I must admit that I always found Howard Stern to be a bit — oh, what’s the word? — repugnant. I figured he was some shock-jock who got off on talking about lesbians and the size of his own penis, which he contends is too small.

Luckily for movie audiences, there is more depth to the famous disc jockey than that.

Not that lesbians and Stern’s penis don’t get their fair share of air time in Private Parts. We also see enough silicone-enhanced breasts to keep me thinkin’ of sandy beaches throughout spring break, even though I’ll be landlocked the whole time.

But all of that stuff — penises, lesbians, full female nudity — is Stern’s bread and butter; his ability to shock the hell out of people got him his job at the none-too-shabby NBC Radio in New York City.

He didn’t start out that way, of course. He got started putting on X-rated puppet shows at nursing homes and smoking pot in his bedroom. I didn’t know this, but Stern actually went to college — Boston University, in fact — and majored in communications. So he has some sort of formal educational background in his career, which surprised me for some reason.

Stern is also quite the family man, which also made me go, “Whuh?” He’s been married to the same woman, Alison (played by the awesome Mary McCormack), since they started dating in college. I guess I figured that since Stern uses his personal life to spout off over the airwaves, he had some kind of wild ‘n’ kinky sex life.

But he even confesses in his narrating voice-over in the movie that he is an ugly guy, that he can’t believe that his beautiful wife finds him attractive.

Even I, a firm believer in the beauty of every person, must admit that he is not the most ravishing dude. Stern portrays himself in the film (of course — who else could do it??), not just in the present, but also as a college student and a young deejay. And lemme tell ya: Howard Stern with Mr. Kotter hair is even more scary than Howard Stern with Howard Stern hair.

Speaking of which, I don’t know who the hair stylist for this particular film was, but she went absolutely nuts with Stern’s ‘do. He has, like, a spiral perm or something. I always thought he was a frizzy, just-woke-up-and-didn’t-bother-to-comb kind of dude, but he’s more coifed throughout Private Parts than Cindy Crawford.

Anyway, I wasn’t too awful optimistic about this flick, just because I think Stern is way too self-promoting at times. Case in point: Private Parts ain’t fiction; it is the true story (more or less, I suppose) of Stern’s rise to fame via the gutter.

There are some marvelous, ingenious comic bits between Stern, Fred Norris and Robin Quivers, who are basically a crack commando team of comedy.

Incidentally, Stern got his partners their jobs at NBC, even making life hell for the suits when Quivers was fired after one especially risqu‚ bit. So Stern is a ferociously loyal guy to boot.

I guess what I am trying to say — in the most roundabout way that I possibly can — is that I not only laughed my hieny off at the movie, but I also (grudgingly) dig Howard Stern as a person.

Anybody who tests the boundaries of the First Amendment is a-okay in my book. And — this is sooo clich‚, but I’m being sincere — he’s a really beautiful person on the inside.

I even stopped minding when he kept bringing up his penis, and believe me: that takes a lot.