This just in: Rush Limbaugh is an idiot, and political pundits make outrageous statements so that people will pay attention to them. A transcript from his show yesterday:
RUSH: Have you heard this new movie, the Batman movie, what is it, The Dark Knight Lights Up or whatever the name is. That’s right, Dark Knight Rises. Lights Up, same thing. Do you know the name of the villain in this movie? Bane. The villain in The Dark Knight Rises is named Bane, B-a-n-e. What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran and around which there’s now this make-believe controversy? Bain. The movie has been in the works for a long time. The release date’s been known, summer 2012 for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental that the name of the really vicious fire breathing four eyed whatever it is villain in this movie is named Bane?
[…]
So, anyway, this evil villain in the new Batman movie is named Bane. And there’s now a discussion out there as to whether or not this is purposeful and whether or not it will influence voters. It’s gonna have a lot of people. This movie, the audience is gonna be huge. A lot of people are gonna see the movie, and it’s a lot of brain-dead people, entertainment, the pop culture crowd, and they’re gonna hear Bane in the movie and they’re gonna associate Bain. The thought is that when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, Romney and Bain, that these people will think back to the Batman movie, “Oh, yeah, I know who that is.” (laughing) There are some people who think it’ll work. Others think you’re really underestimating the American people to think that will work. [RushLimbaugh.com via Gawker]
Oh, El Rushbo. You make me embarrassed that I used that same lazy observation as a deliberately-sh*tty joke three months ago.
Barack “The Dark Knight” Obama is pissed about the way Mitt Romney’s been running Bane Capital. #lazypoliticaljokes
— Vince Mancini (@Filmdrunk) May 22, 2012
If anyone in politics was smart (and they’re not), the big story here would be that Rush Limbaugh called anyone who sees The Dark Knight Rises (ha, the Dark Knight Lights Up, good one, grandpa) “brain-dead.” Jesus, man, tread lightly. Have you seen what the nerd hordes do to people , who even so much as question the Dark Knight’s greatness, even in jest? I haven’t seen it yet, and I’m already scared that I may not love it, just for what they might do to me (if I’m not back tomorrow, tell my porn I love her). To put it in right-wing radio terms, The Dark Knight is the nerd’s Ronald Reagan.
As an aside, do people ever consider the part of Rush Limbaugh’s show where it’s just him, speaking into a microphone, often without any guests, for like three hours at a time? He’s literally just sitting there talking to himself for hours, like a hobo high on paint thinner. I feel people never point out what an inherently nutty format that is. I know it’s entertainment, but it’s not healthy. It’s like if I just went on TV every afternoon and had a seizure.
(As a further aside, and not as a boast because these certainly weren’t my finest moments, but Gawker’s joke about this was that the real conspiracy was that Bane’s mask looks like sideways goatse, which was also on FilmDrunk three months ago. I think I stole it from a commenter.).