Rush Limbaugh
"Not since Jesus Christ has the world seen someone
With such widely syndicated views
Hundreds of years from now they'll celebrate Rush-mas
And Rush-ashana for the Jews."—The Greatest Man in America, Moxy Früvous
Best known for his self-titled Radio Talk Show, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Rush Hudson Limbaugh is a well known American conservative pundit who's not shy about his viewpoints. He has been credited with reviving AM radio and pretty much laying down the standard for the modern day political talk radio program. From 1992-1996, a television version of his show was broadcast through syndication. He also briefly served as an ESPN football commentator in 2003, though he resigned several weeks into the season after making controversial remarks about the press coverage of Quarterback Donovan McNabb.
Like any other political pundit, Limbaugh's stock in trade is controversy. As such, he has made a number of extremely provocative statements, and has been alleged to have made others which strain the limits allowable to controversy. At least some of his opponents have either quoted him out of context or even completely fabricated statements, though others claim that Limbaugh has fabricated similar statements himself.
Among the features that listeners to his show will quickly be able to recognize are the numerous phrases he makes up to use to describe certain things he talks about (such as "Drive-By Media"), his backchat with call screener Bo Snerdly, and the parody spots he plays from Paul Shanklin.
Not to be confused, were such a thing possible, with Rush.
Please use the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement when adding examples to this page, as it is quite political in nature.
- Big Bad: Democratic pundits, politicians and strategists often joke that he's the boss of the Republican party, and the source of their problems. He finds this hilarious.
- Catch Phrase: More than a few.
- His main phrase "...with talent on loan from God" is often misinterpreted as Limbaugh comparing himself to God, when it actually is his way of saying he gets what talent he has from God.
- Celebrity Star: On Family Guy, of all shows!
- Also guest starred as himself in the 90s sitcom Hearts Afire.
- Chickification: Coined the term
- Companion Cube: The Golden EIB Microphone
- Couch Gag: When Bill Clinton took office in 1992, Rush started every episode of both his radio and tv shows with "America Held Hostage: Day (Number of days in Clinton's term)". For the tv version a picture of the White House had something new added to it every day, usually something or someone having to do with that day's news events.
- Enemy Mine: He voiced support of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony's organization that among other crimes abducts children as soldiers and sex slaves, on the grounds they were "Christians fighting Muslims."
- Enforced Plug: Limbaugh will often introduce a topic, only to give it some kind of twist to establish a tenuous connection to one of his sponsors. Some find this extremely irritating, while others find it entertainingly absurd.
- For one particularly groan-inducing example, a listener called in to say that he had to take two showers after voting for Hillary Clinton during Operation Chaos. Limbaugh responded, "If you had followed my advice and gotten a Rinnai tankless water heater, you wouldn't have needed to take two showers. And I'll tell you why..."
- Recently, he made a statement saying he, against all odds, supports video games in the California V. EMI lawsuit. Granted, it had to do with being a tool for censorship by bipartisan democrats. But hey, he thinks they are an art form.
- It's not that surprising. Governmental regulations on private industry is a classic Berserk Button for dudes like Limbaugh.
- Unless you're talking about regulating "violent music" in the wake of Columbine. Though, to be fair, that was pretty much every single pundit with access to a mic and a radio show, not just Rush.
- Godwin's Law: Feminazis.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Rush is known as a big cigar buff.
- Insistent Terminology: He consistently refers to the Obama administration as "the Obama regime" mostly to parody the lefties who used to (in some cases still do) refer to the Bush administration as "the Bush regime."
- Kindhearted Cat Lover / Right-Hand-Cat: Has owned quite a few cats. One of them, an Abyssinian named Punkin, has been featured in PSAs for The Humane Society
- Living Lie Detector: According to himself (As "America's Truth Detector").
- Nerdgasm: Rush used to accuse certain commentators who (in his view) loved Mikhail Gorbachev a little too much of having "Gorbasms."
- And later revived in 2000 with "Gorgasms".
- And most recently "Obamasms."
- Nice to the Waiter: Literally, as Limbaugh takes great pleasure in leaving extra large tips; moreover, he tends to make extremely large contributions to charities.
- The Nicknamer: Will quite often give a particular public figure a new name, which he will then always use to refer to them. A few examples are:
- Sen. Harry Reid: Dingy Harry
- Barney Frank: The Banking Queen
- Mainstream media: The Drive-by Media; also State-Controlled media.
- Ronald Reagan: Ronaldus Magnus
- Barack Obama: The Bamster, or The One.
- And for himself: El Rushbo, Maha Rushie, the Big Voice on the Right, and lovable little fuzzball.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Simpsons has Birch Barlow, and Beavis and Butthead has Gus Baker.
- Fox very briefly aired a sitcom called "Monty" starring Henry Winkler as a Limbaugh/Right Winger caricature.
- Superman comics in the late 90's had Dirk Armstrong.
- Grand Theft Auto IV's Richard Bastion.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: When not hamming it up on the radio, he's a damned capable strategist, and has been credited with providing momentum for the Republican takeovers of Congress in 1994 and 2010.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Call screener James Golden is referred to by Rush only as "Bo Snerdly."
- Pet the Dog: See Nice to the Waiter, above.
- Played for Laughs: His extreme egotism, which seems to be a stage persona (as mentioned, he's Nice to the Waiter).
- Popcultural Osmosis: Many people who obviously do not listen to his show regularly are able to display a specious familiarity with its catchphrases.
- Refuge in Audacity: Rush will often phrase an opinion in a deliberately outrageous manner, "to" (as he says) "tweak the libs."
- It also happens with his Hatedom - for example, Bill Hicks' simultaneous Refuge in Audacity and Vulgarity routine on Rant in E-Minor.
- Self-Deprecation: He had a lot of self-deprecating lines in his Family Guy appearance.
- To a degree his "I'm just a harmless little fuzzball".
- Spin-Off: Rush Limbaugh: The Television Series, syndicated between 1991 and 1994.
- Strawman Political: Again, just like any other talk show host.
- Take That: Too many to list, both by and against him.
- Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do In An RPG: Rush even appears in a joke in a geek humor mainstay.
1476. Even if I have a salient point, I won't call the Rush Limbaugh show in the middle of a Black Ops.
- Token Minority: His brief foray into ESPN ended when he claimed the media only praised Donovan McNabb because he was a black quarterback, which was still at the time somewhat uncommon in the NFL.
- Undermined by Reality: Rush's hard-line stance against drug addicts was seen by some as hypocritical in the face of his admitted problems with prescription pain-killer abuse, and his extremely lenient treatment when arrested for it.
- Many also found it hypocritical that, while lambasting the Affordable Care Act, Limbaugh took advantage of Hawaii's largely public health care system.
- You Are What You Hate: Rush was very outspoken on cracking down on drug addicts (and not in a "rehabilitate them" way), and was eventually nabbed for an Oxycontin addiction.