Jerry Springer’s talk show was no stranger to headline-making moments when it ran from 1991 to 2018.
The host, who died in April 2023 at age 79, retired from TV the previous year after brief stints on “America’s Got Talent” and “Judge Jerry.”
“I’m 78 and have been in front of the camera now for 40 years, plus 10 years in politics. I’m winding down,” the “Jerry Springer” host wrote in a March 2022 statement.
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“I want to try out retirement while I’m still healthy,” he continued at the time. “I don’t have to make a living. I want to enjoy life.”
When the journalist lost his cancer battle the following year, Springer’s family called him “irreplaceable,” adding, “His loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”
Read on for a breakdown of Springer’s best guests’ most viral, outrageous appearances over the years.
Man Who Married a Horse
In May 1998, Springer featured a man named Mark Matthews who was married to his horse, Pixel — as well as two other people in relationships with dogs.
The journalist looked back on that episode in 2016 during a “Meredith Vieira Show” appearance, saying he didn’t realize that Pixel was Matthews’ wife when the animal was brought onstage.
“I’m thinking that his wife fell off the horse,” Springer recalled. “You don’t think, ‘Oh, gee, that’s his wife.’ So I’m going, ‘Oh, my God, someone check backstage.’”
Adult Babies
That same year, Springer spoke to multiple men who lived their lives as though they were 2-year-olds.
He explained that one of the men in particular referred to his wife as “Mommy,” claiming she “bathes him, feeds him and even diapers him.”
When Springer asked the guest “what is the attraction” of playing that role, the man replied, “It’s getting nurturing and stuff you may not have gotten as a child growing up.”
Woman who broke world’s sex record
Porn star Jasmin St. Claire explained her decision to break the world’s sex record while on “Jerry Springer” in 1997.
“I thought the most outrageous thing I could do in this lifetime was have sex with 300 men,” she said. “So I did it. Jerry, it’s made me the most famous porn star in America. I mean, I didn’t go wrong.
“I loved it,” the guest continued. “The benefit is, I’m making tons of money now. I did something extremely outrageous and now I’m super famous.”
Man who cut off his penis
Many years after a guest went viral for claiming to have cut his own penis off to thwart an interested man’s advances, Springer told Huffington Post that the story was real.
“It was gone,” he alleged in a 2016 interview. “You have to check. Lawyer’s are all over. We had the police look for it, the hospital look for it, everything.”
Springer noted that his audience was more shocked by the guest “flushing it down the toilet” than removing it in the first place.
Woman who cut off her legs
A guest insisted in 2006 that she was “happy” she cut off both of her legs with a power saw in an episode Springer deemed “the most bizarre” in the show’s history.
Sandra, who was 48 at the time the interaction was filmed, said, “I didn’t want them. My brain just kept saying, ‘Get rid of them.’ So I had to get rid of them.”
As she continued to share many methods of self-harm, the “Jerry Springer” audience laughed.
Man who slept with girlfriend’s stripper sister
In a November 2011 episode, a woman confronted her sister, who works as a stripper, for sleeping with her boyfriend.
After calling her sibling “trash,” the guest slapped her partner in the face multiple times for his “mistake.”
She also physically assaulted her family member, pulling out her extensions.
Naked peek-a-boo proposal
A guest named Johnny didn’t know what he was doing on set in 2016 after being lured there by an unnamed “surprise.”
His best friend, Judah, subsequently took the stage to show off his dance moves and praise Johnny for being the “only person who has respected” him.
Judah proceeded to serenade his pal about a “naked peek-a-boo” before getting down on one knee. Johnny agreed to marriage and sealed the deal with a kiss.
The Kung-Fu Hillbilly
Danny, the Kung-Fu Hillbilly, appeared on “Jerry Springer” multiple times over the years to show his fighting moves.
“Of all the guests we’ve had … we have more reactions to you than anybody else,” the host gushed during a 2008 episode.
The self-proclaimed “ninja master” left the audience with words of wisdom at the time, saying, “Ask not what your trailer park can do for you but ask what you can do for your trailer park.”
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