Jackie Martling

Jackie Martling
Jackie Martling at The Record Collector Store in Bordentown, New Jersey in May 2010.
Pseudonym	"The Joke Man"
Birth name	John Coger Martling, Jr.
Born	(1948-02-14) February 14, 1948 (age 69) Mineola, Long Island, New York
Medium	Stand-up, radio, television, film
Nationality	US
Website	www.jokeland.com

John Coger "Jackie" Martling, Jr. (born February 14, 1948) is an American comedian, comedy writer and radio personality. He is best known for being the head-writer and on-air personality on The Howard Stern Show from 1983 to 2001.

Jackie Martling was born in Mineola, New York, on Long Island. He attended Oyster Bay High School and lived in East Norwich, New York, earning a mechanical engineering degree from Michigan State University in 1971. Martling is of English, French, and Dutch ancestry.

Martling began his show business career as a musician on Long Island, New York, playing with an original music and comedy trio, "The Off Hour Rockers." In order to accommodate the band's gear, Jackie drove a used hearse. In the late 1970s he began telling jokes on stage solo. Jackie's partners in "The Off Hour Rockers" were Chris Bates on guitar and Herbie Werner on keyboards. In 1979, he segued into performing full-time as a standup comedian.

Jackie's breakthrough into major radio came in 1981 when longtime writer/producer of the Rick Dees Morning Show on KIIS-FM, Los Angeles, Dave Lipson, discovered Jackie's "Use Your Finger! (516) 922-WINE" telephone service. Each day's offerings were recorded and aired daily on the Dees morning show, eventually leading to Jackie recording daily joke segments just for Dees' shows. That's when Dees suggested Jackie be referred to on his show as "The Joke Man." This turned out to be one of the most popular bits on Dees' morning show.

In his standup routine, and during his tenure on The Howard Stern Show, they often played "Stump The Joke Man," where audience members were challenged to start a joke that Martling couldn't provide the punch line to. If they successfully were able to "Stump The Joke Man," they would win a T-shirt or one of his CD's. Frequently, Martling was stumped.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Martling recorded several comedy albums, including What Did You Expect?!, Goin' Ape!, and Normal People Are People You Don't Know That Well. Although album sales were anemic, Martling mailed the albums to Howard Stern at WNBC-AM when Stern first arrived in New York City in 1982. A guest appearance on Stern's radio show in February 1983 led to his eventual hiring as a cast member when the show moved to morning drive on K-Rock in 1986.