Exclusive Interview: Rush Limbaugh Answers Critics Over Family Guy Starring Role

'IT'S CALLED CROSSOVER'

Rush On Why He Agreed To Family Guy Starring Role





*** EXCLUSIVE LIMBAUGH INTERVIEW ***


While Rush Limbaugh is more than accustomed to incoming flak from the left, criticism from the right is a bit less common. A starring role in an episode of Family Guy, however, has turned the usual order of things upside down.

Due to air Sunday October 3, the plot centers around Limbaugh's "conversion" of far-left Brian, which subsequently goes awry:

When Brian learns that Rush Limbaugh (guest-voicing as himself) is going to be at the Quahog Mall for a book-signing, he decides to go down there and give him a piece of his left-wing mind. But when Rush unexpectedly comes to Brian’s rescue, Brian has a political change of heart in the all-new “Excellence in Broadcasting” episode of FAMILY GUY airing Sunday, Oct. 3 (9:00-9:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX

While this does have the potential to reach a large new audience not normally part of Rush's demographic, some conservatives are less than happy about his association with the Hollywood left. From Daniel Foster at National Review Online:

It is to Mr. Limbaugh’s credit that he can make fun of himself. But Seth MacFarlane, the whiskey-soaked Dada creator of Family Guy, is responsible for more sophomoric cartooning than the combined patrons of America’s truck stop and dive bar bathrooms. His shows are full of misanthropic, misogynist, racist, and anti-Semitic jokes admixed with just enough ironic distance and liberal cheerleading to stave off the blanket condemnation of the PC Left.

So, as someone who has in the past suggested that if MacFarlane really cared about liberal causes, he’d stop associating himself with them, I can only look at the Limbaugh-MacFarlane mash-up with a wary eye.

With that in mind, your Radio Equalizer asked Limbaugh for insight into his decision to appear on a notorious lefty program:


RADIO EQUALIZER: Rush, I'm getting emails asking why you're appearing "on that disgusting program."

My answer to one: He's reaching out to millions of young people who've only heard horrible things about him. He needs to lure them to the talk radio medium or we will eventually be winding it all down for good. These kids live in a world where that kind of content is all around them. The only way to reach out is to enter their environment long enough to invite them to our side.


RUSH LIMBAUGH: Exactly right. (It's the) same reason I did the Playboy interview in 1993. Same reason I took the Rush to Excellence Tour to a Vegas hotel. It's called crossover.

And this episode is not disgusting. It's hilarious. It's a CARTOON.


RADIO EQUALIZER: Did you get a lot of flak at the time for the Playboy interview? Similar to this? A question I've received: "why's he helping lefty Hollywood types who hate us?"


RUSH LIMBAUGH: Yes, I did. And on other occasions I can't recall. This is my third Family Guy but first as the star. Seth MacFarlane doesn't hate me. Or Andrew Breitbart, who he met on Maher's show and really liked.

Besides, it was a new career challenge, a new experience. It was a LOT of work. I sing, and I'm deaf! Getting the melody down was next to impossible. It was challenging on many levels. And it is an unpredictable thing to do. It will stymie critics. I'm a performer. This was fun. Seth wants to do even more.

Seth was among the FIRST to reach out to me in Hawaii when I had that heart scare. I am not helping the Hollywood Left. His show is going to be on the air regardless what I do.

BUT, the better way to look at this is that they bent for me. I did not bend to them. It's not as though I endorse or support libs on this show. The other way around. A huge lib character becomes a conservative.


RADIO EQUALIZER: Thanks, Rush, we'll be watching.