2012 was when Ant went full-Nugent. Still funny up until the end, but between Obama's re-election and the Zimmerman/Trayvon trial, he went a little paranoid nuts.

The first hour segment of every show between 2012 & 2013 was awful.

Opie would either have an exaggerated version of a who-gives-a-fuck story about his kids or a complete fabrication of events (Jury Duty, Seat-belt Ticket, Woman opens his bag of candy in the movie theater, etc). OR he would bitch about the studio/management for an hour+. A quarter of the show was them whining about an extra trashcan in their workplace, where they work 4 hours a day to hang out and shoot the shit with friends and celebrities for a big fat paycheck.

When it wasn't Opie's turn, Anthony would take a big shit in my ears for an hour+. Obama, gun control, race, Zimmerman, or whatever FoxNews had been spouting the night before. I didn't even disagree with a lot of what he said, it's him screaming like a crazy old racist and repeating the same fucking points day after day. We get it, liberals are bad. Jimmy would be on Twitter and Opie played CandyCrush or Sodoku, while Ant ranted and raved about how the black community is ruining America. (Although you can't help but wonder why a man surrounded by old, rich Jews in his multi-million dollar mansion is so obsessed with the actions of young black kids in the ghetto)

This is what you have to look forward to. There are a lot of great shows during this time, but the first hour is usually pretty rough

this exactly, i used to always bash ant when people would bash opie because at least they could sometimes make some jokes out of a bad opie or jim story but ant would just bring the show to a dead serious hault and everyone would tap out.

al though the show got so much better before ant got fired, he let up on the ranting and it seemed like him and opie were getting along great which led to some great shows.

Seriously. Even when he had a good point, about Zimmerman or violence in the black community, it was factual and real (at first). I would find myself agreeing with him, then he would take it one step further and start yelling like a crazy old man, reiterating his points, and bulldozing differing opinions from callers. I would often jump an hour to get away from it.

But I blamed Opie just as much as Ant. He's the "captain of the ship" or whatever the fuck. He was happy to sit back let Ant take a chunk of air-time so he could play on his phone and collect a big fat check.

It's one of the reasons why O&J is shit. Opie let Ant and Jim do all the legwork for so long, he never had to do actual radio. He set the stage, created the controversy, and fed the flames, while more talented people were entertaining. He can orchestrate good radio, but can't actually create it.

Ant got real stir crazy around the 2012 elections between Obama and what was happening with his house because of Hurricane Sandy. It's pretty funny.

I just remember the "Obama president nahhhh" story which was the fakest/most bullshit story ever told on the show.

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I did the same thing, it took me about 14 months to listen from the beginning of xm through the current shows... Now I'm doing it with Ron and Fez.

I've never been so depressed to listen to all the great Patrice appearances, and there's something weird about listening to them all in a short period of time. Instead of the slow build, it rockets up and seems to fall even harder. It's difficult to explain.... Then, well, you know. Even Steve C, listening to the beginning, the Jetsons car, then hearing about his son running around the house after he died asking where daddy was... I was an emotional wreck. Then the greatest arc is the show itself, not taking away from a death, but there was something about how it ended, where it was, maybe the potential... That I still am not over.

It's a great way to listen to the shows I think

Nah, everyone here just listens to opie looking for every fucking thing to pick apart, because everyone on reddit is a superior broadcaster.

Literally every single person has the potential to be a better broadcaster than Opie. They just have to sit in the room silently.

aww shiet