Listeners and readers want to know: what's Dori Monson (KIRO m-f, 12-3p) done to his face?
Specifically: his upper lip?
As you can plainly see in the before photo (left) taken in 2006 and the after shots taken recently, (right) Dori's face has obviously been altered. 
The controversy rages 'cross the Internets: Is it lip diminution, or teeth augmentation?
"It's probably both," says Dr. Edgar "Choch" Mañana, a talk radio face analyst who consults for Facebook and Rush Limbaugh's EIB Networks. He made his national chops consulting on the stiffening of Sean Hannity's upper lip which saved his career in 1994, and helped boost it into the stratosphere he currently enjoys.
Mañana does lip service for television networks; tongue-in-cheek work for Hollywood stars; and consulting for such media outlets as BlatherWatch, and Horny Gagger Babe magazine.
The labia majora (upper lip, for those of you who didn't have latin) is the most important organ for a talk host. In fact, it was voted into the Top 10 organs for the first time last year by Talkers magazine; coming in third behind the arugula and the gall bladder.
Only the most important and wealthiest talk show hosts have the money, ego and other assorted wherewithal to go under the knife for such a procedure. The changes in Dori's face coincide with his ascension in 2007 to the virtual throne of King of Seattle Talk Radio.
When we showed Mañana the pictures of Dori, he immediately said "'Dori' is a girl's name, isn't it?"
We agreed it was, and he said right away: "He's been messing with his philtrum."
Wow, we said. We knew that the philtrum is the vertical groove in the upper lip (from the Greek philein, "to love; to kiss").
Mañana says the upper lip is typically thin and the philtrum flat in children with the fetal alcohol syndrome.
Dr. Mañana said often the parents of such children drink too much. Is that why
they gave him a girl's name? we wondered. Was Dori a Bourbon baby? The
Good Doctor couldn't make a diagnosis without examining Dori, but he
guesses he's had both procedures -- front teeth inflation and a
lip-shrink.
(photo: Bourbon baby's philtrum, right; look familiar?)
(It's far more common for children's teeth to be too large -- like the unfortunate baby's on the left).
Teeth augmentation is one way to help solve the "no lip" look, but usually the solution is a combination of both lip surgery and orthodontia.
"Unfortunately," says the Doctor, "if the lip procedure is done incorrectly, it has the effect of tightening the anal sphincter causing personality changes. Deepening distrust for institutions; churlishness; narcissism; reversion to adolescent belligerence; political wonkery; emotional generalism; and obsessions with boyhood games involving balls are just a few.
In other words: it enhances the very attributes that make a male talk show host successful.
("That lip!" says a former KIRO distaffer. "Dori used to play with it when he thought no one was looking. Made me wanna puke.")
Mañana says the apparent front teeth enlargement could be an illusion caused by the lip job or even a symptom of aging (long in the tooth). We doubted it, stating that while Dori may sound like your senile Uncle Parvo, he only recently turned 46.
"In that case," Dr. Mañana said, "I suspect he's suffering from the lip to sphincter-related early onset senility."
...and Dori is laughing all the way to the bank. I'm sure he loves that this blog would pay so much attention to him. He truly is the King of talk radio in this town.
Posted by: Duffman | February 07, 2008 at 05:22 AM
He talked about it on the air a long time ago. He got his teeth straightened. In fact I think he was pimping for the guy that did it.
Posted by: drool | February 07, 2008 at 07:20 AM
As I have pointed about before, there are numerous mysteries surrounding this man, such as his Ballard upbringing and Virgina accent, and his unexplained change from moderate to extreme conservative.
Why would a radio host want plastic surgery? The swirl of mysteries make sense if we suppose he is an undercover operative. These operatives are known to undergo plastic surgery like you and I buy a new jacket.
Posted by: storsie | February 07, 2008 at 07:26 AM
I've always marveled at Dori's Jeff Spicoli/Sylvester the Cat enunciation.
Guess it wasn't his crooked teeth, but habit.
Posted by: Emphyrio | February 07, 2008 at 08:30 AM
"his unexplained change from moderate to extreme conservative."
Brain damage.
He may be laughing all the way to the bank but he's ugly all the time.
Posted by: Dana | February 07, 2008 at 08:44 AM
Also mysterious is Dori's strange magnetism here. For example, Hannity was mentioned in the post. I don't rememeber one poster talking about Hannity, ever.
Nary a thread goes by without heated comments about Dori. How does he do that? Mind control via radio waves??
Posted by: wutitiz | February 07, 2008 at 08:51 AM
Remember, we are all enhancing his career by talking about him. His goal: be loved or hated...just don't be ignored.
Posted by: Duffman | February 07, 2008 at 08:52 AM
I'm glad they fixed his labia.
Posted by: coiler | February 07, 2008 at 09:23 AM
heh...unfortunately the labiosusness is not the problem...its what comes out of them.
Posted by: sparky | February 07, 2008 at 09:40 AM
Another startling Blatherwatch expose.
Dori was always a funny-looking little critter, I think his new facial dress for success is why he finally made it as King of Seattle Talk Radio. Maybe Goldy should have gotten a hairpiece.
Posted by: Andy | February 07, 2008 at 09:44 AM
Thanks Mike, this is important work.
Posted by: biggie | February 07, 2008 at 10:13 AM
Goldy needed a voice transplant or some voice lessons. He was unlistenable.
Posted by: gk91 | February 07, 2008 at 02:35 PM
Mr. Munson's perfectly-fine face is perfectly irreverent to the quality of his [often-traumatic] broadcasts. Obviously.
Oh, and this "issue" of physical looks and newstalk radio happens to be covered in new my critique of martha Washington's radio work:
www.RadioarctiveSeattle.blogspot.com
Posted by: Bryan Styble | February 07, 2008 at 03:16 PM
In one picture it looks like he's in mid-pronunciation, and in the other, he's smiling. So you can't really compare the two. They are two different expressions.
I think this is one post that reflects more on BM's obsession with Monson, than it does on Monson himself.
Posted by: DT | February 07, 2008 at 04:53 PM
Don't click on Styble's name above if you're at work! The weird little guy is trying to load up this site with porn.
Posted by: sarge | February 07, 2008 at 08:06 PM
the guy's got a face for radio and a voice for newsprint.
Posted by: psycho | February 07, 2008 at 08:44 PM
the guy's got a face for radio and a voice for newsprint.
Posted by: psycho | February 07, 2008 at 08:46 PM
>>his unexplained change from moderate to extreme onservative.<<
Two words: brain damage
Posted by: Dana | February 07, 2008 at 09:33 PM
Oops, double post. (At least I'm consistent.)
Posted by: Dana | February 07, 2008 at 09:35 PM
Sorry folks, but I've absolutely no idea why clicking on my name on the above posting directs you to, of all things, Thai porn. (Of all the varieties of foreign sexual content that I suspect is available on the Internet here in the 21st Century, it so happens that Thai would be, ahem, WAYYYYYYY down on my personal list of preferences for ethnic pornography.)
I'm sure many BW readers suspect I'm somehow trying to long-distance undermine BW with cyber technology, but I'm not. I wouldn't desire to do that even if I HAD such know-how.
Which of course I don't. Anyone who knows me personally knows I wouldn't know where to begin to "hack"; huck, I don't even understand the procedure for making a posting without revealing my name. But that's fine, because I have zero interest in the cowardly habit of anonimous posting, which seems about the only way anyone other than me and Mr. Hood is willing to post hereon.
So while I'd be more than happy to apolagize for hacking (or whatever it precisely was that was done to corrupt that posting) this site and inconvenienceing (or worse) y'all...I can't, because I simply didn't do it.
What I DO need to apologize for is not catching the typo in my URL in the above posting regarding my Laura Ingraham Show essay. It of course should have read:
www.RadioactiveSeattle.dogspot.com
Sincerely,
BRYAN STYBLE/Seattle
Posted by: Bryan Styble | February 07, 2008 at 09:41 PM
Hate to double-dip here--really!--but I just now noticed that that corrupted posting wasn't merely corrupted in the poster's-name field:
my essay concerns Laura Ingraham's show and the supposed "looks" issue in stalking radio, not Jefferson Washington's. Of course.
www.RadioactiveSettle.blogspot.com
Posted by: Bryan Styble | February 07, 2008 at 09:48 PM
Jeez MH, what is this obsession with Dori? Let's face it, most people have a face (or body) for radio and they get work done all the time, for personal reasons only. To suggest otherwise of Dori or to make fun of him seems more like school yard bullying than any kind of critique. Your little article certainly wasn't funny. I usually enjoy reading you but this was stupid and frankly, childish.
Posted by: BeeBee | February 08, 2008 at 12:16 AM
Yes, it is stupid and frankly childish to introduce an occasional element of innocent silliness into what should always be a ponderously heavy and grim opinion forum. I am hanging my head in shame for having been so juvenile as to chuckle at the thought of a man like Dori Monson, who oozes humble dignity and maturity from every pore, engaging in an act of tawdry vanity. Shame on my wretched hellbound soul; I probably deserve to die.
Posted by: Loozertarian | February 09, 2008 at 12:41 PM
One of your best, Michael. Thanks for the laughs. Poor Dori. So deserving of sympathy - not.
All art is garbage. Dori Monson
Posted by: joanie | February 09, 2008 at 02:44 PM
Did he actually say that? Dang! That boy belongs in a trailer park.
Posted by: Loozertarian | February 09, 2008 at 09:11 PM
loozertariana-
MH had the same "stupid" and "childish" bent as he dug and dug and Mike Webb under the so-called cover of an "occasional element of innocent silliness..."
I hated Mike Webb's points of view, but I didn't find MH's harangues about him funny either.
I guess I erred in getting used to the new and more "witty" paragraphs from BlatherWatch over these last few months. It must be that the "cheap shots" are just easier.
Posted by: BeeBee | February 11, 2008 at 01:19 AM
He's always reminded me of a Pug-to-human transmogrification that isn't quite finished.
Posted by: bunyip | February 11, 2008 at 06:35 PM
omg Pug-to-human! rofl
Posted by: sparky | February 11, 2008 at 07:48 PM
Dori Monson, the self described king of Seattle talk radio wears a gutter helmet for a crown.
Posted by: thothman | May 02, 2009 at 02:13 PM
Is this what Bush was referring to when he talked about "human-animal hybrids"?
Posted by: Drew | May 02, 2009 at 03:11 PM
Hahaha, good one coil.
Posted by: Mikey | May 02, 2009 at 03:26 PM
The baby in the picture was cute! He looks like bugs bunny. His parents must be proud of him. Thanks for the post.
Posted by: Dentist Lakeland | December 13, 2009 at 09:08 PM