shock jock

noun

A deliberately offensive or provocative talk show host.

Meanings

nounshock jock (plural shock jocks)

plural shock jocks

  1. slangA deliberately offensive or provocative talk show host.

    “We always had shock jocks,” said Michael Harrison, publisher of the talk-radio trade magazine Talkers. “But then we had a shock president.”

    2021 February 10, Michael M. Grynbaum, Tiffany Hsu, Katie Robertson, Keith Collins, quoting Michael Harrison, “How Right-Wing Radio Stoked Anger Before the Capitol Siege”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
    2 more examples

    “To slam a movie about hate radio for fostering hate is like saying that a movie about the Ku Klux Klan will foster the Klan,” he says, adding that the death threats against Barry Champlain, “Talk Radio’s” shock jock, are not the imaginings of a feverish, Hollywood-inspired imagination.

    1989 January 6, Robert Koehler, “The Word on 'Talk Radio' : Eric Bogosian Finds Story in the 'Fringe Element' of the Media”, in Los Angeles Times

    Appearing frequently on Japanese online shows in T-shirts, hoodies or casual jackets, and wearing signature eyeglasses with one round and one square lens, Dr. Narita leans into his Ivy League pedigree as he fosters a nerdy shock jock impression.

    2023 February 12, Motoko Rich, Hikari Hida, “A Yale Professor Suggested Mass Suicide for Old People in Japan. What Did He Mean?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

shock jock. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shock%20jock

MLA

“shock jock.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shock%20jock. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shock jock,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shock%20jock.

Source: shock jock on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.