The Opie & Anthony Show was a radio show hosted by Gregg "Opie" Hughes, Anthony Cumia and Jim Norton. The show, nicknamed O&A, originated at Long Island radio station WBAB-FM in 1994, when Opie, then host of the "Nighttime Attitude", invited Anthony in as a guest co-host after airing a parody tune from his band Rotgut, "They're Gonna Electric-Shock O.J.". The pairing was successful enough for the station to bring Anthony on full-time. O&A moved to Boston-area radio station WAAF-FM in 1995, and their stint at WAAF lasted until 1998, when they made headlines by getting fired after airing an April Fools Day fake report of Boston mayor Thomas Menino getting killed in a car crash. O&A next surfaced on New York's WNEW-FM, where their show ran from 1998 to 2002. This time it was an incident involving two listeners simulating sex acts in St. Patrick's Cathedral that got them kicked off the air.
After a contractually-imposed two-year hiatus, The Opie & Anthony Show moved to XM Satellite Radio in the fall of 2004, where they could do edgier, uncensored material. (They still had to deal with corporate policies and lawyers, however.) The show aired on the newly-merged SiriusXM and had a brief (edited) run on syndicated terrestrial radio from 2006 to 2009.
On July 4th 2014, Anthony announced
he had been fired by SiriusXM after ten years of broadcasting. The show was then renamed Opie with Jim Norton. After a falling out, Opie and Jimmy began hosting separate shows in October 2016 (the latter hosted by Norton and O&A producer Sam Roberts). Anthony has hosted The Anthony Cumia Show since August 4, 2014 via his subscription platform, Compound Media. Artie Lange co-hosted from August 7, 2017 before bowing out in May 2018 due to health concerns. In July 2017, Opie himself was fired from SiriusXM.
Tropes that apply to this radio show include:
- The Alcoholic: Lady Di.
- Armored Closet Gay: Chip gets incredibly defensive when anyone tries to suggest he's gay.
- Ascended Extra: Keith the Cop's original role on the show was to occasionally provide them with homeless people for bits or give input on stories relating to policework. When Anthony started his own show in 2014 Keith was immediately made executive producer.
- April Fools' Day: O&A were fired from WAAF in 1998 after announcing that Boston Mayor Thomas Menino was killed in a car crash (he was still alive and well at that time).Anthony: You don't go to CNN for dick jokes. Don't come to us for hard-hitting news!
- Awful Wedded Life: Ant's life in the '90s. He would spend as little time at home as possible to avoid his wife
- Butt-Monkey: Everybody on the show gets insulted and degraded on a pretty regular basis, but Sam and E-Rock get the worst of it.
- Call-Back: Old bits, jokes and references are brought up constantly. Also known as a "linger longer", as originated by radio personality (and Anthony impersonation subject) Doug "The Greaseman" Tracht.
- Camp Gay:
- Former producer, the late great Steve Carlesi. Or O&A's caricature of him, anyway. "YESSSS!"
- Chip but he will always deny it.
- Chip Tune (whazzat?): At the beginning of their XM stint, the "World 1-1" music from Super Mario Bros. would be played at the end, signaling that time was running out for their show.
- Comedic Sociopathy: In spades, especially Anthony who is prone to road rage, drinking, racism and profanity-laden outbursts of anger.
- Crazy-Prepared: Anthony built a professional broadcasting studio in his basement so he could continue to work if he got fired or the show got cancelled.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mostly done by producer Sam Roberts. (The main guys aren't exactly deadpan about it.)
- Divorce Assets Conflict: The end result of Ant's marriage to Jennifer, a conflict she won by a landslide. He and Opie tried to withdraw half of the money from their joint account but she beat him to the punch and left him just a few dollars. He had to break into his own house to get his stuff back. In the end he ended up paying a large settlement and substantial alimony and as a result he hates anybody named "Jennifer."
- Dumbass DJ: Jocktober is dedicated to finding and goofing on these. Particular "favorites" include "The Scott & Todd Show", anyone who tries to use prep services or "Fugitive" promotions, and fellow XM jocks John & Jeff.
- The boys themselves in their Boston days. The last day of Jocktober/the first day after Jocktober is spent Jocktobering their past selves.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
- O&A sarcastically call one of their bosses the "Radio Wizard".
- A former producer of theirs was known as "Stunt Brain".
- Flanderization: While the Uncle Paul character stayed creepy throughout the show's run, he became a lot hammier and goofier than in his initial appearances as he went from a tool for Jimmy to troll his co-hosts to one for mocking pedophilia scandals in the news.
- Freudian Excuse: The boys all have some hangups and all of them can be traced back to their childhoods. Opie had a sheltered upbringing under an oppressive and mentally unstable mother (explaining his Control Freak tendencies), Anthony was raised by his occasionally abusive, neglectful, irresponsible racist father (explaining his emotional repression and political beliefs) and Jimmy had plethora of sexual experiences with other children as a young boy (explaining his sex addiction as well as his urine and anal fixations).
- Fun with Acronyms: The infamous "WOW", which stood for "Whip'em Out Wednesday".
- And were it not for
the bosses getting in the way, Run Around the Park for Erin. (You figure it out.) Female listener Erin proposed a contest in which she would run around a local park wearing a set of flag football tags, and whoever could catch her and rip off a tag first would win a prize. However, due to the Unfortunate Implications relating to the contest name, the idea was rejected by the management.
- And were it not for
- Humiliation Conga: For Opie following the breakup of Opie with Jim Norton in October 2016. First, following a disastrous attempt at renegotiating his contract, he loses his coveted morning spot to Jim and his former intern Sam Roberts much to his frustration. Then in January '17, Sirius XM renames the channel from Opie Radio to Faction Talk. The following months see the popularity and viewership of his afternoon show noticeably decline leading to stunts like Opie ambushing and filming one of his crew members in the bathroom. Not long after that, one of his producers calls him out and voices his frustrations with Opie's hypocritical behavior on the air. Finally in July 2017, following word that the crew member (who has mental issues) who was filmed in the bathroom had complained about the incident to HR, Sirius XM has officially confirmed that they had terminated their contract with Opie. So within the span of less than a year Opie lost his show, his channel and his job. Ouch. Some see it as poetic justice, given his past behavior.
- I Hate Past Me:
- Their time at WAAF, which is especially bad for Opie as for mysterious reasons he put on the persona of a surfer party animal who was at least five years younger than he really was.
- Opie also hates his early character Spuds Buckley, which he did while doing radio in upstate New York.
- Jim Norton has commented how much he dislikes his early standup career.
- Incredibly Lame Pun (tss, is that a pun that can't walk or somethin'?): Mostly delivered by Jim Norton's character Chip Chipperson.
- Irony: In 2014, Sirius XM fired Anthony for allegedly filming an angry African American woman against her will and saying perceived racial insults. Fast forward three years and Sirius XM has fired Opie for filming someone against their will while they were using the bathroom.
- Just a Stupid Accent: Jim's "Edgar" character, who is fond of deliberately mispronouncing words. "Appril Falls!"
- Karmic Misfire: The 2010 bit "Popeye the Savior Man" featured Anthony, Jimmy, and, to a much lesser extent, Patrice O'Neal, making jokes about Popeye as Jesus. Patrice even said during the bit that he didn't want to get involved because of the subject matter. Guess which of the three would suffer from and die of a stroke the following year?note
- Large Ham: Jim Norton tends to yell, swear, and talk about the most uncomfortable subject matter than anyone else in the team.
- Literal Money Metaphor: In one infamous radio contest in which they would give a caller "a Hundred Grand", the actual prize being a Hundred Grand-brand candy bar rather than $100,000; in 2005, a radio station in Kentucky that did a similar giveaway was sued.
- Manchild: As is often noted by Opie, Anthony has been seventeen years old for thirty years and his entire life revolves around "toys" (guns, big TVs, gadgetry, jacuzzis, etc.) in a big play house where he throws lots of wild parties. But hey, he can afford it, right?
- Man of a Thousand Voices: Anthony in spades.note Al Sharpton, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Mike Tyson, Charlton Heston, Andrew Dice Clay, Tom Brokaw, you name it.
- Occasional guest Jay Mohr also does a number of impersonations.
- Mood Whiplash: Happens occasionally when a bit turns serious.
- "What the Hell Is That" was a bit where listeners were invited to show off physical deformities and have them explained by a doctor. The jokes stopped when the doctor found what appeared to be cancer in a guy's mouth.
- Lady Di spent the first day of her internship being mocked for her stupidity, ugliness and laziness. The second day was spent with Di becoming increasingly ill do to alcohol withdrawal and the boys realized that Lady Di is in much worse condition than they expected, is completely unable to function in society and is likely to die within a few years. Zig-zagged back on the third day when Di's shenanigans became so annoying and over-the-top that
her miserable existence became funny again.
- Moral Guardians: The show was kicked off the air for two years in 2002 after a stunt involving a couple having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral. Before that they were cancelled in Boston for saying that Mayor Thomas Menino was dead on April Fools' Day, and there have been other things.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Averted during the discussion about Grizzly Man, with everyone ripping on Treadwell for his stupidity and apparent Camp Gay qualities, expressing disappointment that the audio of his death wasn't included in the film and claiming the movie to be a fantastic comedy.Jim Norton: I wanna say that I mean this: I hate Tim Treadwell and I'm glad he's dead.
- No Indoor Voice: TED SHECKLER! OWNER OF TED'S TROPES AND IDIOMS EMPORIUM!!!
- One Extra Member: Jim Norton's been an official co-star of the show since 2002, but there's no push to rename the show Opie, Anthony & Jimmy. (Although he's jokingly suggested it should be called Norton & Friends.) Since Anthony's firing Jimmy has moved up to second billing on Opie with Jim Norton.
- After Opie's firing now it is Jim Norton and Sam Roberts
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Opie.
- E-Rock
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Bobo tries to stay in character (and hilariously fails) as the "O&A $10,000 Fugitive".
- Our Product Sucks: It's one of their Running Gags. One example: Jim once proposed to call the replay of the show "Five Hours Of Complete Horseshit, Again".
- Point-and-Laugh Show: There are a lot of weirdos who like the show and they are often invited into the studio precisely for this reason. They range from alcoholic bum Lady Di to Sandy Kane and the partially retarded Bobo. Of all of them, only Stalker Patti has managed to gain some dignity by being a responsible adult... but she is still goofed on.
- Potty Failure: Sort of. In 2006 "No Filter" Paul drank a laxative-type liquid, wore an adult diaper and deliberately soiled it in the studio... with really messy results.
- Professional Sex Ed: When Ant was thirteen his father, terrified of him becoming a sissy due to his crying fits at school, paid his babysitter "Buzz" to deflower him.
- Really Gets Around: Both Anthony and Jimmy have an impressive list of conquests. Opie, on the other hand, is happily married.
- Reduced to Ratburgers: Actually, more like "Expounding on Ratburgers"... In 2000, they hosted a cooking competition where gourmet chefs made exquisite dinners out of rat meat.
- Reference Overdosed: Shows are filled with quotes from Back to the Future, The Godfather, A Clockwork Orange, Star Trek, American Psycho, Death Wish, Platoon, The Shining, Pulp Fiction and practically any Robert De Niro or Al Pacino film.
- Refuge in Audacity: Gather 'round and listen to the Jonestown Massacre tapes while Ant guffaws, "Fuck those kids!"
- here's that, tss, in Auda-State or somethin'?
- Ridiculously Average Guy: Jimmy's character Regular Joe.
- Shower of Angst: Patrice joked about needing one after watching Bobo play the "Up and Down game".
- Start My Own: Anthony started his own solo show a month after being fired, broadcast in HD video from his basement.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: Opie's the straight man to Anthony's Wise Guy.
- Token Minority: Frequent show guest Patrice O'Neal, up until his untimely death in 2011.
- Lately DJ Whoo Kid has filled this role.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Anthony has expressed his affinity for Nazi memorabilia, but he'll be quick to retort that he's "a fan of the era".
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Sam and his wife Jess.
- The Unintelligible: Frequent show guest Rich Vos. O&A keep a running tab of his mispronunciations.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Opie, Anthony, Jim, and guests Vos, Patrice O'Neal, and Colin Quinn all spend lots of time trashing each other. Despite that, they are all friends and use the show to plug their various appearances.
- Subverted with Opie and Anthony, who maintained a working relationship but stopped talking outside of the show, and had a strained relationship long before Anthony was fired.
- We Used to Be Friends: Opie and Anthony following Anthony's firing from Sirius. It was two years before the two spoke again when Anthony called in on the first day of Opie's afternoon show. Since then they both have attacked each other in various appearances and now they outright hate each other. Opie and Jim also fell out and continue to hate on each other in various media.
- But enough of this palaver, let's get the show on the road!
