Well, Howard was significantly more famous and powerful than Artie.

Antwan doesn't like confrontation and it really shows.

Artie can use this to his advantage against Keith and Anthony all day long. He’s just over there getting checks.

Somebody get him back on heroin quickly so we can watch him decline in health again, that's the best part of the show.

You can’t wait a couple of days?

Ant's "A - ha - ha - ha"'s are getting really passive aggressive and uncomfortable

That’s what attracted him to Sue. I have a theory that they didn’t have sex that much and most of the time Ant would dress up in nerdy anime girl outfits with Sue and mouse-ily cuddle up in bed and gossip about cute boys.

He's not the man, he runs for the man.

Runs from the man*

Ant is getting everything back he's done over the years.

He probably has a nice insurance policy out on Artie but he can only collect if Artie dies under contract.

Haha that explains a lot of things

What would a million dollar life insurance policy cost for Artie Lange? $250,000 per month?

Well, 🐜s 1st dates usually began with drugging.

Drugging is step two. Getting them away from the swing set is step one.

And how is she going to get someone away from the swing set without drugs? It’s like you don’t even fucking think.

It's a completely different power dynamic than when he was on Howard.

Back then he had a dream job on the biggest radio show ever. Now he's a co-host on an obscure right-wing podcast network.

Isn't that Ant's MO with everybody? Except when screaming about people who aren't in the room of course.

Especially any woman in the studio.

Spaghetti on the wall

So after these guys are done working together Ant can get all tough about how much he hated working with him. Cool. You know, Opie was right. Warning to Artie - Ant will stab you in the back, but never confront you face to face. This is what drove Opie nuts: he was actually right and no one will ever believe him. With nods and winks Anthony absolutely encouraged the fans to speculate about Opie, how people felt about him, the status of his marriage and the sex tape, all of it. It was OBVIOUS he blamed Opie for not sticking his neck out after the firing. Opie was right. Ant manipulated the hate and no one will ever believe him now. You be careful, Artie. If you survive.

Shut up, Gregg.

You better keep your head on the swivel, Mr.
sniff

Apply directly to the forehead!

Nobody manipulated the hate. After the show ended they were all re-evaluated here and we broke off into people who either think Opie, Anthony or Jim was overrated and in hindsight brings down the show. It just so happens than Opie had far more people who said they realize he was awful all along. But Anthony and Jim also have very vocal haters here.

Opie's post-O&A show also got shitty before TACS did. Opie with Jim had a few months where nobody trashed Opie. But by the Fall it felt like he got paranoid the show was too Jim-centric, so wanted to put his own stamp on what he believes is Opie Humor. And it just got worse from there. The O&A regular comics were replaced by guys Opie wanted to be his big discoveries, DiStefano, Sherrod, Vic, and Normand. And Jim Breuer replaced Colin as the ex-SNL comedy veteran who is a friend of the show.

I don't think Jim should be blameless in O&J sucking, just like he shouldn't be blameless for Jim & Sam sucking. But Opie was clearly the problem.

I agree with absolutely everything you said except that I do think Anthony did encourage people a tiny bit to turn on Opie. As I said in my other post, he did it with a wink and a nod, but he did it. Doesn’t mean Opie didn’t deserve it. There are plenty of examples from some of Anthony’s early shows on his own. In the same way that, while never saying it directly, Opie did sort of admit he was happier without Anthony and was glad he was fired.

Yeah, he did stuff like the Torpid Sloth shirt and the Greggshells rant. But Opie already had the people who got behind that hating him because the O&J show was awful. From what I remember their return through I'd say about October when Opie started shutting down Chip and being vocal he hated Uncle Paul and talked over Jim doing it. The Anthony vs Opie stuff didn't get heated until March.

So Anthony didn't cause anything, he just latched on to it to make a buck.

I didn’t say he caused it, just that he encouraged it. By the time Opie made his “manipulate the haters“ comment, it was after Anthony had done things to let his listeners know he thought their hate for Opie was funny. Like I said, Opie deserved it for not fighting to keep the show together. But when he said that Anthony was encouraging his listeners, he was factually correct. By that time Anthony had made it very clear.

But my point is by the time he did that it really didn't matter because their fanbase was already 85% behind Anthony and talking how how terrible O&J was. So you can't manipulate people who already feel that way.

We're both right, but coming at it from different angles. You're right that people already hated him. But I'm talking about intention. Ant still tried to encourage it. Whether it was needed or not. Opie identified it correctly. I mean it's not even debatable that Ant absolutely nudged his listeners to keep it up. You're arguing that it wasn't needed, which is also correct.

also got shitty before TACS did.

When was TACS ever good? Even the vaunted Greggshells episode was a Live From The Compound thing.

I'm not saying it was prime O&A years level good. But it had better shows than O&J. Anthony was always bad at being solo, especially on camera, but he didn't start getting the "this is so bad I'm angry" feedback until a year after Opie got it.

i can't even listen to the AA show anymore because of artie.

And Ant

Ant would never have the balls to put Artie in his place like Howard did.

That was robin jokingly telling him to shut up....

You have to look at the video - Howard visually communicates to Artie that he doesn't want him talking. And Artie stops talking.

Ahh I see... he hand shushed him.... yeah ant doesn’t have the balls to physically indicate to anyone to back down.

Your' absolutely right. I would add "driving by KtC" as pre-plan.

Anthony has fake laughed so much through the years it has been ingrained into his subconscious.

Yes the Pelican knew how to shut up Artie. Sure. Everyone does the same thing once they realise he is un-managable, wait him out. Why people still do business with him is another matter but once you figure out he is going south you just wait him out or pay him to stay at home. I don't get the Crashing situation though; desperate men seem to accept the pain Artie gives them.

I just miss the old theme song!

Dun dun, dunanana dun dunana, du-nana, dunadun

Ant is slowly going to become Opie.

Going?

Ant is a bitch.

Well, what does the marquise say?

ARTIE and Anthony. Anthony comes second. His own decision.

Ant does that thing where he repeats the punchline, which he has admitted in the past it's a tactic he uses to either fake laugh or buy time.

The funniest thing is when Artie strolled into the show with like 30 minutes left recently and Ant just welcomes him, "Artie's here!" and doesn't bust his balls even good-naturedly. What an absolute coward. That's the behaviour of a man with no dignity.

He's a beta male cuck, he will always be second in command.

And Artie acts like he's still a member of the Stern show but on a extended holiday going by how much he talks about him.

Especially any woman in the studio.

Spaghetti on the wall