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EVERYONE was phoning the show in or becoming completely out of touch, such as Ant believing he could rant about race on and off the air all the time. They only cared about filling the 3 hours a day with some borderline entertaining content, but elevating the brand or promotion? It was just too much. And then all the shit they DID think of was shot down by the company. There really is no real โone incidentโ that lead O&A to decline besides honestly Ant getting fired because thats the thing that officially ended the show.
The death bed era of O&A had some appeal in how unheard of it was for a major corporation to broadcast a caller allowed to ramble by himself for so long, or dead silence, or the hosts walking out of the studio with the mics on. Very simple "idgaf" type bits they did use to their advantage, but it was clear then, when they watched videos, or when they would all just exhale with nothing to say and be like "So, that's in the news? Jimmy, you do anything this weekend??"
The general meandering of the show was due to mismanagement which led to Opie's role diminishing.
Opie was like the mascot for the show, he had a silly name, was always the one hyping up the gimmicks -- He rook the calls, he set the table. He even dictated the pace of the conversation, and HE was the one who made the judgement call on when something ran its course. Anthony submitted to Opie's will, because he was the co-host and his role was to React to Opie.
As a supporting character, Anthony's strength was often to play 'straight man' to Opie's silliness... Or better, Anthony would reluctantly lean-in to whatever dumb crap Opie was peddling, and it was such an odd yet so familiar sense of humor that it became funny. "Faraway Email Friday? Well... Hmm... What's the furthest Email we've gotten? Is it from Ostralya?" It was like Anthony was being held captive and it was fascinating to listen to Opie force him to play along and squirm.
OK, At the end of the show, there were no live events, no contests, no bits, no gimmicks. Opie STILL tried, even after he found out his 2 partners were colluding AGAINST him after he had already suspected it for years. Opie hung on for the millions and tried to make shit like The Apology Clock happen. Hey, that's not a bad idea to point out the fact that people were apologizing to Kikes and Nigs daily back then. Opie was tweeting like Anthony live on the air.
Opie let Anthony rant about blacks aimlessly and parrot shit he had heard on Fox News the night before. Even other racist people said "ALRIGHT! ENOUGH ABOUT THE NIGGERS!!!" Opie even turned it into a funny bit with the Candy Crush, and Anthony was self aware enough to keep the bit going by ranting even louder and saying funnier things... Opie made Anthony defensively funny, even during his random aimless rantings. Yet people act like the candy crush bit was somehow Opie "being lazy." Dude was literally setting up Anthony for the punchline by doing a bit, playing the audio into the microphone. Dumbasses like Karl act like Opie was unironically playing candy crush during the show like someone Stupid Jim who he adores. Like they CAUGHT Opie who accidentally let the sound slip that he wasn't paying attention to Anthony's brilliant ranting.
The general racism of the show was a major appeal. The DMAN was very entertained by a lot of Anthony's racism and how his mind would always go there. The fact you never heard that anywhere from any real company is what made it unique. Or the inappropriate bell which most black listeners still wouldn't understand. Still, the show had nothing going on at the time. They were in a closet.
One of the founders of XM was a hardcore O&A fan, they basically told O&A they started the company to create a platform for shows like them. Sirius didn't know anything about O&A. It was just company culture, they fumbled a legendary comedy brand because they didn't even know about it, to the point that it's so obscure right now it's sad. At one time O&A were on track to become as infamous a duo as any other. As it stands today they're just another random troupe who broke up and started nitpicking each other. But the 30th anniversary reunion will of course remedy that temporary situation.