the AA Show was way funnier than J&S and the Opie Show

5  2018-05-15 by MawBTS1989

...Although not always in the way Ant intended.

When I relisten to O&A stuff, I increasingly focus on the shit radio. The bombs, the terrible guests, the passive aggressive bad vibes. I can't get enough of that stuff, and the AA Show had it in spades.

It was day after day of Ant desperately fake laughing, pretending everything is fine as his co-host spirals deeper into drugs. The increasingly frequent empty Artie seat. The anxious glances from Rich Vos, as his friend digs his grave one coke spoon at a time. The constant last minute "medical emergencies" (which no doubt caused all sorts of stress on Ant and Keith as they struggled to find last minute subs). The constant "jokes" about Artie quitting or dying. Call me a monster, but that stuff was great.

I hope Artie gets better. But even if he doesn't, he made me a very entertained boy in the last few months.

4 comments

1  AnthonyDLC 2018-05-15

Don’t follow AA so Artie is doing drugs again?

1  Drumchapel 2018-05-15

Again? you say that like he stopped at some point

1  onemancrimespree 2018-05-15

You can say anything about the way Howard conducts himself now, and you would be right, but seeing the ways both Howard and Anth dealt with Artie's obvious spiraling is very telling.

Howard tried to baby him and help him at first, but at some point he would regularly dress Artie down and treat him like a Wack Packer. There were a few occasions where Artie would babble unintelligibly over interviews, and you can only see it on the video version of the show but Howard gives Artie a big stop hand signal as if to say "shut the fuck up, you're ruining the show." Gary Dellabate explained Howard would rarely make gestures to people off mic but when he did, it felt like the worst form of dejection.

Now on the other hand, Anthony chuckled right along as Artie shat all over his little desk. Anthony, trying to be the cool dad in the divorce so the kids like him more, didn't wanna make a big deal out of Artie disrespecting and belittling the gig. His laughter was to cover because he didn't want to look like a stick in the mud, he wants Artie to like him and think he's a cool boss.

Anthony is like a white nerd in some shitty urban school who all the black kids copy off of and take advantage of, making him uncomfortable and unable to express so. Then again he did pay up when the black kids would rob him in school.

1  ryanindayton 2018-05-15

And it was still really fucking awful. Not even funny awful.