Eric Lynch (born March 11, 1975), better known as Eric the Midget, is a member of The Howard Stern Show's Wack Pack. Lynch's small lungs often prevent him from completing a sentence without pausing to take a breath. Lynch suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a disease of the connective tissue, and claims to have outlived every doctor's prediction for his life expectancy. Lynch does not have a stable job in which he receives a regular paycheck; however, because of his condition he receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Due to a "family condition," his hair has grayed and his hairline appears to be receding. He admitted coloring his hair. He has also revealed that he is a virgin.

On the air, his voice is low-pitched and scratchy-sounding. He speaks slowly and haltingly. His voice lends itself to parody phony phone calls because of this. When he is angry, the pitch and rate go up. In addition, he makes small grunting noises interspersed with his words. Eric's many imitators will affect a gravel voice, low pitch, and nasal tone. He is known for being extremely belligerent and insulting, frequently addressing members of the show with insulting nicknames, such as referring to Stern as "big nose" or "jackass" and Robin Quivers as "cackling bitch" and Artie Lange as "fat ass."

Lynch is tall, weighs , and uses a motorized wheelchair. A self-styled "expert" on American Idol, Lynch is known for his fandom of the show, specifically winners Kelly Clarkson, and Carrie Underwood, as well as runners-up Diana DeGarmo and Katharine McPhee. Lynch has repeatedly asked Howard Stern to use his influence to get him dates with Clarkson or Underwood, despite the fact that Stern has only a limited relationship with the show and its cast. Eric also co-hosts his own webcam chat show on American Idol through stickam.

Stern helped Lynch land a guest starring role on one of his favorite television shows, American Dreams. Lynch is frequently prodded on the Stern show for expressing only limited gratitude for the favor at first. Because of the guest role, which was only given to him by producers as a feeble attempt to save the ailing show's ratings with Howard's audience tuned in, Lynch is known, by his own request, as "Eric the Actor," although he is rarely referred to as such. This is because he finds the word "midget" offensive to a "little person," equating it to referring to an African American as a "nigger" (in a recent interview on the show, Verne Troyer concurred with him on the issue). He was also for a brief time jokingly referred to as "Eric the Astronaut," because he is as much of an astronaut as he is an actor. Lynch has countered this nickname with "Eric the Idol Expert" as well as "Eric the Writer." In spite of Eric's dislike of the term "midget," the first time Eric called into the Stern Show, Howard asked if Eric was a midget and he answered, "Yes."

In 2007, Lynch was listed at #3 on Something Awful's Big Ten List of Little People, finishing ahead of such notable little persons as Verne Troyer and Jason Acuña.

Pre-Stern show and initial appearances

Lynch was born and raised in Rodeo, California. He has stated that his parents were Republicans who despise Howard Stern. Lynch attended high school at John Swett High School, graduating in 1994. At the age of 31, Lynch moved to his own apartment in Sacramento, California with a roommate named Jon. Lynch initially called in on September 19, 2002 to discuss American Idol. Lynch had called to respond to Stern's statements that contestant Kelly Clarkson was not overly attractive. Stern initially talked to Lynch with mild enthusiasm, but after an extended discussion regarding Lynch's unique voice and speaking style, Lynch revealed that he was tall, which piqued Stern's interest and led to further discussion.

Memorable Stern Show moments

His own Sirius show and subsequent feud

After many back and forth negotiations, Lynch performed on his own show discussing American Idol on Sirius. The show aired on March 82006 and featured Brian Dunkleman, a former co-host of American Idol as a guest. Dunkleman assumed control from Lynch early in the show and began acting as the show's host. He was later criticized by Howard Stern for doing so, but Dunkleman defended his actions by explaining that the show as hosted by Eric would have been dead air. Some highlights of the show included Richard Christy calling in and asking, "How big is your midget cock?", and a phony Leslie Moonves congratulating Lynch on a great show. Afterwards, Lynch expressed that he felt "set up" due to the quantity of negative calls put through to his show and blamed segment producer Will Murray for this and vowed to never call in to the Stern Show again. Stern and his fans were skeptical, however, because Lynch's final message was "Bye for n.. Goodbye."

On April 6, 2006, Howard Stern noted that Lynch had been sending emails to the show discussing American Idol, but Stern wouldn't read them on the air due to Lynch's self-imposed ban. Lynch was interviewed by the Howard 100 News during the Stern Show's April 2006 vacation and stated that he would only return to the show if Will Murray is fired.

Lynch called in to the Stern Show on May 10, 2006, to make a plea to be included on the show without being called a "midget", having his voice made fun of, or being associated with the Wack Pack. Lynch no longer demanded that Murray be fired, as Murray had since apologized to him. Lynch also asked to be a West Coast correspondent for Howard 100 News. Stern deduced that the real reason for the call was to get tickets to the American Idol finale and teased Lynch by suggesting that Gary the Retard should cover the event instead, as he is a real "Wack Packer.

In May 2006, Lynch began calling the show with increasing frequency, despite none of his demands being met. It was during this time that Lynch coined his trademark sign off of "Bye for now," which is greeted with chuckles from the Stern staff at the end of each phone call. During that same period, Lynch called the show to turn down an offer from adult film star Tabitha Stevens to have sex with her.

Lynch's inches

On May 22, 2006, Lynch called the Stern Show and measured his penis in exchange for American Idol contestant Katharine McPhee's phone number. Lynch claimed to measure at just over five inches, and was given McPhee's phone number off air. Lynch was also insulted by "Derek the Midget" voiced by Howard 100 News Staffer Shuli, as well as a frequently played bit by Sal and Richard featuring a fanciful sexual encounter between Lynch and Tabitha Stevens.

McPhee reportedly hates the Stern show now because Lynch had called her too many times, according to Howard Stern, who told Lynch this news during the January 31, 2007, show.

As a result, McPhee refused to record a message for either the Stern show or Lynch when she visited Sirius headquarters on January 30, 2007, according to Howard 100 News.

On June 5, 2006, Lynch called the Stern Show and complained that his parents had read about him measuring his penis on Wikipedia (which he called "Wackipedia") in the article on The Wack Pack Stern read a paragraph of the article, regarding penis measuring, verbatim on the air. Also, Stern Show producer Gary Dell'Abate commented on the air he and the Stern Show staff enjoy the picture of Lynch in the article. Flustered, Lynch refused to perform any strange tasks to meet Katharine McPhee, including urinating or defecating in a diaper, inserting a ruler or a Sirius satellite receiver into his rectum, submitting to a proctological exam, wearing Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf's old bunny outfit, being vomited on by Richard Christy, being flushed down a toilet, being sent in the mail or holding seven-hundred and fifty helium balloons to see if he would fly (via cluster ballooning).

Balloon stunt

On June 6, 2006, Eric agreed to sit in a lawn chair while he was lifted up by balloons. Stern told Lynch that either he attach the balloons to his body (not a chair) or he would not be able to meet Katharine McPhee. Stern then noted that perhaps Lynch would be hit by lightning, which could result in the merging of Lynch and the balloon, creating a superhero.

On the next day, Lynch backed out due to new bits being played about him which he found insulting, including a song parody, "Fly Me with Balloons" (to the tune of "Fly Me to the Moon", sung by Sal The Stockbroker with a digital "midget" voice effect) and a prank phone call using recordings of Lynch's voice to a balloon shop. When Stern said one of the bits was great, Lynch responded, "That was not great, you big-nosed retard!

Lynch continued to call in and was put on the air regularly after that particular feud fizzled out in May 2006. On June 7, 2006, Stern commented that Lynch might be the "King of the Wack Pack".

On June 7, 2006, Howard Stern played a voice mail message on the air indicating that Lynch is "at war" (see His own Sirius show and subsequent feud above) with Stern yet again, due to the constant mockery he had endured on the air recently. Lynch threatened to call Katharine McPhee to warn her not to do the Stern Show. Stern expressed his belief that Lynch will be back and will perform the balloon stunt.

After not calling in for perhaps a handful of days during one of his feuds, Lynch began calling several shows on Howard 100 and Howard 101. In the week beginning with June 18, 2006, Lynch called The Intern Show, Superfan Roundtable and The Friday Show in addition to the Stern Show. He had expressed concern over whether the Little People of America would accept him if he was to perform the "balloon stunt" or a similar stunt. On June 26, 2006 Lynch called the Stern Show, angered by Stern's calm assurance that Lynch would perform the stunt.

On May 14, 2007, when Jimmy Kimmel was a guest on the Stern show, he told Eric he could get him in to the American Idol finale, if Eric would do the balloon stunt on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Eric agreed to the deal, but some of the Stern show cast seemed skeptical, and didn't trust him. The following Tuesday it was announced Eric had emailed Jimmy Kimmel Live saying he was unable to follow through with this promise because his handler could not get off work. It was speculated he was afraid to fly with balloons and caused many to want Eric banned from the show, and even from listening to Sirius by canceling his subscription.

"You know what to do"

In 2007, a caller claimed to have attended high school with Eric and stated that a number of disruptive concessions, such as the construction of ramps and elevators, were made by the school to accommodate Eric. Eric called his friend, Johnny Fratto (the son of infamous mobster Louis Fratto), and left Fratto a voice mail instructing him to track down the caller, ending his message with "You know what to do. You know what to do.

When Fratto played the message on the Stern show, Eric called in and claimed he just wanted Fratto to find the guy and make him call back and apologize, and that he didn't want any harm done to him.

Departure and subsequent return

On June 26, 2007, Eric wrote a letter to Howard Stern detailing reasons why he will never call into the show again. His main topic of offense was Howard's "mockery" of the Chris Benoit murder-suicide. Eric took this as highly offensive and vowed never to ever call the Howard Stern Show again. In reaction to this, Howard then banned Eric forever from calling in to either of Howard's Sirius channels. In a MySpace blog entry Eric vowed to continue to stay in the public eye by posting blogs to myspace and videos on Youtube.com instead of calling in to the show.

On July 2, 2007, Howard 100 news reporter Shuli revealed that Lynch broke his promise to refrain from calling the show and contacted the news department in regards to a photograph of him posted on Shuli's MySpace account. Lynch was outraged at the fact that the picture was made public (and his picture on Wikipedia) and that Stern Fan Network members were manipulating it using Adobe Photoshop.

On September 11, 2007, Eric, by way of Johnny Fratto, once again contacted the Stern show. Eric used Fratto's answering machine to leave a message threatening that Stern would be in "hot water" if he didn't refrain from interfering with either Eric's personal or business affairs. This rant was brought on by Howard 100 News correspondent Steve Langford, who uncovered phone calls that Eric had been making to the mother of American Idol runner up Diana DeGarmo. To clear things up Johnny Fratto got Eric on the phone via conference calling, and Eric explained that he had been calling Mrs. DeGarmo "no more than twice a day" in hopes of being able to meet her daughter. Eric denied that his call through Fratto counted as calling into the show.

Eric the Writer

On September 12, 2007, Howard opened the show with Eric on the line. Eric stated he was working on a screenplay (which he wanted to get made so he can cast Diana DeGarmo in it and meet her), as well as a children's book about a pug dog helping his master meet the girl of his dreams. The book is currently called "Dougie The Puggie's Holiday Adventure.

On October 24, 2007, Eric the Midget called into the show to read an excerpt from his children's book called "Dougie the Puggie's Holiday Adventure". Earlier in the week, Eric told the show that he would not read from the book because the cast of the show did not deserve to hear it. Over the course of the week, Eric rethought his position and decided not to punish the audience because of the actions of a few. Eric read the passage in his famed breathy croaky voice. In subsequent conversations it was learned that the basic premise of the book is that Dougie the Puggie helps his owner meet and marry American Idol contestant Diana Degarmo. It was pointed out to Eric that this was the first children's book was ever written that dealt with topics such as stalking.

After reading "Dougie the Puggie's Holiday Adventure", Lynch admitted to the staff that he has been working on a screenplay for himself, as well as his long time crush, Dianna DeGarmo. Stern has offered to produce one of Eric's screenplay, only if Eric will be starring. Originally offered by Howard to write an "Ocean's Eleven-type action movie", Lynch rebuffed this saying he'd rather do a Charlie's Angels type movie and that he is only doing this so he can get into both the WGA and SAG.

On December 6, 2007, Eric called once again (while broadcasting on Stickam) to comment on the script he sent to the show. Howard and the crew laughed at Eric's script Eric's Angels because it was a poorly written, obvious rip off of Charlie's Angels. Howard said he would not produce it because of plagiarism.

Eric's "girlfriend"

In January 2008 Eric was claiming that he had met a girl named Kendra online through Johnny Fratto, and despite never meeting in person, she was his girlfriend. Kendra is a softcore web cam model with her own paysite. Howard thought that Kendra was just using Eric to promote her site, and tried to get Kendra to call in, but Eric boasted that she would never call in to the show. After a week of continuing to boast that she would never call in, the show got Kendra on the phone. When asked whether she was really Eric's girlfriend she simply said that she's a girl and she is his friend, Eric is a boy and he's her friend.

When the call was over, Stern and the crew then taunted Eric since Eric said there was "no chance in hell" that she would be on the show. Despite being bested, Eric refused to admit that she had been on the show and Howard compared him to a Holocaust denier.

It was around this time that Howard began playing recordings of Eric's voice spliced together (most likely created by Richard Christy and/or Sal the Stockbroker) during his calls to the show for humorous effect. Frequently, Stern will rhetorically ask Eric what he would like to be called, since he dislikes the nickname Eric the Midget, and then play an edited-together response ("Eric the Jackass," "Eric the Piece of Crap," "Eric the Retarded Midget," "Eric the Shitty Penis," "Eric the Loser," "Eric the Asshole," "Eric the Major Cock" and others) as well as full nonsensical sentences (for example, "I butt-fuck Japanese male gymnasts"). This, combined with Fred Norris's playing the Doctor Who theme as well as sound effects from the movies The Shining and Mars Attacks! (which resemble Eric's voice), has become one of the more popular bits on The Howard Stern Show.

On February 15, 2008, Steve Langford, of Howard 100 News, began a series of investigative reports on a figure known only as "Paul," who claims to be a former associate of Johnny Fratto. In the first report, Paul claimed to be a co-conspirator, of sorts, in what he described as a "sham" to dupe Eric into believing that Kendra was in fact Eric's girlfriend. Paul claimed to have been emailed, text-messaged, and called by Kendra who expressed her discomfort with the fake relationship; Paul was encouraged by Fratto to ensure Kendra would continue to play along.

In a conference telephone call on the Howard Stern Show on February 25, 2008 with all of the parties, Howard Stern, Jimmy Kimmel, Eric the Midget, Kendra, Johnny Fratto, Steve Langford and others, Eric the Midget stated that the relationship with Kendra was not fake, he even swore on this life of his mother, that the relationship was genuine. Eric the Midget then acknowledged and told Kendra that he has decided he wanted to "play the field", after a stripper made advances to him, which he acknowledged aroused him. Eric told Kendra that he was interested in seeing other women, and that their relationship was "over". Artie Lange then offered to go out with Kendra.

However, on February 26, 2008 Eric called back to say he hadn't really broken up with Kendra and that the events of the 25th were “faked” to get the show “off her back.” Howard said Eric should change his name to “Eric the Liar,” but Eric insisted he hadn't been lying – he was “acting.” Eric said he would never go on the show again. Eric made his return to the show about two hours later, and he clarified that the breakup was a fake, but the relationship was real. Shortly after this Eric announced that he and Kendra were in fact no longer together.

Second departure and return

On February 27, 2008, Eric the Midget held a press conference, where he stated he would no longer be the Stern Show's "punching bag", and he would no longer do the show. Howard played the press conference, and referred to Eric the Midget as a genius who knows how to suck people off. The press conference was filled with expletive language. Eric stated that he felt he could be sincere about staying off the show this time, for good, because he now has the support of Johnny Fratto and Kendra. Eric the Midget said "Goodbye for good" though Howard said Eric would be back. Crazy Alice called in and stated that she felt "Eric the Actor" owed everything to Howard.

Eric however, subsequently made an appearance on the Stern Show on March 13th 2008, when Johnny Fratto called into the show with Eric on the line. Eric hung up several times during the day, but eventually apologized to Howard for being deceitful and for stating (and continuing to assert) that he would never be a part of the show again, even while on the air. His excuse for calling in was that "Johnny had dialed the phone."

Eric's Modeling Agency

On March 19 2008, Eric made his official return to the show. During his call, Eric promoted a contest he was running to find the "hottest stripper alive." According to Eric, the tour will run indefinitely and the winner will receive a seven-year exclusive contract with EMA, his newly formed modeling agency. As part of the terms of the contract, the winning stripper will live either with, or nearby, Eric.

Taxi Driver Remake

On April 22, 2008, in-studio guest Colin Quinn joked that he was being represented by Eric's Modeling and Talent Agency. While discussing his screen-writing projects, Quinn expressed the desire to direct a remake of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver for Howard TV and cast Eric in the Robert DeNiro role . The cast loved the idea and, after some initial hesitation, Eric agreed to star in the film. Howard was excited to give Eric the opportunity to earn the nickname "Eric The Actor." . Eric, however, announced on the 22nd of May that he would no longer be participating in the film, giving the unusual excuse of his annoyance at Stern Fans' asking him about it. His announcement was met with relative indifference by the Stern Show staff, as he has rarely followed through with commitments made to the show. Stern also noted that he had hired lawyers to determine the legality of the production (it had to be a "parody," not a "remake") and there was a strong likelihood that it wouldn't be produced for those reasons anyhow.

"Zero Point Zero" and Johnny Fratto feud

Eric called in on June 26, 2008 to debunk Howard 100 News reporter Steve Langford's claim that his reporting on Eric's personal appearance before a Sacramento Monarchs WNBA game saved the event from being cancelled. Prior to Howard 100 News' report on the event, no tickets had been sold, in reference to this Fred Norris repeatedly played a soundbite of the line "zero point zero" (referring to Robert Blutarski's grade point average) from the movie, Animal House, as zero tickets had been sold. An increasingly frustrated Eric continued to deny that Langford's coverage lead to the tickets being sold, insisting in the face of overwhelming logic that it was instead a "coincidence." Fred's continued playing of the sound bite caused Eric to become enraged and threaten to "fly to New York and break all of his fingers!" The cast then laughed as Fred played the sound bite several more times. The phrase "zero point zero" has since joined the other sound clips associated with Eric; such as the sound effects from Mars Attacks!, The Shining and Doctor Who.

On August 20, 2008, Eric and Johnny Fratto had an on–air fight over Eric backing out on an event that Johnny helped plan in Las Vegas. Previous to the fight, Eric had been calling the show every day complaining that Johnny was no longer taking his calls. When questioned Eric did not admit that he had done anything to warrant this. However, when Fratto called he pointed out to Stern that Eric, as he has other times, backed out on a meet-and-greet that Johnny set to help him make money. The sponsor had booked flights, hotel rooms, and made full arrangements for Eric and his entourage. Eric pointed out the Johnny had mistakenly said that porn actress Brandy Talore would be there when.

Although Fratto and Stern casts pointed out that many other porn stars of equal or better quality would be there, Eric would not budge on his decision to stay home and watch TV. Fratto brought up the amount of money he had lost as a result of Eric’s actions in the past and mentioned the possibility of a lawsuit in the future if Eric did not agree to the appearance. The call ended with Fratto hanging up, and Eric begrudgingly agreed to go seconds afterwards.

Meeting Artie and Customized Real Doll

On Friday, September 19, 2008; he attended an Artie Lange stand-up comedy performance and met with him backstage, face to face, for the first time. The meeting, recorded by Howard 100 News, was surprisingly cordial, as the two have frequently butted heads during Eric's phone calls. Lange enthusiastically addressed Eric as "buddy," they discussed baseball and Eric presented him with gifts for himself and the staff. After forgetting to bring them in for several days, he presented them to his co-workers on September 25, 2008; each staff member received a photograph of Eric featuring a personalized inscription and signed "Eric the Midget Actor" with the word "Midget" crossed out; he sells these as well as personal phone calls on Johnny Fratto's website. Howard also received a wedding gift, the book Jewish Chess Masters on Stamps, for which he thanked Eric and joked "you thought of both of us, I know Beth is going to love this!"

Howard announced on September 25, 2008 that he had been offered a free, custom-made real doll, the staff and fan-base debated on who it should be modeled after and, as soon as Eric's name came up, he let it be known that he was vehemently opposed to such a creation. His extreme reluctance has made the staff increasingly interested in using him for the real doll. When he threatened legal action, lawyer Dominic Barbra informed that the doll would be "fair satire" and therefore legal. Eric mentioned that Johnny Fratto told him that the ruling of the case "Bergen vs. McCarthy" resulted in his being unable to sue. Unaware he was being made fun of, the cast mentioned that he might also want to look into "Henson vs. Miss Piggy" and laughed at him. Howard proposed that, if they were to profit from the real doll in any way (such as renting it out, etc.) they would pay him royalties. Eric remained reluctant after this, so Artie Lange said that if the real doll would be made, he wouldn't pursue any legal action from Eric's sale of their photograph together. However, Eric remains opposed to their making the real doll.

References

See also

• The Howard Stern Show
• The Wack Pack

External links

• Eric Lynch at the Internet Movie Database
• Eric's Stickam Profile
• Eric Picture Gallery
• Eric's first ever call to the Howard Stern Show
• DailyMidget.com (Eric Fan Site)
• EricTheUngratefulMidget.com (Eric Fan Site)