Rush Is Right: Did You Expect Better From this Culture? [Rush on last nite's Super Bowl]

I'm really stunned. No, I'm not saying this... I'm stunned everybody is all upset. Okay, so they had a publicity stunt, and Janet Jackson's right boob shows up at the Super Bowl halftime show and everybody is acting like this is 1950. It's 2004. What do you people expect? This is nothing compared to other stuff going on out there, everybody is getting upset about this.

We've got people on MTV practically every afternoon pretending to be making love while dressed while standing up while dancing. The Baptists were right. Baptists don't dance, or they used to not dance because they didn't want anybody to think they were making love standing up. MTV, it's an old joke, but I mean it's just ridiculous. Where do you think this culture has been headed? I'm surprised we haven't gotten farther than this by now anyway. I'm surprised that she came out and didn't undo both of them with no silver spider on either. Did you listen to the lyrics of the song, for those of you who could understand them, I sure as hell couldn't, but I had closed-captioning on because I'm deaf anyway. So I'm reading the lyrics, I'm going to get you naked before the end of the song. What do you think the plan was here?

I mean, we've had Britney kissing Madonna, this is nothing. This is absolutely tame. It's been headed this way, you know, it's been headed this way. You parents may not know what your kids are watching out there on MTV, but the kids are out there laughing saying, "This is nothing." I'll tell you what is more disturbing than this. This didn't disturb me; it's throw up the hands time on this stuff. What disturbed me was the absolute horrible quality of the commercials in the Super Bowl. I mean they stunk. They literally stunk.

I have to tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, they'd have been better off running the MoveOn.org ad. If you want some controversy, run that BS political ad in the Super Bowl. CBS says no, we're not going to run a political ad for MoveOn.org but they put on a halftime show like this, and CBS is part of Viacom which owns MTV, so it's all under the same umbrella. But I mean let me tell you something, here you had these two guys, one each with a dog; one guy's got a big burly dog, and he says Bud Light, so the dog runs to a cooler and gets a Bud Light then they turn on the other guy and his dog is a mangy wet little mutt, looks like it's just out of the pound, or maybe needs to go to the pound, and the other guy says Bud Light, so the dog bites the other guy in the crotch.

You know, at what point are we going to find these commercials not funny? How many times are guys going to have to get hit or bitten in the crotch in commercials before people stop thinking that's funny? And besides not being funny, it's old. How old are these jokes? These jokes have to be 2,000 years old. I'm embarrassed. I'm watching this, I'm absolutely embarrassed.

Something else that ought to bother you more than anything else is the NFL must not think their game is good enough to sustain people's excitement. To have to have the commercials be, you know, as big an attraction to one out of every ten people that watch it, and then this silly stupid halftime show, it's not that it was obscene, it's just stupid. Compare the pregame show, now look at the pregame show, there you had a guy, and I've seen this guy sing, Marta and I saw this guy sing live in Las Vegas, his name is Josh Groban, and they did a tribute to NASA in the pregame show, and they had some pretty wholesome, happy-looking kids in the background, him singing a great song, and they had the astronaut coming out standing on the facsimile of the moon. Great tribute to NASA and the Columbia astronauts that perished in that accident a little over a year ago, and then you've got Beyonce Knowles came out and that was a very great rendition of the national Anthem. And then the halftime show, pure trash. But it's not that it's obscene, it was just trash. It's just utter, absolute trash, with a bunch of people who in the days of real talent would never have been able to get out of a talent agency and now they're big stars because they can grab their couch or they can show a boob with a silver spider on it. How smart is Janet Jackson, here's her husband about to go on trial for child abuse well, whatever it is. What did I say, husband? Well, in that family you never know. Here you've got Janet Jackson's brother about to go on trial for child abuse, and she comes out and pulls this stunt. How wise is that? And then Timberlake, keep him on the Mouseketeers, for crying out loud, and Britney Spears, too.

You know, the things that are passing for talent these days in the music business really wouldn't have passed muster years and years ago. No, I'm not being old fogie about this, ladies and gentlemen. I'm being advanced in my thinking. Now, of course this wasn't a wardrobe malfunction, this thing was rehearsed it was performed on purpose this way. You know, the only guy that didn't lip sync his performance is Kid Rock, and he should have. I mean Kid Rock, here's a guy the NFL has made a big star because he can pass out Coors Light in commercials during games - he's out there wearing this American flag smock, and then they go to Nelly, and Nelly grabbed his crotch every three seconds, so it really is no talent. And it's also, I'll tell you something else, folks, if you're older than 12, the NFL is not interested in you. I mean this is a show geared for 12-year-olds. By the time you're 16, you've done all this; you've seen all this and this is not even exciting. And then you've got, you know, another commercial, I'll tell you, the beer commercials are leading the way here.

Everybody knows that you advertise beer to the yutes of America. You advertise beer to people that not even of legal drinking age yet because people that are 30, 40, ancient, don't change their minds. They drink their beer they like. They go out and buy it; you're not going to change their mind so you go out and get young skulls full of mush to like your brand before they're even illegally able to buy it, then you sneak in a couple of don't-drink-before-you're-21 commercials and then you're covered. And so they're advertising to all these little skulls full of mush out there, these prepubescent adolescents, and here you've got some guy and a girl driving along in a horse-driven sleigh out in the snow, and it's a very romantic evening, and this guy out of nowhere pulls a candle, a lighted candle, she doesn't know it's there because she's a ditz. Here they are in the middle of winter in a snow-covered sleigh being pulled along by a horse, out of nowhere this guy pulls a light. You never see the light, it's just sitting down there at her feet but she's too idiot to see it, she acts surprised, oh, how cute, and he turns away to grab the beer, and the horse lets loose with a giant...they may as well...say the horse farts. I mean that's exactly, the horse farts, blows her hair into a burnt piece of, what is it, steel wool.

Now, I'm telling you, this is just absolutely childish. It's probably funnier the way I describe it. I mean you laugh the way I describe it, when you watch this, it's just, you sit there and say this is juvenile. You don't even go ooh, I'm offended. It's juvenile. Where's the talent? You know, they had a show on part of the pregame show, I guess it was Saturday night, NBC did a show, great Super Bowl commercials from years past, and there were some classics in there. Those Larry Byrd, Michael Jordan McDonald's commercials - there were just some really, really fabulous, creative commercials, but, you know, what passes for creativity today is if the joke's been done a thousand times, let's do it again in a different way. Let's be as vulgar as we think we can, let's cross the line a couple of times so everybody will spend the next day talking about it, talk about how brave and courageous we were, when it's not brave or courage at all; it's just childish, it's just immaturity, and really what it boils down to is a total lack of creative talent, when you've got to go have a guy get hit in the groin again, for how many times... it would be easier to count the number of years this has been going on, than the number of times. And as a guy, by the way, I'm getting offended. If we're going to do this, let's have a woman get hit in the groin and let's see what the reaction to that is.

I mean, even Mr. Snerdley, I can't believe you said that. Why can't you believe I said it? We can sit here all day and talk about men getting it in the groin and we laugh about it, why can't we talk about women? Hmm? Hmm? No, I don't know why. You tell me why. I really don't know why. Oh, don't give me the violence against women. What about violence against men? You're having a dog biting a guy in the crotch. We laugh about it. We can be violent against men all day, "well, men are violent, Rush, who's playing the football game?" I don't know, did you tune in to watch the Lingerie Bowl? Damn it, neither did I, but hell Lingerie Bowl was probably a cleaner display than the halftime show at the National Football League. I'll bet you the Lingerie Bowl was fun. I'll bet it was probably nothing more than suggestive. These the thing these people have so little talent that they can't use your own mind to imagine things, they've got to show you. I wouldn't even go so far as to call it vulgar. It's just childish, and totally talentless. And the NFL, I mean look at the things the NFL gets upset about, hint, hint, and the things the NFL couldn't care less about, in fact promotes, such as this absolute worthless waste of time that they called their halftime show. You know what the best commercial was? Tell me what the best commercial was. No, I don't know that I saw a McDonald's commercial. The best commercial was the donkey that wanted to be a Clydesdale.

RUSH: I know the McDonald's commercial you're talking about, but that was not a good commercial, and I'll tell you why it was not a good commercial. I just got a note here from a friend, said that commercial with the guy getting yelled at by the ref was pretty funny, too. And I said yeah, that was a funny commercial. And then you tell me that was the McDonald's commercial? Well, oh, I thought you just told me it was a McDonald's commercial [talking to program observer.] What company was this commercial for with the guy being yelled at by his wife? See, you can't tell me the product. That's my point. The guy sent me a note doesn't know what product is being advertised in the commercial. The reason you liked the commercial is because it stereotypes about women. The commercial was a guy sitting there, a referee, on the sideline being really just yelled at, screamed at, insulted by a coach. The guy is not reacting at all, just stone-faced. And then they say, raise the question, how does this guy manage to do this? Well, they cut to the guy at home, his wife is screaming at him, do this, do that, you're a louse, you're a rotten son of a gun and the guy is sitting there as stoically. I can't tell what company advertised that, it was a funny little 30-second interlude but I can't tell what commercial it was for or what product it was for. But even that's a stereotypical attack on screaming, yelling, domineering over-the-top wives. I guess the NFL doesn't care about appealing to women. I mean it just really, if you're going to tell me a good commercial, a good commercial, you've got to at least tell me, be able to tell me the product or the company that was advertising. I don't know about a McDonald's, that's what I'm trying to tell you. Can you tell me what the McDonald's commercial was? What was it? Just send me an e-mail. Send me an e-mail. Send me an e-mail because they can't hear you, and I'll sit there and go hm-hm, hm-hm, hm-hm, for 30 minutes while you tell me what it is.

In the meantime Dave in Lafayette, Indiana. Welcome to the EIB Network. Nice to have you with us, sir.

CALLER: Mega dittos there, Rush, but I have to take you to task. You missed the best commercial. The best commercial was the Frito-Lay commercial that had the two seasoned citizens battling it out over a bag of chips.

RUSH: Yeah, that was pretty funny, but that's not a Super Bowl commercial, that commercial has been running for two or three weeks during the playoffs, so that's why I don't count it as a Super Bowl commercial.

CALLER: I had not seen it during the playoffs, but I mean in my mind it covered everything that you just threw out there. I mean it had seasoned citizens fighting, the man fighting the woman, I mean there's your equal rights.

RUSH: That's an interesting way to look at it, that it's an equal rights commercial. Let me describe this commercial for you, folks, in case you don't know what we're talking about here. Some young guy somewhere with a bag of potato chips, he's walking out of an old folks home or something, and he drops the bag of lay's potato chips, and there's an old woman and old man and they both have their eyes on this bag of potato chips so he gets up and starts shuffling after, or she gets up, starts shuffling very slowly after the bag, the old man trips her with his cane, she falls flat on her face, he then shuffles past her, picks up the bag, smiles at her like, a-ha, got you, and then she looks up from the floor, very happy, showing that his teeth fell out, and she's holding his dentures, then the young guy comes back in, steals the chips from both of them and walks out. And, by the way, the guy did beat the old woman with the cane once when she tried to get up. I mean, this is real wholesome stuff too, yeah, the senior citizens do this all the time at the old folks retirement home beating each other with canes, chasing after bags of potato chips, stealing each other's dentures.

I mean, if you people are outraged at this stuff, I can't believe that you are. I mean you know where this culture has been headed for I don't know how many years, been chronicling the cultural decay on this program for 15 years, and this is just the natural extension of where it's headed. And you parents, I can't believe that any of you parents are out there screaming bloody murder about this. You parents are the ones letting your boys stay home and live with you until they're 30 and live off of you while you go buy the potato chips they're eating, they're still living in the room they grew up in with the dolls and the GI Joes that they had or whatever, or some of you other parents went ahead and gave your teenagers your bedroom to have sex because it's cleaner than the car, and then you provided a pack of cigarettes and a condom so they'd get the full benefit of the experience. Then we sit here and get upset over Janet Jackson. I mean, let me tell you something, folks. I don't know a woman who would put something like on a nipple and not intend it to be seen. I mean, you do that, there's no reason to do that if it's not going to be seen. This idea that this was an accident, Justin Timberlake, it probably did take a whole bunch of rehearsals to get this right, for a whole host of reasons.

Do I have to be watching it with children to be disgusted and appalled?

No you don't, but were'nt you disgusted by the whole show? I have a pretty strong stomach and even I turned away while Janet and Justin were dancing- the WHOLE dance was rauchy, not just the last seconds. The bumping and grinding didn't disgust you? The earlier parts didn't give you a clue? Or was it just the breast?

It reminds me of the famous scene in one of The Sopranos first season episodes where Tony flatly tells his family as far he's concerned its 1954 in his house. He does things in his other life that are the exact of opposite of right and wrong yet he intends to shield his own family from the trash of the world. What's occured to me is it takes the character of a Wise Guy to point out how conflicted we all are about the things happening in our culture while we struggle to live up to our own ideal of a better world.

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No you don't, but were'nt you disgusted by the whole show? I have a pretty strong stomach and even I turned away while Janet and Justin were dancing- the WHOLE dance was rauchy, not just the last seconds. The bumping and grinding didn't disgust you? The earlier parts didn't give you a clue? Or was it just the breast?
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As I said to everyone in the room at the time, the whole show was garbage. What's your point?

We keep referring to this vulgar trash as our culture. It is not our culture. The vulgarity and perversion pushed on us by the media is the culture of but a few. A few at the top of the corporate media. It is the intentional trashing of our society by evil-doers. This people ought not to have jobs, they should be shunned and scorned by all. The so called entertainers that Hollyweird enlists are talentless dupes who had they not sold their souls would have never been anything. There is alot of great talent out there, yet corporate entertainment bombards us with talentless deviates.

If you thought the whole show was garbage, turn it off. My point was that were it not for the fact that she showed her breast, the complaints about that whole "show" would be trickle at best- that is the true shame, since none of it was appropriate for children. Yet many families had it on anyways, or they would have missed the breast incident altogether.

We, the viewing public have to take a part of the blame. We give too much weight to what celebrities do or say- both good and bad. And IMO it has only increased since 9/11.

Well said. I don't think Rush gets it that the media is constantly shoving this immoral crap down our throats and this depravity is not necessarily a reflection of ordinary American values. There are a ton of people out there who do not allow their children to watch TV. These same people grew up watching the Super Bowl and simply want to pass on the tradition to their children without having to be exposed to a bunch of immoral crap.

I was hoping for a patriotic half time, when heroes are honored and America is at her shining best. We have a lot to be very thankful for in the Year of Our Lord, 2004. Much successes to celebrate and commemorate.

The NFL and CBS turned the Super Bowl game into some sort of Sodom and Gomorrah trash and tramp Super Boob Bowl.

You know, I didn't see the incident last night, and when I saw the reaction of Freepers, I thought it was a bit much (and said as much in one post last night). But the more I thought about it today, the angrier I got. Not really about the lewdness of popular culture today, but about it's utter banality. I'm sickened that our culture seems to be entirely aimed toward 11 year-old girls (Justin Timberlake) or 16 year-old boys (Nelly). I guess that's what you get when you glorify perpetual adolescence, and then in the next turn treat adults as children. And conflate what's appropriate for them both. It's for the children (MTV!).

"The best commercial was the donkey that wanted to be a Clydesdale. "

This sad little lizard told me he was a brontosaurus on his mother's side. I did not laugh, people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply.

by Robert Anson Heinlein

Some are going beyond the passive "turn the channel" approach, which really instigates no change, but are registering their displeasure with the powers-that-be. Money talks.

Do you disagree with this course of action?

I certainly do not- I think the power of the pocketbook (and turning it off does relate to this in a small way) is one of the greatest we have. My reaction is to the media overreaction- showing the clip over and over again, posting close-ups on the internet. Also, I am seen calls on this board for a lawsuit because they were "offended"- I don't agree with that since it encourages another negative trend- frivilous lawsuits. But I support boycotting- both of the sponcers and the offensive shows themselves.

We, the viewing public have to take a part of the blame. We give too much weight to what celebrities do or say- both good and bad. And IMO it has only increased since 9/11.

Do we or does the corporate libral media pretend that we do? They are the ones talking about these people and what they said and did. We are only forced to listen to it. The target was and is our children and of course mindless grown ninnies. I have always thought they make big stars out of those that will spout the lefist dribble or degrade society. The PR machine makes these people important in the media spotlight. The sheeples assume they are important because they are big stars. Then they give the marching orders and scripts to their little commie soldiers. The sheeples under the assumption that these nimrods are important believe every word they say. The youth, excluding the morally strong, believe that filthy behavior is cool. Not only that, they tout how beautiful these creatures are and I find most of them to be quite ugly.
After all that, I guess I haven't said anything new. Oh well, it was good to get it out. I'm mad as h--- and can't take it anylonger.

It was a pretty good game. The last minutes of the 2nd and 4th quarters in particular.

That's right!!! THE GAME!!!!! The Super Bowl!!!! Remember folks - amidst all this talk of boobs, crotches, horse farts - there was a game!!!!

So who won???

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