because he thinks it's an added, serious, dimension to his personality and career that gives him credibility on a heavy subject. there's a financial impact on calling Jimmy out over his "addiction" expert bullshit, and that's why doug stanhope never got invited back on the show.

however, a second way of looking at this - you dont need to go through real addiction to be considered an expert on the subject. people who've never played sports have opinions about their teams. people who've never served have opinions about the war. people who've never gone to college have opinions about law, medicine, engineering, etc.

Jimmy is that. The addiction expert who's never really been addicted - but feels like he's got to pretend it for his career and advice show. I guess that's ok.

I think he's just prone to obsessive behavior, but thats not genuine addiction.

If you listen to his stories, he has no problem turning his "sexual addiction" off at the drop of a hat when in a relationship. The relationship becomes the fixation, and right now, finding a girl and getting into a relationship is his current fixation.

Celebrity photos. Just listen to what an asshole he becomes when he's near or just missed his fix.

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I like Jimmy. He is a fundamentally nice guy. But man what a bundle of neuroses. I think he has agorophobia; holes up in his apartment or hotel, only travels with Kenny, never goes on vacation... He has a very tiny comfort zone.

He has changed hotels because he didn't like the pillows...

Pillows.

jesus christ thats weird. If it sketches him out so much just fucking take a pillow with you. I've actually become accustomed to one of the pillows at walmart, so if I'm on vacation and don't bring a pillow/the ones I'm using stink, I go spend $15 on a new one.

He's definitely a sheltered weirdo/homebody

Yeah its weird he hasn't tried doing shows aboard. Even if only England/Ireland. I don't get it.

Did Doug Stanhope call him out on it? I don't remember this.

Nah they just disagreed about AA. Doug thinks its a cult and Jim (and Vos) still go to meetings.

They STILL go to meetings? Fuck man it is a fucking cult...

Ah yea I remember that.

Dr Phil of radio, both without a proper degree or experience

He's a dry addict. Instead of using drugs and alcohol, he's a pervert using sex.

He's spent Artie Lange type money on prostitutes in a year. He's also too stupid to make the connection that his sobriety didn't correct the behavior, it just morphed into a different pursuit.

He's spent Artie Lange type money on prostitutes in a year

Well when is it sex addiction versus being unfuckable and having to pay everytime you want to blow.

I think when you constantly cheat on people you're dating to fuck prostitutes, get massages, and pay to suck off cross dressers with fake tits, that's passed wherever that line is at.

When the women have dicks and you ask them to Piss in your mouth.

There is no way Jimmy is working to not have Stanhope back on.

Jimmy is too neurotic to do that, he would cave himself in on the little details and actions it would take to do that, he would be worried what people think, he would try to word it perfectly to Roland and Opie, he would worry what if Opie said he wants him back, also by the time that happens his instant rage would have calmed down and he would have forgotten why he was so angry and let it go.

how many times has he done a 180 on someone he LOATHED who finally agreed to get a picture taken, all of a sudden he loves them.

We are just a bunch of armchair psychologists aren't we.

i think you are probably right in everything you're saying, but it's just more fun to think the worm is being slimey behind the scenes.

People really give Jimmy too much credit/blame as this behind-the-scenes Machiavellian mastermind. He'd be light-years ahead of where he is in the business if he had half the calculating business sense this sub claims he does.

I agree, I consider myself "addicted" to weed (psychologically) and even though im not on heroin or coke, I feel I can still relate to an extent about the MENTAL aspect of addiction (not the physical side effects, like DTs). I have no prob w Jimmy not doing drugs or drinking, but to turn it into a "thing", its annoying and embarassing, and everytime a new guests asks how long hes been sober, I cringe.

Exactly.

Yeah but don't we always feel as though those people are frauds? Isn't this why we having sayings like "those who can't do, teach" and "he couldn't make it the business so he became a critic" "critics are failed screen writers" etc...

and that's why doug stanhope never got invited back on the show.

Where does this come from? Just speculation?

BS, Stanhope hates New York.

I figured as much. Sounds like fan fiction to me based off that one exchange.

Because he thinks it makes him look like a strong induvidual who overcame a a really hard ordeal.

I have respect for Vos in his recovery, he really went to the bottom of the barrel.

Jims idea of rock bottom was his mother frowning at him when she smelled pot smoke coming from his bedroom.

Ever since that day, through the grace of god as he understands him, he has been clean and sober...

Some days are hard, but Jim is a survivor.

Of course he neglects the fact he replaced his chronic pot use and drinking with sexual deviancy, which is an addiction of its own.

Jim should not be giving anyone addiction advice.

Everyone has a different bottom. Some people kill their best friend driving drunk, some people lose their families/destroy relationships, end up in and out of jail, find themselves living on the streets... Some people get home late for curfew one night with bloodshot eyes, their mom waiting in the living room with hot cocoa saying "James, I'm not mad at you, just disappointed, but I'm here to help"

Everyone has a different bottom, for most prostitutes its fucking Jim Norton for $100

I have respect for Vos in his recovery, he really went to the bottom of the barrel.

I have respect for the fact that Vos had a problem, solved it, but doesn't consider himself an authority on the subject.

Jimmy's more addicted to giving advice to people than anything else. And his advice often sucks or is only artificially meaningful. His advice is all about him, and he loves thinking his advice is a valued commodity.

If I was friends with Jim and Vos and decided to look into addiction recovery, 10 times out of 10 I am going to ask Vos what worked for him before I'd submit myself to an ego drenched cliche monologue from Norton.

he really went to the bottom of the barrel

Why, did someone drop a penny down there or sumpthin

Of course he neglects the fact he replaced his chronic pot use and drinking with sexual deviancy, which is an addiction of its own.

He has called himself a sex addict more times than I can remember (several times in Happy Endings, if you need proof).

Based on the way he considers himself a drug addict, I think the sex addiction is played up just as much. I dont think he really likes getting peed on/trannies/etc. Most of the time he talks about his 'addiction' its about jerking off, which obviously if he can hold a job and do stand up gigs every weekend, it obviously isnt affecting his life, which is he only way I would call jerking off an addiction. And he's a single dude, you fuck chicks. He's 4 foot 4 and looks like a sea turtle with AIDS so he's had to pay for it, doesnt make it an addiction.

He might have smoked pot and drank for 2 years max, no hard drugs. He was obviously looking for attention. Then his parents, who are very nice people, sat him down and said "James, we think you have a problem". Just what he was looking for, attention and sympathy. All his "baby boy" rants are a lot like Opie's "me me me" rants. Just projecting himself onto others

Jimmy has talked about his dad being in the program, he just started him early.

I remember him saying that, but the voicemails he played of his mother are obvious that she's very nice, and worries about her baby boy. If she found 2 empty beer can's and a roach in an ashtray her little-man needs help.

They cant be too bad if they let jim live with them all the way to his 30's

Jim always said his parents were really nice people, and his sister is normal. Opie was the one saying how fucked up his childhood was, his dad was a scammer, his mom was nuts, Opie was a victim... Ant had a racist/abusive booze-bag dad and a floozie "Cocktail waitress" mom, makes perfect sense that he's all fucked up, but I never really considered Ant to use it as a "Oh poor me" excuse, more of that's how it go's, he's just following family tradition.

It's clear that Travis had the most fucked up childhood out of all of them

Travis' mom didn't bail until he was out of the house.

Really? They always made it seem like she left the family for a Jew while Travis was still a kid. Why would he care who his mom is fucking after he's out?

It's more that she pretty much cut off all contact with her family.

Who knew Jews and Scientologists had so much in common

Didn't Mars get his ass kicked one day by his mom?

Didn't we all?

Got a hot oily spatula to both his hands too.

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His brothers have been on the show alot of times talking about the upbringing on how they had to lay cement on their lawn and doing child labor, eating cheap etc.

So hes not talking shit.

If Ants dad didnt beat the gay scientist out of him he would need to drink booze, buy guns and have fast cars like a real man, drink booze and bang teenagers(remember he lost his virginity at 12(?) to his 17-18 y/o neighbour that his dad "gave him" this introduction) that probably sets an sexual inprint.

But who to say thats wrong, millionaire bangin teens and being able to be drunk all the time? Probably the all time dream.

She's the one who had to go through it once with the drunken asshole husband, and didn't want to deal with it again.

Hence the KISS dreams where they hugged him and loved him. All he has ever wanted is sympathy

He has talked about buying crack but most of the stories are about pot and booze. You hit the nail on the head.

He may have experimented, but as a teen I often lied/exaggerated to my friends to make it sound like I did more drugs and I wasn't a "lightweight" to seem cool. Now that I'm 30, i downplay all the awful shit i've done and lie to myself that i'm just a "social drinker", I just prefer to be "social" by myself at 8 in the morning.

Just look in the mirror like I do and quip "Hey, it's five o'clock somewhere! Haha".

Then wipe away the tears and pound that feel good juice.

...don't make you a bad person.

He also said that he only smoked crack on top of weed. If you've ever smoked crack, you know smoking it on something vs using a pipe/stem are two completely different things. I think it has to do with the burning temp, but I've smoked it on weed/tobacco and didn't feel anything. Taking a hit from a stem is 1000 times more intense.

relevant username?

Ha kinda. But no, I've never put K up my ass. I also haven't smoked crack in years. I'm more of a downer kinda guy.

I have just heard stems called boofs before. Or something like that. Ahhhh druggies.

Never heard that one before. Boofing is putting drugs up your ass.

Bobby Lee did meth when he was 12 and was a alcoholic onwards but he was into heavy drugs for a long time during Mad TV afaik so its probably two different stories but he couldve done harder drugs earlier in his age.

In case you didnt know, Opie's "me me me" thing, like most of what he has to say, is just a rip-off of Jimmy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nzmLonrWM8

Are you implying he's overexaggerating his addictions in order to appear deep and profound?

All great artists face inner turmoils. Our little Yimmi is no different.

He's an addict - but his addiction is to being a "recovering addict."

He's just an attention seeker. He's one of those people who likes to tell everyone that they have a "disorder" or "no I can't drink, I'm just way too wild and crazy and dark. I just lose control because I'm so fucked up and extreme."

It's literally embarrassing. Since age 17 I go through periods of getting drunk every day for months at a time, smoke weed from morning until night and also could not stop taking amphetamines for two years.

I would NEVER talk about this with the tone of self pitying melodrama with which he talks about getting drunk 7 times when he was a teenager. At worst, I will sometimes complain about it like a guy who should cut back on fast food. It's one of the few things I actually hate about Jim.

Nobody feels sorry for you. Nobody thinks you're "far out" and crazy. You're an extremely boring person and that's why you've been sober for decades and enjoy eating at restaurants with Kenny.

I knew legitimate alcoholics who were 15 and 16. There's no age on addiction. Younger addicts usually aren't such a mess. Because they're young.

Vomit in my mouth whenever he starts trying to 12 step people, though. That shit is like Scientology.

The only thing you can even say about him is that the obsessive sexual behavior, and the more recent obsession with dieting that we all agree he's taken too far indicates that he's probably got some form of OCD and is prone to obsessive behavior and developing mental fixations which can kind of look like, but are a far cry from genuine addiction.

And before the dieting, it was his obsession with 'collecting' photos and autographs of famous people.

How many band members has he salivated over the years at getting a photo with, as if missing out would be the end of the world, when we all know all he only listens to is two bands.

Not to mention the obsessive self-loathing, before he turned into an anorexic looking fruitcake.

A male anorexic that is still ugly as shit(I would assume a 'male anorexic' would be a gay male model or something) is about as pathetic as it gets.

Pretty much. I could easily see him trading in his eating disorder for drinking/drugs if he went down that road.

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Because he surrounds himself with actual drug-users, alcoholics, and rockstars he wants to impress. But he has no fun or interesting stories/encounters involving drugs or alcohol so he tries to pull the "I got out early, believe me I was worse than you think..." card.

becoming an expert in a field of science is a multi-decade, incredibly challenging goal. becoming an "expert of addiction" requires 1 year of smoking doobies and drinking bud light. everyone wants to be some kind of expert.

Wow Jimmy, you prank called the FBI once?! That's fucking crazy...That's almost as crazy as blackout murdering your girlfriend!

It's always Florida. Always.

Florida has some crazy public records law, the press can just dig around until they find something interesting to report.

No other state operates like that, thats why you see florida stories and not "georgia stories" non-stop in the press.

TIL

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So people can't tell him to shut up when he starts giving his opinion on addiction.

To be fair, by the time I was 19 I was most definitely a pretty serious alcoholic. Not in a fun party way. If I had quit at the same age Jimmy had quit, my life would be a lot better. Just because he quit drinking at an early age doesn't mean he never had a problem. I have friends who legitimately had to have a few drinks in the parking lot before class in high school because he'd get the shakes from being sober.

Sorry man...according to most of the people here, unless you were blackout drunk and beating your girlfriend half to death, you don't qualify.

They hate how jimmy acts like an expert on addiction so the guys in this sub are going to act like experts and judge Jimmy's level of addiction based on a handful of stories he's told on the radio.

It's really not that cringey, honestly. There's nothing wrong with stopping early. I'm 26 and I still have about a night a week where I slam a fifth.

Yea because teenagers don't exaggerate to appear edgy. You sound like you're still 19 and I don't believe a word of your post.

You probably ran with a crowd of faggots in high school, then. We weren't sipping from our parents liquor cabinets. We were drinking at pretty fucked up levels.

Were ya?

Yes and I'm now paying for it as an adult.

Who wasn't? You're not special for getting fucked up in high school lol. We would snort ritalin in class ffs, most kids are deviants.

Then why is it so hard for you to believe Jimmy was an alcoholic at 19?

Yeah it's called being young. People get fucked up and black out, even multiple times a week. I used to drink at school and would get blackout drunk 3x a week. Guess what, I grew out of it in my twenties. Young people do dumb things and one of those dumb things is getting drunk too much.

So because you stopped drinking it means jimmy was never an alcoholic? You're a fuckin retard.

No it means that what has been described is standard actions of a young kid and not something where you need to such drastic things such as rehab or AA for 30 years. Going "clean" at 17/18 is stupid as fuck, you have no understanding of addiction or if you are an addict and you are just going off what parents and probably AA zombies are saying. I don't claim to know anything about you or anyone else, but I was merely describing that the scenario that is painted does not indicate someone is an addict. Someone trying to be an expert on addiction who stopped the thing they were "addicted" to very shortly after starting and then never doing it again for 30+ years is phony as fuck.

Drinking until I blacked out on gin basically every night when I was 17, I knew even then I was an alcoholic. Yes, continuing to go to AA thirty years later is probably silly, but this "Jimmy tasted beer and went to AA" circlejerk is retarded. He ended up in a rehab. That's not a good sign.

Jimmy the addict is probably worse than any of Opie's terrible personality traits. It's infuriating this 50 year old cunt equates himself with actual drug addicts who addicted to real drugs. By his definition every person I know is an addict because we all drank and smoked weed in high school.

He thinks it makes him fit in and able to relate to more people.

Jimmy does use his addiction to generate a mystique around himself in a kind of annoying way, but you animals seem not to understand a few things. I know you would prefer to bash someone as opposed to learning something, but please try to keep an open mind, because this is something that's bothered me for a while about the O&A audience and something I've put a lot of thought into over the years. Jimmy is absolutely an addict/alcoholic and the fact that he quit early is merely a testament to his intellect. You don't need to ruin your life for years on end to be a "real" addict.

There's no difference between a "serious" addict and an addict. There can be variation in negative consequences, some people are more functional than others, but you either possess the biology for addiction or you don't. Jimmy is an addict/alcoholic. It's obvious to anyone familiar with addicts. He is a master of rationalization and he can find a way to intellectualize anything in a way that allows him to live with the conflict of ideals, he lies when it suits him, he has a childhood history of sexual abuse. (Which is something I've only heard him reference through his Monster Rain bit and in a schticky way radio in an attempt to rationalize and downplay the events, but he's never faced the fact that an older child forcing a younger child to perform sexually is not within the range of healthy and normal behavior. It's categorically defined as sexual abuse and the consequences are often severe, which is self-evident in Jimmy's case.) And despite his best efforts, he can't stop certain behaviors, which really is the chief requisite for addiction. Just because his addiction is couched in what you guys consider to be a douchey context doesn't mean the biology isn't there. Call him a douche if you please, but it's inaccurate to say he's not an addict.

Now, if Jimmy thinks he's in recovery, he's fooling himself. He's been an active sex addict for years and now he's transitioned to addictively working out. He's essentially a dry drunk. I don't know him personally, of course, but from what I can gather, he doesn't have a sponsor, he doesn't regularly attend meetings, and he never completely recovered from his addiction, despite his allegiance to the program. He just replaced one addiction for another.

In conclusion, you mongoloids have a superficial understanding of addiction and ought to rethink your position.

Not to subvert your kool-aid drinking diatribe, but if your understanding of an addict active in recovery is that he going to "meetings" and has a "sponsor"; well, you're a true looney. What an elementary understanding of addiction and recovery you represent by saying this is the only path.

b/c it adds an "edge" to him, a tortured artist type thing..... All comics do this shit now, play up their addictions and quirks in a vain attempt to add depth or interest.

I agree, this schtick kind of annoys me. You want to read some truly harrowing drug memoirs, check out "Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man" and "Permanent Midnight". Those are tales of drug addicts.

Whether or not Jim is a 'legitimate' addict, he sure as hell is lifelong devotee to AA and the 'program'. He constantly slips in AA slogans. "Your best thinking got you here." That kind of thing. Hence his disgust with Lady Di. He doesn't want to enable her by having her on the show.

He smoked two marjuanas

No one seems to notice my favorite dissonance around here when this topic comes up. People will say in the same post:

"That faggot was never a real addict! Fuck him for pretending to be one!"

"Fuck him, he's still an addict, look at his sex and photo behavior!"

It blows my mind that people honestly think that Jimmy has the kind of personality that could handle alcohol or drugs in moderation.

Those couple of weeks in the late 80's when he was drinking Bartles & Jaymes and smoking weed was SERIOUS BIZNESS.

Easy for you to say because you are hiding behind a fake name.

As a heroin addict for 5 years who got sober without going to meetings (just rehab) it does bug me a little, but thinking about it a little more, it seems like he might have known it would've been a problem down the road and had the foresight to stop drinking. that or I'm just gay who know

Why do people care? Jimmy has been saying he has a problem since he has appeared on the radio? Even if he is exaggerating, what's it to you?

he got drunk and sucked a bunch of cocks and blamed the booze vs ...he's just a freak.

It's a shame, because I really think Jim would be a hilarious drunk. Can we drive him to drink somehow?

If working with Opie alone hasn't, I'm not sure what would.

I think that within the AA culture you aren't supposed to judge people (even those whose issues may seem trivial, [see Bob Saget in Half Baked]) and because of this Jimmy isn't used to being challenged about his past. Outside of AA, it's fair game for anyone to ask him the question. Whether his assertion that he is an addict is valid or not I understand how his reaction is to get pissed. I think it would be interesting to see "Stoner Jimmy"

street cred, that's why.

There's definitely a lot of kids who are drug addicts, I know plenty of them (sometimes I think I'm one but I won't get into that here). The difference is most of them aren't attention seeking faggots who do shit like call in bomb threats and piss in people's sinks. They just abuse substances in a way that fucks with their overall grip on their life and often justify continued use by saying they don't want to stop but they easily could. That's complete bullshit but it's the only way people can rationalize their self-destructive behaviors.

Most young drug addicts aren't sucking dick for crack or anything, but they do spend a good majority of their time devoted to finding and using drugs. That's still addiction.

Jimmy was just a needy douche.

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Are you an addiction specialist or trained professional of any kind in addiction medicine or treatment, that you can make that assessment?

What exactly are these "life experience qualifications"? I've been in and around the recovery movement through my ex-alcoholic father, I've never heard that term.

Please enlighten us.

You do not really need to be an "addiction specialist" or professional to know that Jimmy was not really an addict. Through the several stories he has told he was at best an idiot when he got drunk. Maybe add in attention seeking whore with the cutting.

Would he turn into an alcoholic had he kept drinking? Maybe. But when you are pushing 30 years without drinking or drugs, and you only had maybe a year of that shit to begin with, it is a little silly to be as intense as he is about it now.

I have been in and out of the "recovery movement" myself, having gone through years of sobriety and years of drinking 20 or more drinks a day. I know people that drank 3/4 of a gallon of vodka a day for years, as well as heroin addicts. While I applaud Jimmy not drinking or drugging( as I would anyone), he does come across a little over dramatic with his addiction shit.

Just to add.....were he in actual recovery from addictions, he would not be jerking off for hours or day or spending tens of thousands of dollars on hookers(at least a few years ago).

That is what AA does to you. They build the illusion that you don't have control of your actions and that terrible addiction is like a monster. That shit is so cultish in how it works, also the success rate of quitting drinking/drugs with or without AA is indistinguishable.

Because it's the only time people look at him with respect, even if they are faking it, it's the only time people treat him like he's strong with a worth to look up to.

It's one of those things that unless you and everyone knows all the facts, you look like a complete asshole for calling someone out on. He can say he was an addict and is in recovery to people and no matter how much they doubt it, they can't call him on it without looking like an inconsiderate asshole. So, he gets away with it, and that just reinforces the lie until he believes it's true, and now he thinks it's like his one redeeming quality. The only accomplishment he brings to the table.

Plus he was probably given tons of attention when he went to rehab, probably the only time his peers didn't make fun of him, and he can't let that go.

I think a part of him knows there's a big difference between him and what most people would consider an addict in recovery. But, he doesn't want to admit his case was just a teenager getting over a rough patch, not the hell of addiction, and he'd rather believe he is one of those hardened addicts gone good because it feels better.

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4 teh LULZ

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Why are people here obsessed with acting like his addiction was nothing? Is someone more of an addict because they partied harder? He identifies as an addict and he's sober. Who gives a shit?

People that are truly addicts, those that have suffered a true bottom, give a shit.

Someone is more of an addict because they lost everything, not mommy and daddy throwing them into rehab because their dramatic teenager was cutting himself for attention.

Congratulations. You win the addiction war. That doesn't make him not an addict.

But it should put it in perspective. He was an idiot drunk....he is no where near the level of an addict you schmuck. No one is trying to win an addiction war...what a faggot ass term that is. But compared to every other addict there is out there, Jimmy the worm ranks about as low as you can get.

Hey Vos said you can drink one beer a week and be an addict, think of the suffering of someone like that, trying so hard to get their life together only to have it undone by one Coors light on a Tuesday

Ugh....did he really say that?? I know I shouldn't be surprised since its Vosssch, but still what the fuck.

Yeah I started fast forwarding My Wife Hates Me whenever he delves into addiction talk after that

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"I got drunk and cut my arms I was bad"

I was in the ICU for two days, started drinking right after I got out of the psyche ward, I'm cool as shit

Yeah...but did you prank call the FBI?

I think it probably felt like that at the time

because it constitutes 80% of his act (on stage and off).

Does it?

yes, his entire act is about how he edges, gets prostitutes, is a sex addict, was a drug addict and chip etc, etc, etc.

Multiple times in the past Jim has mentioned doing hard drugs, not just pot and alcohol. I cannot remember if he ever went into depth with that. With suicidal thoughts, cutting, phone calls to the white house, etc... Seems to me like it was probably a big problem regardless of his age at the time.

wanna hear a joke? The Jim Norton advice show

Bob Kelly is the same way. Both of them have hugely addictive personalities though (Bobby the fisherman?). Anything they get into, they go all in on.

Because it's entirely possible for a person to recognize that they have an addictive personality as a teenager? I knew plenty of them in high school.

He was smart enough to realize at a young age that if he were to keep using he'd probably had died or ended up in prison. If he felt his life was falling apart because of drugs and alcohol, and hated the person he was when he was fucked up.. then more power to him. I work as a counselor and have seen far to many young people die because of it. Just because he quit young doesn't make him less of an addict. You don't know what the fuck you are talking about.

99% of really good comedians have had some kind of substance abuse issues and most of them are dead. I think it's his way of trying to fit in with the big boys

He's definitely a sheltered weirdo/homebody

Yeah its weird he hasn't tried doing shows aboard. Even if only England/Ireland. I don't get it.

He has changed hotels because he didn't like the pillows...

Pillows.

Drinking until I blacked out on gin basically every night when I was 17, I knew even then I was an alcoholic. Yes, continuing to go to AA thirty years later is probably silly, but this "Jimmy tasted beer and went to AA" circlejerk is retarded. He ended up in a rehab. That's not a good sign.