost 17 hours until it was removed, but not before Mandel was bombarded by disgusted viewers who caught the video. "Howie Mandel just traumatized an entire generation of kids with one TikTok," noted Kalhan Rosenblatt, an NBC reporter, on X. "Is Howie Mandel in his sane right of mind?" asked alt-rocker and former DJ, Samantha Scarlette, on X. "That TikTok was absolutely insane. I'm just like wow."

Mandel later revealed that he selected the shot simply because it looked ghastly enough to attract attention, but claimed he had no idea of his friend's medical condition. "I didn't know what it was. I thought it was like wet pudding on the back of somebody," said Mandel about the image on the H3 Podcast. "Had I thought about it, I probably wouldn't have posted it."

In April 2023, Howie Mandel waded into controversy on his podcast that he hosts with his daughter, Jackelyn Shultz, when one episode featured "Vanderpump Rules" cast member Tom Sandoval. Sandoval was already scandalous, having cheated on girlfriend and co-star Ariana Madix with another friend and cast member, Raquel Leviss. The reality TV villain decided to come on the "Howie Mandel Does Stuff" podcast, hoping to air his perspective of the affair. Instead, the episode became a P.R. nightmare, with Sandoval lamenting that his waning relationship with Madix had led his eyes astray. "When this whole Raquel thing came along, you know I was in a very dark place in my life and it just happened," he said at one point.

Almost immediately on social media, Vanderpump fans pelted Mandel with accusations that he enabled Sandoval to reject responsibility for his actions and that the comedian had no previous knowledge of the Bravo reality TV show. Even pop culture personality Andy Cohen jumped in. "Neither Tom nor Howie did themselves any favors," Cohen noted on the Sirius XM show that bears his name (via Page Six), while chastising the comedian for his lack of show prep.

"I know who he is," Manel shot back in an interview with Extra. "I wasn't gonna weaponize his information and kind of, you know, challenge him on each thing. Those people that watch Bravo, you could challenge any piece of information you get from my podcast, but it's just amazing how it has blown up everywhere."

Whether making socially unacceptable quips or judging contestants on "America's Got Talent," Howie Mandel has frequently run into trouble, especially with the show's fans. But aside from a few verbal scraps on-air with Simon Cowell, Mandel has seldom infuriated a judge to the point where a professional relationship got ugly. But exactly that happened on an episode that ran in September 2023, during a segment that doubled as a publicity stunt for fast-food eatery Sonic.

Fellow panelist Sofía Vergara, who had recently divorced actor Joe Manganiello, found herself receiving a lie detector test while seated in a chair made of tater tots. In a clip streamed by Access Hollywood, Mandel went for the jugular by asking her, "Do you see anybody in the audience tonight that you're interested in?" That did it. Wide-mouthed with astonishment as a chorus of hormonally-heavy dudes cheered their approval from the audience, Vergara unfastened the electrodes from her arm and left the chair. Show host Terry Crews wisely retorted, "I think she's done."

Ironically, a month earlier on the show, Vergara seemed to be fine with Mandel commenting to the crowd that the "Modern Family" actor was available again. That didn't sit well with the show's fan base, who chose to chastise Mandel over his remarks on social media. "I was helping Sofia!" Mandel exclaimed to Entertainment Tonight in his defense against the hordes of online antagonists. "People said it was too soon and it was tasteless."