October 20, 2012

Rush Limbaugh reacts to President Obama's Honey Boo Boo joke.

At that Al Smith dinner Obama told this joke: "And we're getting to that time when folks are making up their minds.  Just the other day Honey Boo Boo endorsed me. So that's a big relief." Okay, that's slightly funny. But what I found hilarious was Rush Limbaugh, on his show yesterday, trying to understand it:
Okay.  There you have it.  There's one.  Didn't edit anything there.  Honey Boo Boo is a new cartoon or doll or stuffed toy --

(interruption)

Reality show, that's what it is, it's a reality show. But what is Honey Boo Boo?  Honey Boo Boo is a little bear?  It's a little girl, Honey Boo Boo is a little girl?  A human girl or an animal girl?

(interruption)

You gotta be kidding me.  Honey Boo Boo is a little girl with a trailer park-like mother?  What network is this show on?  I'll find out.  Okay, so that's your target audience, the endorsement of Honey Boo Boo.  I'll guarantee you the guys in white tie and tails at the Alfred E. Smith dinner probably didn't know who Honey Boo Boo is, either. 

86 comments:

edutcher said...

He's probably right about that.

I was trying to figure out all the Honey Boo Boo references, myself.

Anonymous said...

I don't know who it is, either.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
I'm Full of Soup said...

Edutcher also wears white tie and tails while commenting here! :)

Skyler said...

I'm proud to say that I also don't know (or care) who that is.

Expat(ish) said...

My kids (17, 14, 11) are dying to introduce me to HBB. I've been avoiding it.

I just gave in and watched the Epic Rap Battles of History "Obama vs. Mitt" video on The You Toob. It was pretty funny. Actually it was very funny. I loved Lincoln and the dinosaur. (No, really, it worked.)

Anyway, HBB sounds pretty awful.

-XC

KCFleming said...

Honey Boo Boo is the future prole demographic.

Goddamned horrifying people.

Wince said...

"What is Honey Boo Boo?"

The Majestic Honey Boo Boo

T J Sawyer said...

40 years from now, people will probably be going to Honey Boo Boo concerts on the nostalgia circuit just like some go to see that Dylan fellow today.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I've never caught the show while I'm surfing... but from the trailers I've seen... there is something really charming about the little girl.

Carnifex said...

I wish to God I didn't know Honey Boo Boo. Unfortunately, I follow current events to see how ridicules the American public has become. My dad doesn't know Honey Boo Boo, but he can name all the guys on the hunting channel. Not Optimal!

Every now and then I meet someone who has kids and I think "Okay, they seem rational, and well behaved." But the majority of kids I see just need to be spanked. Especially the teenagers.(okay that was hyperbole, but it is depressing at times)

As far as demographics of the election, yeah, Zero can drag Honey Boo Boo over the line, but the trailer trash parents are NOT going to vote for a black man. Any black man. And particularly, this black man.(well, the really really dumb ones will)

alan markus said...

EDH, after watching that video, I would suspect Obama was being sarcastic about getting the "white cracker" vote.

Or, in today's internet lingo, after watching that video, my mind went "WTF is that about?"

Chip S. said...

I'm grateful to HBB for endorsing Obama. If her coin flip had gone the other way, we'd be hearing endless commentary about Romney's reliance on the ignorant-white-trash vote.

This way it's just a cute piece of fluff.

traditionalguy said...

Fantasy characters are all Obama has ever had in mind living in a fantasy of CO2 free poverty called "hope and change."

SteveR said...

The demographic I can't understand is people who go to The View and are all giggling, cheering stupid. These people can actually vote.

Automatic_Wing said...

Let's see...Althouse says we need socialism to help kids with irresponsible parents like Honey Boo Boo, but more socialism creates more Honey Boo Boos, thereby creating the need for even more socialism.

What a conundrum, eh?

bagoh20 said...

The Honey Boo Boo family is the perfect retort to white supremacists.

MayBee said...

I used to watch Toddlers and Tiaras for it's sheer trashy goodness. One episode had this amazing little funny oddball girl who seemed to get the whole joke. Her mom was a coupon-using semi hoarder. I actually saved the episode on my DVR so I could show my husband this crazy compelling little girl.

And then I moved here, and months later see that same little girl is a national sensation called Honey Boo Boo.
I feel like I deserve a finder's fee.

MisterBuddwing said...

Althouse says we need socialism to help kids with irresponsible parents like Honey Boo Boo...

Chapter and verse, please.

Matt said...

I wish I didn't know who Honey Boo Boo is...

Chip S. said...

Chapter and verse, please.

keyword: "marshmallow"

bagoh20 said...

"I wish I didn't know who Honey Boo Boo is."


I would naturally say that as: "I wish I didn't know who she was."

Is that incorrect? It seems like it would be, but it sounds so natural to me and the is sounds wrong to my ear but correct to my head.

I'm a bit of a rube, so just wondering.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Rush is always going on about "elite" this and "elite" that… meaning... out of touch.

Who is out of touch? or is he pretending... which is worst in my book.

Seeing Red said...

She looks like Mason Reese. We know how that turned out. The elder girls have good teeth, there was enough money to pay for braces.

Roger J. said...

Damn--I am so out of it--I recently learned about lady ga ga

Now I am exposed to honey boo boo

But at least I know who big bird is.

Roger J. said...

And I should say, Statler and Waldorf were my favorite Sesame Stree characters--Loved those dudes.

Shantastik said...

Who's Rush Limbaugh?

wyo sis said...

Lady Ga Ga
Honey Boo Boo
The secret is to stay away from people named like cartoon characters.

clint said...

I'm pretty sure Rush is right about that -- Honey Boo Who? Although you'd think he'd have done the research to find out who she is... and then talked about it on the air. He sounds a bit low in google-fu from reading your transcript.

Interesting -- Romney was really good about targeting his remarks to his wealthy, New Yorker, Catholic audience.

David said...

An obnoxious ill mannered entitled little girls based on my very short single viewing.

Anonymous said...

National Review posted a defense of Honey Boo Boo on October 15, days before the Al Smith Dinner.

"It’s not everyone’s piece of pecan pie, as it were, but it’s also not a cultural crisis."

wyo sis said...

Boo Boo not the crisis itself, but a symptom of it?

ronalddewitt said...

So which is the destiny of Honey Boo Boo--Julia or Lady Gaga?

Kirk Parker said...

clint,

You don't listen to much Rush, do you? The (faux) confused what, What, WHAT is a very common schtick of his.

Patrick said...

I believe I learned about this from Iowakawk's tweets.

William said...

I have never seen Snookie, Paris Hilton, or the Kardashians in the native habitat of their own reality show, but I know who they are. They're what one could call invasive celebrities in that you know a lot about them without ever really wanting to know a lot about them......I saw Honey Boo Boo on the Jimmy Kimmel show. She's an overweight child, but she's extremely good natured, funny, and likeable. I can see why people would want to watch her. Her mother is also overweight, but, in that brief appearance, she seemed sane and decent.....I don't intend to follow her career very closely. but she seems like a sweet child and I wish her well. I hope all you old farts who dump on five year olds feel properly guilty about you rash condemnation of this child.

Roger J. said...

William--not at all--another "celebrity" a la kardashians, miley cyrus, lady ga ga and the like--I frankly dont give a damn if they live or die and dont want to know anything about them.

Revenant said...

I sort of envy Rush Limbaugh. I wish *I* didn't know what Honey Boo Boo was either.

Revenant said...

I sort of envy Rush Limbaugh. I wish *I* didn't know what Honey Boo Boo was either.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

So which is the destiny of Honey Boo Boo--Julia or Lady Gaga?

Heh.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Obama really stays up on his pop culture. He knew those two pop singers were feuding, he is all knowledgable about sports, he knows who this HBB is but he does not know why gas prices are high, he has no clue about supply and demand, he does not know the national debt is $16 Trillion. He certainly seems to have his priorities backwards doesn't he?

bagoh20 said...

" I hope all you old farts who dump on five year olds feel properly guilty about you rash condemnation of this child."

Wait! We're the ones that need sympathy - we're old farts. She's young, blond, and famous!

ken in tx said...

I have never watched Honey Boo Boo, but have I lived in a trailer park. For two years it was the best I could do, because of an expensive divorce. It was in Mississippi. Blacks, whites, Puerto Ricans, gays, straights, bar hoppers and Christians all lived together rather well. People at that end of the economic spectrum are not as intolerant as some people think.

Mike Gallagher--radio talk guy--talks about Honey Boo Boo all the time.

edutcher said...

AJ Lynch said...

Edutcher also wears white tie and tails while commenting here! :)

I should live so long.

Actually, I avoid reality (more like surreality) shows like the plague, especially the trailer trash ones.

Anonymous said...

"he is all knowledgable about sports"

Given that he could not name one player on his "favorite" baseball team, the White Sox, and misprounced Comiskey Park, I question the idea that he is "all knowledgable about sports."

Basketball and golf, perhaps.

Titus said...

Honey Boo Boo has also come out pro gay-what a relief.

Thanks for the love Honey.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Exiled= I should have said Obama gets very animated when he talks about sports. I agree he is no more of an expert or any more knowledgeable than the average person who calls in to a sports talk radio show.

Sam L. said...

I heard about the show a few days ago. Hadn't heard that Rush hadn't.

I am severely bummed about that.

Baron Zemo said...

The disdain that both Barry and Limbaugh have for Honey Boo Boo is the disdain that both have for ordinary Americans.

Rush might talk a good game but he is just as much a cultural elitist as the Jug Eared Jesus.

There is only one figure on the contemporary political scene who would relate to Honey Boo Boo with compassion and love.

Sarah Palin.

Baron Zemo said...

Obama and Biden would have aborted her.

That's the Democratic way.

Baron Zemo said...

Rush would mock her and her family while smoking his big cigars and drinking fine wines to wash down his oxy.

Baron Zemo said...

Romney would try to convert her family to become Mormons.

But I bet he would help them with personal charity instead of government benefits.

Baron Zemo said...

I don't know what Paul Ryan would do. Most likely just shake his head in disbelief and let them live their lives without trying to tell them what to do.

I doubt that he would mock them but then I can't be sure because we don't know enough about him yet.

wyo sis said...

It seems there is no level of depravity that Honey Boo Boo doesn't find wonderful. Bless her little heart.

Baron Zemo said...

Joe Biden would ask Honey Boo Boo if she could introduce him to Yogi.

Baron Zemo said...

Bill Cliton would ask Honey Boo Boo if she could introduce him to the two headed girl so he could get a blow job in stereo.

Baron Zemo said...

Honey Boo Boo is the flip side of the Obama phone lady.

Class not race is the real dividing line in this country.

The Media elite of both left and right disdain ordinary Americans be they black or white. They are out of touch with normal everyday run of the mill people. If they are not sipping Starbucks latte's while texting on their I-phones they are figures of fun to the scumbags in the media.

Baron Zemo said...

Sorry that the first link for the two headed girl didn't work!

Slick Willie download it too many times so the had to limit it to the TLC website.

Roger J. said...

Damn--I backslid and googled honey boo boo--you got to be shitting me--what a fucking travesty--this is the crap that appears on television?

Roger J. said...

I can predict that his little girl will not grow up to be well adjusted.

Titus said...

Thanks for sharing the two headed girl. Can this country get any more depraved?

Honey Boo Boo, Two Headed Girl, Snooki, Alaskan State Troopers, Amish Going Wild.

As a fag I am disgusted.

madAsHell said...

Has anybody ever seen Honey Boo Boo, and Britney Spears together at the same time, and the same place??


Yeah....that's what I thought!!

Baron Zemo said...

The thing about Honey Boo Boo and her family is that the people who present it are not so subtly mocking them. It makes them feel oh so much better than the poor white trash who literally live on the wrong side of the tracks.
The elitists and the intelligentsia love to laugh at lower or middle class Americans. Especially if they are from the South.

Rush is no different. He is a phony populist. He is just as aghast at Honey Boo Boo and Mama and Sugar Bear as Rachael Maddow or Chris Matthews. He has all the empathy for poor white folks as he does for poor black folks.

A "real" populist would want every man to be a king.

And Honey Boo Boo would be a Queen.

BaltoHvar said...

All hail NetFlix, Amazon Prime and YouTube!

Most "Reality" programming is like watching car accidents over and over again. Maybe it is addicting, but at least I have been able to avoid its siren call(s).

But are Cooking Shows somewhat reality-type programming. Then I'll confess Rachel Ray has a Honey Boo Boo that DEMANDS her own Channel!

Baron Zemo said...

In you wildest dreams could you ever imagine Barry Soetero or Rush Limbaugh sitting down for a Mountain Dew summit with Sugar Bear and Mama. Laughing with Honey Boo Boo and not at her.

I can not.

Baron Zemo said...

Honey Boo Boo dances for your sins.

wyo sis said...

It's sort of a "Queen For A Day" thing. BZ you may have something there.

Baron Zemo said...




She is a simple innocent girl who loves performing. Like millions of other little girls. But a big time TV network decided to put her on TV for the amusement of the those who prefer to look down on poor desperate silly people.

Elitist scum like Obama and Rush Limbaugh.

Honey Boo Boo would make a better President than the Jug Eared Jesus.

Baron Zemo said...

If Honey Boo Boo were President she would allow oil companies to drill so there would be enough energy for klieg lights to follow her around all the time.

Baron Zemo said...

If Honey Boo Boo were President we would never have attacked Libya because she would have thought it was fruit cocktail and who would want to attack such a delicious treat.

BaltoHvar said...

Y-O SIS! Of course! Why didn't I think of that? Of course I am old enough to remember that show, and now now discover old enough to forget.

Mr. Warhol was right.

Baron Zemo said...

If Honey Boo Boo were President nobody would worry about jobs being exported off shore. She would make sure that everybody would buy American and not Chinese.
She would want people like her Daddy to have jobs at good wages and not pay all his money in taxes so he couldn't buy her moon pies and Mountain Dew.

Baron Zemo said...

If Honey Boo Boo were President she wouldn't spend all her time going off on Golf outings and what not.

Well maybe a little minature golf now and then but you don't have to go far for that.

Baron Zemo said...

If you hate on Honey Boo Boo you hate on America.

Baron Zemo said...

The scenes of Honey Boo Boo and her sisters at Walmart are designed for the elites to laugh at poor white people.

Or perhaps what the One would call "typical white people."

AlanKH said...

I found out who Honey Boo Boo was maybe a few days before Rush, when Yahoo News reported her endorsement.

In my dedicated efforts to stay un-hip, I have still managed to avoid hearing Justin Bieber sing.

Get off my lawn.

Palladian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Palladian said...

The scenes of Honey Boo Boo and her sisters at Walmart are designed for the elites to laugh at poor white people.

The entire show was designed for the "elites" to laugh at poor white people. It's a minstrel show for the 21st century, without the talent.

If you hate on Honey Boo Boo you hate on America.

Love for America is not predicated on accepting and enjoying low, mean comedy, or some nonsensical populist idea that I have to appreciate the televised antics of base people to prove my loyalty to the American idea.

I find the whole thing rather sad, because the act will only remain "endearing" for a short time, and I have grave doubts that the child and her family have the mental resources to parlay their brief fame into something that will sustain them, especially the children, for their whole lives.

Appropriate that Obama is mixed up in the whole thing, even in jest, because it's just the sort of exploitative pathology that his kind use to accumulate more money and more power.

Menahem Globus said...

I don't have cable so when I heard the name I assumed it was a rapper or football player. A few weeks ago a friend on Facebook posted that she was embarrassed to find out that her husband is a cousin a few times removed. This was enough to pique my interest so I did a Google search and found out that rather than the next Puff Daddy the kid was the offspring of everything that welfare reform was intended to curtail.

Baron Zemo said...

I was talking about hating on the person Honey Boo Boo not the show.
The show is indeed a minstrel show that mocks the only people who you can safely hate on in Obama's America....poor white people.

It is not a nonsensical populist idea that Honey Boo Boo should be treated with the minimal respect and compassion that someone in their circumstances would demand from anyone with half a hearth. You would never see a poor black family on the South Side of Chicago be mocked and exploited in this way. At least since Jimmie JJ Walker grew hair on his balls.

Sugar Bear is far from perfect. But he seems to be a good Daddy who loves his family and is trying to do the right thing. But the TV scumbags find every chance they can to mock him and to mock the girls as they act like typical teenagers. You can bet your bottom dollar that it was not their idea to adopt a pig.

Mama is a little nuts but she does love her daughter. Sure she enables the crazy pageant thing. Like other Moms do swimming or gymnastics or horseback riding. Millions of little girls spend endless hours pursuing these fruitless hobbies when only a handful will make the Olympics or a career out of it. It is harmless. But this is just something for the elites to mock. The whole toddlers and tiaras is a sub-culture that is something that they love to lampoon.

Of course it seems sad. Dysfunctional. Much of "real" American life is such. To mock these people is what Hollywood and the elites are born to do.
They mock normal everyday Americans. They are marks to be fleeced. Poor deluded typical white people hanging on to their guns and their religion. Shopping in WalMart and having a pig as a pet.

Everyman should be a King. And everywoman a Queen.

Except for Williamsburg where everyman is a Queen.

Allegedly.

ALP said...

Baron Zemo:

What you said. Additionally, the women of the family appear to be committing the modern crime of declining to hate their less than perfect bodies.

I was prepared to be disgusted at HBB but, while I found the show a tad boring, I was not as put off as I had expected to be. What I saw was a close knit, supportive family that, because of their white trash culture, we are supposed to feel superior to.

I also did not detect the slightest hint of "please feel sorry for us because we are poor and uncultured."

For disgust, try "Small Town Security" on AMC. I spent 15 minutes yelling at the screen: "DO something about all that lipstick on your teeth bitch" before switching the channel.

Anonymous said...

@shantastik Hah.

I know who she is. And I don't watch TV. How can you have an internet connection and not know who Honey Boo Boo is. She can't be avoided. She's like Kim Kardashian in that way.

I feel for her. She's like a chubby little reincarnation of Jodi Foster, supporting her whole family at 7-yrs-old.

Her mom told the child abuser ex-husband to take a hike when he tried to contact his older daughter after she was on TV, so that's good enough for me.

AlanKH said...

One day they'll do a HBB knockoff set in the rural Ozarks and call it "Little Miss Moonshine."

Toad Trend said...

People who regularly consume this pop culture garbage might have found Obama's 'joke' funny.

Other folks more concerned about the seriousness of the presidency lost on Teh Won?

Not so much.

Self-deprecation by sociopaths...

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

[A]nd I have grave doubts that the child and her family have the mental resources to parlay their brief fame into something that will sustain them, especially the children, for their whole lives.

Hey, who knows? Maybe this is just the beginning and maybe someday Honey Boo Boo will be purchasing her wardrobe from some fancy plus-size shop in Brooklyn run by Zemo's wife.

Shanna said...

Actually heard that bit by Rush yesterday...first time I've laughed at Rush for real in a long time. His confusion was so funny.