He’s cracked jokes for decades, but Pauly Shore’s latest update is no laughing matter.
The “Encino Man” actor, 57, revealed this week that he recently went under the knife to have a tumor removed from his pancreas — a shock diagnosis that came without any warning signs.
“Instinct played a huge role in this,” Shore said of the trendy medical test he took on a whim, which detected the hidden growth. “You never know what the f—k is inside your body.”
About three months ago, the funnyman decided to undergo a full-body scan — a high-tech, head-to-toe checkup that’s gaining traction among celebrities and wellness influencers.
“They check for tumors, cancer, aneurysms, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, you name it,” Shore explained in an emotional Instagram video posted from his hospital bed on Aug. 27, which has since been taken down. “Being in my 50s, I thought it was the right thing to do.”
Roughly a week after the scan, he got the call. Doctors at SimonMed in Las Vegas had found a small, benign tumor tucked in his pancreas, which they said may have been lurking there for 15 to 20 years.
Doctors recommended removing the mass, even though it wasn’t cancerous and didn’t pose an immediate threat. Still, the diagnosis hit Shore hard.
“Mentally, it really messed with me,” the MTV alum said. “Could it grow? Burst? Turn into something worse? You just don’t know.”
The “Son in Law” star noted that he’s always taken his health seriously — hitting the gym, doing blood work, staying on top of dental cleanings, and booking regular checkups, including cancer screenings like colonoscopies.
“But I had never done a full-body scan,” he said. “I had no symptoms. This was just me following my instincts.”
Shore underwent surgery on Aug. 21 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where doctors successfully removed the tumor and managed to preserve his entire pancreas.
The Instagram video posted from his hospital bed then cuts to five days later, with Shore recovering at home. He said he spent one night in the hospital after the operation and had been managing pain with medication during his first few nights back.
“It’s been tough. The aftermath of an abdomen surgery is pretty f—ing hard,” he said, wiping away tears. “It’s just wild. It’s been a lot.”
In the caption of his now-deleted video, Shore encouraged others to get checked — even if they’re feeling perfectly fine.
“Most people only get a scan when something is already wrong,” he wrote. “You want to find it before it finds you.”
Shore is the latest A-lister to back whole-body imaging, a buzzy health trend powered by companies marketing preventive scans directly to consumers.
Stars like Dwyane Wade and Maria Menounos credit the technology for catching their cancers early, while rocker Rick Springfield has praised it for uncovering a traumatic brain injury he suffered from an on-stage fall 25 years ago.
Others, including Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Cindy Crawford and Jason Bateman, have also jumped on the bandwagon, touting the scans as a proactive way to take control of your health.
The celebrity buzz has fueled a boom in the industry, with a growing number of Americans shelling out hundreds — even thousands — for scans typically not covered by insurance.
Supporters consider them the next frontier in preventive medicine, helping catch health issues before symptoms strike and potentially improving treatment outcomes.
But some medical experts aren’t convinced, warning that scanning low-risk people could trigger unnecessary anxiety and lead to invasive procedures patients may not actually need.
In Shore’s case, he expressed gratitude for the scan, saying that without it, he “might have never found out about the tumor.”
“I’m all right, and I’m healing every day,” he wrote in his Instagram caption.
“Maybe I can help save someone’s life by encouraging them to get a preventative scan, or even just go to the doctor and talk about prevention,” Shore added. “And maybe they can save someone else’s life too.”
