For those who’ve had enough of 2016, when we’ve lost such luminaries as David Bowie, Prince, Carrie Fisher and the great TV moms Doris Roberts and Florence Henderson, the death of Howard Stern Show contributor Joey Boots just before Christmas was a nasty punch. The list above is made up of celebrities, but Joey Boots lived in the ether somewhere between celebrity and regular guy — and his death, at just 49, was a reminder of all the regular Joes who left us in 2016.
Boots was a great favorite of Howard Stern. Indeed in a year when Howard Stern memes showed up everywhere from political conventions to the Emmys, there was none more famous and lasting than “Baba Booey.” (Sarah Silverman shouted it out at the Democratic National Convention.) And Joey Boots invented “Baba Booey.” Howard Stern promised on Christmas Eve that he would do a “tribute to the one and only Joey B in the new year.” For the Bronx native Boots, the Stern tribute will be the opposite of a Bronx cheer. Baba Booey. RIP.
Tribute to the one and only Joey B in the new year. He will be missed. #BabaooeyHowardSternpenis
— Howard Stern (@HowardStern) December 24, 2016
