Why were Patrice and Ant racial discussions so fun to listen to?

Two men who openly disliked aspects of the opposing race in their discussions, yet also enjoyed certain aspects. Neither of them were nearly hateful enough to be irrational, not even close. They didn't keep race from blinding them to the worth of any individual. They never tried to sanitize their language to avoid offending the other, which was an impossibility to begin with. It meant that everything they said was true for the person speaking, with no holding back.

They were also both willing to engage each other in the first place. Even if there were a comic who could replicate a quarter of Patrice's kinds of viewpoints, would he also tolerate Anthony? Probably not. Patrice would speak to anybody about anything, and he'd usually win. If not, he'd laugh at the realization of being wrong.

He died around the time I'd finally caught up to his appearances through the archives. I'd listen to him on the old shows daily, listen to when he was on for a new one, then go back to the old ones some more. This went on for a very long time during probably the toughest year of my life. By the time I got all caught up, he'd died like a week later.

We knew it wasn't good health-wise with him for a while before he passed, so it just never really hit me that he's really, truly gone until reading this post for some reason. Even reading tons of posts about him on this subreddit, this topic in particular bummed me out.

I'm sorry to make this about myself and ramble like a cunt, but I don't know where anybody would give half as much of a shit about him if I brought him up. I tell people about him and they go, yeah, he's funny, but that's the biggest goddamn understatement. He had one of the most unique ways of seeing the world, and he was on his way to being the best comedian of all time. Even when he was blatantly wrong, it was fucking hilarious. Who else can do that? It just sucks to really look up to somebody so much, only to have him leave just when you're finally understanding who he is. It makes me realize how fucking worthless so much of this effort can be when everything just turns to fucking dust after it's over.

I dunno. I know this sentimental kind of post isn't great for this place, but fuck. Now we all just shit on Opie for almost a full fucking year? I've written paragraphs worth over the span of many, many one line posts, just about his tits. Jim's checked out, Ant can't replicate what he used to do, the fucking Stangels are in there, not much CQ on the show anymore, and people are going crazy with PC shit now more than ever. It stinks, and I don't like it.

/r/opieandanthony Thread