Asshole Dennis Leary

Asshole Album: No Cure For Cancer (1993)
by Dennis Leary

The chorus is often heard on The Howard Stern Show.

This song samples Dolly Parton's "Old Flame (Can't Hold A Candle to You)."

The song reached #37 on MuchMusic's "50 Most Controversial Videos Of All Time" for its profanity, making fun of handicapped people, and threatening to destroy the environment.

In a 2008 appearance on The Opie and Anthony Show, comedian Louis CK claimed that Leary stole his "I'm an asshole" routine, which was then expanded upon and turned into a hit song by Leary. On a later episode of the same show, Leary challenged this assertion by claiming that he (Leary) co-wrote the song with Chris Phillips.

In North America, the music video for "Asshole" received airplay on MTV and MuchMusic in a censored form. In Australia, the song became a hit; it reached No. 2 on the ARIA Singles Chart, ended 1994 as Australia's 26th most successful single, earned a Platinum sales certification, and was voted No. 1 on the Triple J Hottest 100 poll of 1993. The song also found some success in New Zealand, where it peaked at No. 22 on the RIANZ Singles Chart, and in the United Kingdom, reaching No. 58 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1996.

On August 3, 2016, Leary appeared on the US talk show The Late Late Show with James Corden, during which he performed an updated version of the song in character as Bill Clinton, in duet with James Corden playing a caricature of US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and criticizing rival candidate Donald Trump. For broadcast, the "-hole" part of the title was bleeped, a fact that is discussed by Leary and Corden during the song.