Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations (Paperback)

by Al Franken (Author) "IT REMAINS a mystery why the New York Times would ask me to review this dreadfully foul little book..." (more)
Key Phrases: big fat idiot, correspondents dinner, pilonidal cyst, Rush Limbaugh, White House, Phil Gramm (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Franken, a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live and in feature films, does to Limbaugh what the conservative talk-show host has been doing to Democratic politicians for years. Using admitted half-truths and out-of-context quotes, he skewers Rush & Friends as no liberal has done in years. Franken does a retrospective of Limbaugh's life from when he "fed off the largesse of the government in the form of unemployment insurance"; how he failed to register to vote until he was 35; how he used two airline coach seats to fit his opulent hind-quarters; and how he got a 4-F deferment because of a pilonidal cyst. There are two hilarious sketches: "My 'Conversation' with Rush Limbaugh" uses out-of-context quotes to corner Rush in much the same way that Limbaugh once had a "conversation" with Hillary Clinton; and "Operation Chickenhawk," with Ollie North leading Vietnam draft-dodgers Limbaugh, Quayle, Buchanan, George Will and Clarence Thomas to their demises in Asian rice paddies. Franken also doesn't have anything nice to say about Newt Gingrich, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Phil Gramm and others of the haranguing right. A mean-spirited, albeit funny, diatribe that will delight liberals. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (August 5, 2004)
• ISBN-10: 0141018410
• ISBN-13: 978-0141018416
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (384 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,239,058 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is hilarious., February 24, 2000

By	Silverwoodchuck47 "silverwoodchuck47" (Chesapeake Beach, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot (Hardcover)

Let's face it: If you are conservative then you probably will agree with Rush but if you lean towards liberal then you probably can't stand him.

In my case, I've read Rush's first book "The Way Things Ought to Be" and found it to be full of inaccuracies, unsubstantiated and outrageous claims, and misinformation. That's not to say Rush is a complete moron because he does put forth some good arguments, but overall, I think Al Franken proves his case to convince me that Rush is a (big fat) idiot.

I like this book because it is hysterically funny and quite entertaining. Al's wit is dry and sometimes vicious. I laughed to tears when I read the chapter about Phil Gramm ("I own more guns than I need, but not as many as I want.")

He lampoons the right wing, and I think he does it well. If you are a conservative with no sense of humor, you will not like this book.

76 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, March 3, 2004

By	M - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot (Paperback)

I loved this book--I don't know when I've laughed so hard. Maybe it helps that I'm a "liberal"--but what makes this a good book rather than just a book that says things I happen to agree with is that it's clever and well-executed. The humor runs from silly to witty, but it's pretty consistently funny.
It's too bad the satire seems to be lost on some people. The point of the book is that Franken is using the same methods that Rush Limbaugh & co. use in a _satirical_ fashion in order to expose these methods as ridiculous. Take his "interview" with Rush Limbaugh, modeled after the latter's "interview" with Hillary Clinton. Yes, obviously it's quite easy to come up with the same sort of "interview" with Al Franken, but that doesn't do much to hurt his case. The point of the Rush Limbaugh interview isn't so much to make Rush admit that he is indeed a big fat idiot by taking his words out of context as to make fun of the idea of such an interview as a cheap shot with which you can make anyone say anything. So you can't really use Franken's methods against him to make him out to be a hypocrite, because the basis of the book is a humorous refutation of those very methods. That's why it's funny.

42 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Nation's Premier Political Comedian, September 9, 2001

By	ANDREW MCHENRY (Emporia, KS) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot (Paperback)

Franken admits that he came up with the title for this book before writing it. This is a hilarious collection of essays targeting the politicial right wing. The book kicks off with a chapter that pokes fun of Limbaugh's hypocrisy, weight, and political/social stances. He writes, "It's way too easy to quote him: 'It's time to start championing old-fashioned virtues like... self-restraint, self-discipline' and then write STOP EATING!!!" Much of the book is like this; spoofs on right-wing hypocrisy alongside exposures of some of their more asinine remarks. (e.g.- Rush Limbaugh: "Have you ever noticed how all newspaper composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?" Pat Robertson: "The feminist agenda....is not about equal rights for women. It's about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft and become lesbians." Newt Gingrich: "If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections... On the other hand, if combat means being on an aegis class cruiser managing the computer controls for twelve ships, a female may be again dramatically better than a male, who gets very, very frustrated sitting in a chair all the time because males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes." Franken retorts: "Two images come to mind. The first is of the grasslands of Africa. During the Neolithic Period. Rush, Newt, and Bill Bennett, all 825 pounds of them, are trying to run down a giraffe. The giraffe is thinking, 'No problem here.' The second image is of Newt, about fifteen years ago, explaining to his thirteen-year-old daughter that she just got her first 'infection.'") Subsequent essays cover a range of political figures and issues. My version, the new paperback edition, also includes a postlude of "New Dirt on the Nutcase Right". There aren't many Jay Leno-type one-liners in this one. Instead, the essays have the strange mixture of building into hilarity while enraging you.

Good: This book is a quick, funny read. The best essays are the ones that target specific characters, particularly the ones on Limbaugh, Newt Gingerich, Phil Gramm, Pat Buchanan, and Pat Robertson.

Bad: A couple of the essays drag a bit, particularly the fictitious "Operation Chickenhawk".

Opinion: This one is hysterical! I laughed out loud regularly while reading it. It's definitely nice to see someone giving Limbaugh a taste of his own medicine. Franken stops at nothing, and in my opinion has definitely established himself as one of the nation's premier political comedians.