-- JOHN Melendez should have just shut his stuttering trap.

The former Howard Stern sidekick known to fans as "Stuttering John" - who left the Stern show five years ago and now works as an announcer on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" - has made the shock jock angry.

Melendez made an appearance on Adam Carolla's syndicated weekday radio show last Wednesday and ripped Stern, saying he never paid him fairly and didn't fight to keep Melendez when he quit the shock jock's radio show. "He resented me doing any outside work," Melendez said.

Stern bit back with a half-hour rant on his Sirius Satellite show the other day, calling his former underling a "no-talent ingrate."

"I didn't have a beef with him before, but I do now," said Stern. "He's delusional. If he was doing really well, he wouldn't be doing commercials for Tahiti Village. He can go [bleep] himself. I've had it with him, and he's a talentless [bleep]. All he did was stutter."

Stern also questioned where Melendez's speech impediment went, saying, "Now he sounds like an elder statesman."

Stern's tirade didn't stop there. He said that he was "ticked off" and that he had made it clear to Melendez from day one that the job wasn't going to pay a lot of money.

"We gave him plugs for his comedy shows . . . He wasn't an underpaid super talent like he seems to think," Stern said. "He answered phones and read questions."

Melendez also told Carolla that Stern tried to prevent him from doing stand-up. Stern retorted, "That's because he was slapping my name on them." Although Melendez's wife, Suzannah, is friends with Stern's fiancée, Beth Ostrosky, he doesn't want them phoning each other anymore. "I'm going to have a talk with Beth about that," Howard said.

Stern also blasted Carolla, saying, "He calls me 'Stern,' and I'm not sure what that's about," adding that he seemed to be trying to get Melendez "riled up."

"This is the way I'm thanked," said Stern. "John should stick to stuff he's doing now, like lifting up that mug on 'The Tonight Show.' "

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03032008/gossip/pagesix/stern_stuttering_mad_at_john_100198.htm

I remember when John Melendez appeared on that show I'M A CELEBRITY, GET ME OUT OF HERE! where celebs were planted in some jungle and it was like SURVIVOR. His stuttering was almost non-existent. That was the first time I had heard John talk almost perfect.

I was so happy I was able to hear Howard's rant live last week - he was on fire. So damn funny.

John is an ungrateful jerk. The last couple of years he was with Howard he was unbearbly annoying, yet to this day he still thinks he was the greatest thing to ever happen to the Howard Stern Show.

John had better hope that Jay offers him a job if he moves to another network, because his career will be history once the Tonight Show gig is over.