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Beetlejuice (entertainer)

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Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice in 2004 during The Killers of Comedy Tour
Born
Lester Green

(1968-06-02) June 2, 1968 (age 56)
Browns Mills, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupations
  • Comedian
  • actor
Years active1999–present
Height4 ft 3 in (130 cm)[1]
Websitebeetlemerch.com

Lester Green (born June 2, 1968),[2] better known as Beetlejuice, is an American comedian and actor. Green rose to prominence in 1999 due to his appearances on The Howard Stern Show, becoming a member of Stern's Wack Pack. He was named the greatest Wack Packer of all time in 2015.[3] He has also appeared in such feature films as Bubble Boy (2001) and Scary Movie 2 (2001).[4]

Early life

Lester Green was born in Browns Mills, New Jersey, on June 2, 1968. Green was born with dwarfism and microcephaly, a condition that caused his small head relative to his small body and an intellectual disability.[5] He is the second youngest of six children by his mother Lillie and was raised in the Marion Section of Jersey City.[6]

Career

Green was discovered in a neighborhood bar by Sean Rooney who became his manager. He would go on to become an entertainer and joined Rooney's dwarf-tossing company where he was given his nickname because of his resemblance to a character in the movie Beetlejuice (1988).[7] Sean Rooney died in 2009[8] and management of Green's career fell to his brother, Bobby Rooney.[9]

1999–2000: Early appearances and The Howard Stern Show

Green made his debut on The Howard Stern Show on July 14, 1999, making an appearance with Frank "Third Degree" Burns, who also has dwarfism, while Rooney was promoting his dwarf-tossing business.[7][10] Stern immediately took a liking to Beetlejuice and saw his potential for stardom, calling him a "once in a lifetime guest".[11] Green would go on to make numerous appearances on the show and became one of Stern's most popular guests. Despite his popularity, some have been more critical of his appearances on the show due to the belief that Stern exploits developmentally disabled individuals.[12]

In 2000, Stern was invited to the 17th AVN Awards to receive an honorary exclusive achievement award which he sent Green to receive for him. Green gave the acceptance speech with some direction from his manager that had to be stopped due to his lengthy, "incomprehensible rambling". That same year he made an appearance on WCW Monday Nitro where, dressed as Superman, he confronted Jeff Jarrett backstage, who then proceeded to hit Green over the head with a guitar after calling Jarrett "Slap Nuts”. Green then interrupted Jarrett's WCW Championship match before being pummeled by the wrestler in the ring.[13]

2001–2016: Rise to fame

Green portrayed a fictional character in the 2001 cult comedy film Bubble Boy named Lil' Zip, a member of a freak show that Jake Gyllenhaal's character Jimmy Livingston meets. Another member of Stern's Wack Pack, Matthew McGrory, also appeared alongside Green. That same year he would make a cameo appearance as himself in Scary Movie 2, depicted as the brain of Marlon Wayans' stoner character Shorty Meeks.

In 2002, he appeared in rapper N.O.R.E.'s music video for the song "Grimey"[14] and was featured on three songs on the dirty rap supergroup Smut Peddlers' debut studio album, Porn Again (2001), on the tracks "Beetlejuice Intro", "Pimpology by Beetlejuice", and "Beetlejuice Outtakes"[15] on Rawkus Records.[16]

Green sang "This Is Beetle", also known as "The Beetlejuice Song", on The Howard Stern Show in late 2004.[17] Stern Show producer Richard Christy recorded the song, wrote music to accompany Beetlejuice's raw vocals, and then engineered it into the full song.[18] The key lyrics to the song are, "This is Beetle, he's bad as can, and he knows he's the best."[19] The song, which Green created spontaneously in the recording studio, has been covered by the rock band Staind,[20] who included the song on special editions of their fifth studio album Chapter V. On September 19, 2005, Blues Traveler played their version of "This Is Beetle" on The Howard Stern Show.[19][21] Initially, Stern was unable to broadcast this recording on his Sirius Satellite Radio program because CBS Radio owned the copyright to all of Stern's shows from K-Rock.[22] Stern and his production staff recreated many of the more popular segments from his days on K-Rock, but attempts to recreate "This Is Beetle" were unsuccessful. However, in May 2006, Stern, Sirius, and CBS reached an agreement to sell the rights for all his K-Rock broadcasts to Sirius, thus enabling Stern to play the song.[22] There was also a controversy around the share of potential profits from the song, and Green's manager at the time, Sean Rooney, got into an argument with Gary Dell'Abate, the executive producer of The Howard Stern Show, regarding the percentage share of the profits between Green and Christy.[23]

Throughout his career Green also participated in amateur boxing matches with other little people.[24]

In June 2008, film director Michael Bay intended for Green to cameo in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), but Green reportedly was difficult to direct and so Bay opted not to have him appear.[25] In 2009, Green was featured in his own five-episode reality television show entitled This Is Beetle on Howard TV.[26]

Since 2017: Recent appearances

In February 2021, Green made his first appearance on The Howard Stern Show in over five years. He informed Stern that he relocated to Georgia with his mother, and also debuted a remixed version of his 2015 song "Beetle in the House", featuring Snoop Dogg, Sean Paul, and Big Freedia.[27]

In February 2022, Green's manager launched an NFT on the Goldin's Auction platform, which allowed the winning bidder to receive a physical rookie card signed by Green as well as a video of Green telling his life story.[28] It sold for $15,000 after 21 bids.[29]

In 2023, a video clip of Green dubbed "Just Hanging Around" became a viral meme on TikTok and other video sharing sites.[30]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role
2012 Girls Gone Dead Himself
2004 Beetle Uncensored Himself
2001 Scary Movie 2 Shorty's Brain/Himself
Bubble Boy Lil' Zip

Television

Year Title Role
2009 This is Beetle Himself
2003 Doggy Fizzle Televizzle Himself and Super Juice
2001 Son of the Beach Himself[31]
2000 WCW Monday Nitro Himself
1999–2005 Howard Stern Himself

Video games

Year Title Role
2005 True Crime: New York City Zeke (voice)[32]

References

  1. ^ "Sixteen People In Howard Stern's Universe, From Robin Quivers to Crackhead Bob". Rolling Stone. March 16, 2011. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  2. ^ Vintage Beetlejuice birthday. DVLH2. 4 June 2020. Archived from the original on 17 October 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021 – via YouTube.
  3. ^ "Wednesday, March 18, 2015 | Howard on Air Rundown | HowardStern.com". www.howardstern.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Beetlejuice". IMDb.
  5. ^ Kaplan, Jason; Panasci, Thomas (2005-06-16). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern channel Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  6. ^ Beetlejuice Documentary. Peter Fowkes. 28 August 2016. Archived from the original on 29 July 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ a b "MarksFriggin.com - Stern Show News - Archive". www.marksfriggin.com.
  8. ^ "Sean M. Rooney Obituary". obits.nj. Jersey Journal. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  9. ^ Rooney, Bobby. "Stick and Move Management". stickandmovemanagement. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  10. ^ "Stern Files Declassified: The Discovery of Lester 'Beetlejuice' Green". 20 March 2017.
  11. ^ Dell'abate, Gary (20 March 2017). "Stern Files Declassified: The Discovery of Lester 'Beetlejuice' Green". howardstern.com. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  12. ^ Waggoner, Jess (2016). "Oh say can you ___ ": Race and Mental Disability in Performances of Citizenship". Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies. 10 (1): 87–102. doi:10.3828/jlcds.2016.6. S2CID 147194084. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  13. ^ Williams, Joey (16 March 2018). "Top 10 Moments of Jeff Jarrett's WCW Career". wcwworldwide.com. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  14. ^ Jake, Paine (2007-06-27). "N.O.R.E: Hood Dreams". AllHipHop.com. Infinity, Allhiphop.com, Inc. Archived from the original on 28 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-04. AllHipHop.com: To close on a funnier note: one of my favorite rap video moments from of yours is in 'Grimey', when Beetle Juice throws the cereal boxes off the shelf. Tell me, was that your idea to put him in the video? N.O.R.E: Yo, man, let me tell you somethin': nobody got my idea of Beetle Juice first off.
  15. ^ "Smut Peddlers: Porn Again" (MP3). Eastern Conference (Amazon.com). 2001. ASIN B000QR38N8. Retrieved 2012-11-02.
  16. ^ Shabooty (November 4, 2007). "Shabooty Interview Series: Cage (Chris Palko)". shabooty.com. Archived from the original on April 7, 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2012.
  17. ^ Kaplan, Jason; Panasci, Thomas (2004-12-03). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
  18. ^ Kaplan, Jason; Panasci, Thomas (2005-06-17). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  19. ^ a b Kaufman, Gil (2005-10-28). "Stern's Beetlejuice: The Jolly Dwarf With Staind, Blues Traveler In His Corner". MTV News. MTV. Archived from the original on November 3, 2005. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
  20. ^ Kaplan, Jason; Panasci, Thomas (2005-08-10). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  21. ^ Kaplan, Jason; Panasci, Thomas (2005-09-19). "The Rundown". The Howard Stern Show. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
  22. ^ a b "Stern Gets Old Tapes, CBS Gets $2M". CBS News. 2006-05-25. Archived from the original on 19 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-26.
  23. ^ "The Beetle Song Controversy (Part 3 – Sean Straightens Things Out)". YouTube. Retrieved 2016-04-29.[dead YouTube link]
  24. ^ "SHOW RUNDOWN: MARCH 11, 2005". howardstern.com. 11 March 2005. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  25. ^ Sciretta, Peter (14 March 2013). "The Story Of How Howard Stern Show Wack Packer Beetlejuice Was Almost In 'Transformers 2'". slashfilm.com. /Film. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  26. ^ "Jersey City native 'Beetlejuice' to debut in Howard TV On Demand reality show". The Jersey Journal. 19 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  27. ^ "BEETLEJUICE CALLS THE STERN SHOW AND DEBUTS THE 'BEETLE IN THE HOUSE' REMIX FEATURING SNOOP DOGG, BIG FREEDIA, AND SEAN PAUL". howardstern.com. 9 February 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  28. ^ "Beetle NFT - the First and Only Official NFT for Beetlejuice as Seen on The Howard Stern Show (#1/1)". goldin.co. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  29. ^ "Beetle NFT - the First and Only Official NFT for Beetlejuice as Seen on The Howard Stern Show (#1/1)". goldin.co. Goldin's Auction. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  30. ^ Schroeder, Audra (2 May 2023). "The origin of the 'just hanging around' sound on TikTok". dailydot.com. The Daily Dot. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  31. ^ "Son of the Beach (TV Series)". imdb.com. IMDb. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  32. ^ Luxoflux. True Crime: New York City. Activision. Scene: Pause menu credits, 4:29:10 in, VOICE TALENT.
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