RUSH: Jonathan, Monticello, Kentucky, great to have you on the program, sir. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you today?
RUSH: Just fine, sir. Glad that you called. It’s a great day, hunky-dory, Planned Parenthood to everybody.
CALLER: Wow. I can’t believe I’m actually getting to talk to you. I’ve been listener ever since you were on TV. I wish you were back on it.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. I’m not crazy about TV, but I appreciate your saying that.
CALLER: Yes. Hey, I thought I’d bring a little bit of lighthearted conversation to the show today since it’s Open Line Friday. There is a television show that is hilarious, and it’s got millions of viewers. It’s comes on, I think it’s the —
RUSH: What’s the name of it?
CALLER: It’s called Duck Dynasty.
RUSH: Oh, I’ve heard of that, yeah.
CALLER: Yeah. Well, it’s a very popular show, and I think it’s an opportunity for you to tap into the politically correct uninformed population —
RUSH: Let me tell you about this show. The show is in Louisiana, isn’t it?
CALLER: It is.
RUSH: It’s about a family that have become multimillionaires in the duck-calling business. These guys make the — quack, quack — things that hunters use to call ducks. They’re the Stradivarius of duck calls, and they have made multiple millions, and there’s a reality TV show about these people, and it’s called Duck Dynasty. I was reading about it. I haven’t seen an episode yet. Well, I take it back. I did watch 10 minutes of an episode this morning ’cause I read a story about how it is cleaning up in the ratings. It’s wiping everything out, Duck Dynasty. And the episode I watched, folks, I’m sorry — he-he-he-he — I don’t know. I’ve gotta take a break. I don’t have enough time to go into it now, but I will. I am not ducking it.
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RUSH: Duck Dynasty. If you know Duck Dynasty, you know America. Duck Dynasty is cable’s top-rated reality series this year. It beat the finale of American Idol, and it is the number two original series overall behind The Walking Dead. Now, I can’t tell the difference. Only kidding.
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RUSH: Just to wrap up this Duck Dynasty business, Duck Dynasty, the highest rated show on TV Wednesday night, all TV. Highest rated. Not just cable. Its numbers were bigger than Survivor on CBS, bigger than American Idol on Fox, and the numbers weren’t even close. Duck Dynasty. If you haven’t seen it, when you do watch it — I downloaded about eight episodes. I’m flying out of town today and I may watch some on the airplane. Well, hey, this is a big show. I gotta get in on it. I watched 10 minutes of an episode today where one of the stars is teaching his daughter to parallel park in what looks like the town dump, and they’re using garbage cans as the parking space.
There’s six or seven guys on a concrete restraining wall watching, chewing and spitting tobacco, making jokes about her inability to parallel park and making jokes about the father, who is the star of the show, trying to teach her. You watch this and you won’t know whether its ratings are high because people relate to it or they’re laughing at it. You won’t know. It’s on the A&E network, Arts & Entertainment. Now, The Walking Dead is on AMC. You know, A&E, Arts & Entertainment, was supposed to be like a PBS, very, very highbrow. It was supposed to be high toned anthology of high art. Opera introduced by movie stars. That didn’t last long. And then they got into the biography business.
By the way, if the Tsarnaev brothers were members of the Tea Party, you think the governor of Massachusetts would be holding that information back? Ha-ha-ha-ha. I doubt it. But the governor of Massachusetts is withholding the welfare records of the Tsarnaev brothers.
The father, just so you know, for those of you who are gonna take time and watch this show, Duck Dynasty, the father of the Duck Dynasty family, they’re multimillionaires. Let me tell you something. I have watched episodes of the Real Housewives, and that’s just as, if not more so. Mr. Snerdley, it’s show prep, yes. I’ve not watched whole seasons. I get scared watching this stuff. I mean, you watch The Real Housewives of Orange County, New York, and you find out that there are people who do not know anything about what’s going on in this country, and they don’t care.
They are oblivious. They’re totally disconnected. The things they’re worried about, we should be so fortunate to be worried about the things they’re worried about. The manicure, what they’re gonna wear to the cocktail party, what their ex-wife or — anyway, it’s a total disconnect. The father of the Duck Dynasty family, Phil, has a master’s degree in education. The CEO of the duck business, Willie, has an MBA and all their sons are college educated. They’re multimillionaires by virtue of manufacturing duck calls, the things that duck hunters put in their mouths and imitate duck sounds with. And that’s the appeal. It’s a reality show. It’s a half hour show so each episode is 22 minutes. Give us 20 minutes, we’ll give you the world? Take 20 minutes and you can learn Duck Dynasty.
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RUSH: Here is Michelle in upstate New York. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Oh, good afternoon, Rush. Mega dittos. Longtime listener, first-time caller.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: Yeah, I listen to you almost every day, or as often as humanly possible, and I heard you talking about Duck Dynasty and how they were, you know, trying to parallel park and, you know, it’s more about life adventures, and Phil Robertson, the dad of Willie, was actually up for the NFL draft and gave up his eligibility in his last year to go make these duck calls. So, you know, I thought it was interesting, you know, your football story and your Duck Dynasty story kind of all coming together today.
RUSH: Interesting. I didn’t know that he had had any football playing experience.
CALLER: Yeah, actually I looked it up, and back when Terry Bradshaw was drafted in 1970, I think —
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: — to Pittsburgh I want to say, right in that same year, so it’s pretty impressive that, you know, his passion was duck calls. And look where it landed him today. And then your topic on football.
RUSH: I’m sure that the duck call business is something Bradshaw’s regretting got away from him.
CALLER: (laughing) Yeah, probably so.
RUSH: I’d never heard of Duck Dynasty ’til this morning.
CALLER: Just one of those random shows. The family loves it when we get a chance to tune in. Kind of a reality away from reality, you know, some of the same struggles that almost all of us go through, you know?
RUSH: Well, I was reading the TV section of a newspaper, website, and it was about Duck Dynasty season finale, record ratings, and coming back for a fourth season. Now, I think I’m connected and in touch, and when a show is that popular and has been around for three years, and I don’t know about it, I’m curious. So I read about it, learned a little bit about it, and I went to iTunes and I downloaded season two and season three because season one I couldn’t tell if it was closed-captioned or not. If it isn’t, it’s worthless to me, but seasons two and season three were so I downloaded ’em. And I put like four or five episodes on the iPad, and I’m gonna be on the airplane this afternoon, so I’m gonna watch some. Plus the Sunday night episode of The Good Wife on the airplane. So three or four hours from now I’ll be totally up to speed on the Duck Dynasty.
CALLER: Well, I hope you enjoy it. It’s definitely something that intrigues us, and, you know, it is only a half an hour show. It keeps us watching.
RUSH: All I can think of is that it’s the Arts & Entertainment network, which the liberals think they own, that’s, you know, highbrow opera stuff. I saw about 10 minutes of it, and I wonder what New York elitists and Northeastern elitists think when they watch this. They’ve gotta be scared to death. Then they learn it’s the highest-rated show.