World Famous Comics: Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot
Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot
By: Al Franken Publisher: Dell Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Dell Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 336 Publication Date: January 12, 1999 Release Date: January 12, 1999
Product Description: Move over P.J. O'Rourke! From Al Franken, America's premier liberal satirist, comes a hilarious homage to the wonderful, awful, and always absurd American political process that skewers a whole new crop of presidential hopefuls--just in time for the 1996 presidential election. "(Franken is) responsible in part for some of the most brilliant political satire of our time".--John Podhoretz, New York Post.
Amazon.com Review: Rush Limbaugh claims his talent is on loan. With this book, Franken demonstrates that he owns. The frankly Democratic author's shtick reminds us how much of a free ride conservatives have gotten in the mainstream media. For instance, he really drives home the weirdness of the conservatives' preachiness about "family values" in light of Newt Gingrich's and Bob Dole's first marriages, and Rush Limbaugh's first, second and third marriages. And he has great fun with Rush's and Newt's miraculous draft deferments in a chapter where he imagines all of the great conservative "chicken-hawks" out on a Vietnam war patrol under the leadership of Ollie North.
"Timeless classic" I love Al Franken and I love this book. When I read it years ago I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face... This book is STILL funny - it's a timeless classic that's as true today as it was then: Rush Limbaugh IS a big fat idiot.
Somebody Has to Do It Ironically, just as I was finishing Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, I happened upon an essay by Limbaugh's niece, Julie Limbaugh,* about the ups and downs of being second cousin to a man who makes a living by (in his own words) making half the people in America hate him. She calls her cousin's long-playing farce a "self-aware self-parody," a "caricature"--in other words, a phony act (which, not incidentally, has made him a millionaire many times over).
In this book, Al Franken, who has no fear about wading into shark-infested waters, pulls no punches in lampooning Rush and his cohorts on the lunatic fringe of Republican conservatism. Franken is a very smart guy, and if his prose is often bent, he shoots accurately and straight from the hip.
After a poignant description about her conflict between love of a family member and discomfort at being judged by her name, Julie Limbaugh summarizes her current state of mind by saying, "it seems that Rush is no longer just playing the political game he plays so well. Rather, he has been attacking hope, and now it feels like there's little room for that."
That's exactly why Franken's book (first published in 1996) is still relevant. As long as Rush Limbaugh continues to be a parody of a man, an ambassador of hate, and an assassin of hope, someone out there has to call him on it.
*"Rusty and Me," Salon.com, April 1, 2009.
Franken is an Idiot Once upon a time I thought Rush was an idiot, but then I listened to his show and later read HIS books. He actually knows what he is talking about. Read his book with an open mind instead of this trash.
Hilarious and true I got a great laugh reading this book. How anyone can believe in Rush Limbaugh is scary and sickening and Franken details the why behind it. This realization alone however would tend to just make you feel mad and bitter, but Franken makes you laugh it off. Great amusement.
Rush Limbaugh IS a big fat loser and then some Don;t care about the book as much as the title. I tried to listen to the big fat loser today and couldn't get through five minutes of his babbling. He's the most negative person I've ever heard, and doesn't have a leg to stand on with anything that comes out of his mouth.
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