The imaginary Chinese vocabulary of Rush Limbaugh

RUSH: "Ah, never mind, we're not going to gyp Fox. I wanted to gyp it because, well, the, Hu Jintao, he was speaking and they weren't translating. They normally, some translator, every couple of words, but Hu Jintao was just going CHING CHONG, CHING CHOW CHONG CHA, CHONG CHANG, CHING CHONG CHIBABABA, OH CHONGHING CHI CHIGARAI, CHENG CHI CHI. CHING ZHA BABA CHENGA CHENG CHI CHI CHI. CHANGI. OOOOOO. CHING CHOLABA BABA. GE CHOW CHOW BA. Nobody was translating." Limbaugh Mocks Chinese President's Untranslated Speech [Media Matters]

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gwailo_joe

gwan lei lan see ah pokai hai lei lo mo ah chzee seen bakgwai. . . daa sei ne!

that about sums it up for me.
Dave Faris

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/371736/january-20-2011/rush-limbaugh-speaks-chinese
Anonymous

Freedom of speech unfortunately allows him to be a bigoted racist shitcake. Fortunately, when I have children, I can point to him and say ‘See? That’s what a bigoted racist shitcake looks like’.
gths

Nice way to suck up to your country’s bankers, I guess…
benher

Huh.
As a verbally abusive oligarch-loving rights-disrespecting prick, I’m frankly surprised that Rush wouldn’t be more fond of Hu Jintao.
- JonStewartMill
  
  As a verbally abusive oligarch-loving rights-disrespecting prick, I’m frankly surprised that Rush wouldn’t be more fond of Hu Jintao.
  
  Syntax alert: that sentence construction makes it sound like you’re calling yourself a “verbally abusive oligarch-loving rights-disrespecting prick.”
gwailo_joe

As a friendly reminder:

Such an individual is merely a small minded semi-ignorant obeast drug addict hater racist big-picture-blinded history-nit-picker blowhard friend of the oppressor enemy of womens’ choice enemy of free thought enemy of differing opinion normal ass human with an agenda of self aggrandizement.

So fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

(as if any self-respecting horse would carry his sorry ass. . .)
VagabondAstronomer

Stay classy, Rushy boy…
BDiamond

Maybe he and Rosie O’Donnell can get together and CHING CHANG CHOW at each other.
- spool32
  
  Beat me to the punch!
  
  heh
Anonymous

I can’t believe he can get away with that!
jtegnell

Mark Frauenfelder is right — the people that listen to his show will love this, and any criticism he receives will do nothing but feed his, and their, persecution complexes.
BonLao

The imaginary chinese vocabulary and fanciful english syntax of Rush Limbaugh.

“They normally, some translator, every couple of words…”

Every couple of words indeed.
bjacques

If China really are going to own everything in the US, sooner or later they’ll get around to buying Excellence In Broadcasting. And they’ll no doubt find Limbaugh’s remarks high-larious.
Syd

I once asked a friend from Vietnam how they made fun of English on the playground. It was something like “showlong showlong showlong”.
Anonymous

I can hear them in China now – “They normally, some translator, every couple of words, but Limbaugh was just going hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw…”

åŸºç£ï¼Œç¬¨è›‹ã€‚(Christ, what an asshole)

(disclaimer – I don’t speak Chinese, and apologies to those who do – the string was generated by Babelfish, and on the return trip to English mutates into “Christ, donkey.”…. )
Noah Witherspoon

Wow. Does it count as an ethnic stereotype if the stereotype is “idiot American with no awareness of or respect for any other culture whatsoever”?
Anonymous

Remember….the German word for infected swine is ‘Limbaugh’.
In Chinese the word Limbaugh means ‘small penis.’
Anonymous

what a knob.
hug h

The irony here is delicious. Rush still blathers endlessly for unfettered laissez-faire capitalism in spite of the recent financial crisis caused in no small part by the rollback of regulations put in place following prior crises. (Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it!) Yet Rush ridicules the Chinese leader who “COMMANDS” an economy that in spite of being subject to total government control is eating our lunch! Rush used to be entertaining- now he’s just pathetic and helps to undermine all he seeks to preserve. Blowhard laughs his way to the bank…
Anonymous

Yea, but media matters…
hapa

i’m half fake chinese (on my father’s side). basically rush was not funny cuz he left out the punchline, CHING CHUNG CHANGOODLE ZEDONG.
Xenu

I’m confused, Rush, was that Mandarin or Cantonese?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Cantonese, I’d guess. As someone who lived and worked for decades around Cantonese speakers, the first time that I watched a Chinese movie in Mandarin, I was rather nonplussed by the sound of the language. They’re quite tonally dissimilar.
Zac

This is what happens when you take away a man’s prescription painkillers.
knoxblox

Man, if I was still a kid and did this, my dad would have tanned my hide.
Anonymous

Rush wasn’t making fun of the head of communist regime with poor human right record because that’s was what little American kids used to say to me years ago. Things never change, it seems.
fnc

Christ, what an asshole!

And I really actually mean that.
mehilow

Rush, you’re doing it wrong!

Here’s the benchmark.
Anonymous

His use of “gyp” is far more offensive than the Chinese gibberish. I tend to think that if he had said, “Ah, never mind, we’re not going to jew Fox,” Rob would have focused on that.
- Anonymous
  
  I’m uncertain on this one. We talk about “enslaving” people all the time without thinking where the word comes from. In places far away from the Roma, “gyp” is used the same way, and only the educated will notice who it insults. It doesn’t make it ok while there are oppressed people to take offense, but it makes me wonder how much to fault people for using the word.
  - lyd
    
    I’m uncertain on this one. We talk about “enslaving” people all the time without thinking where the word comes from.
    
    Uhh… what?
    - chgoliz
      
      I think Anon means the etymology of the word “slave” which actually comes from the word for Slavs: Slave comes from Sklabos.
      - lyd
        
        Aha. Interesting, thanks.
Anonymous

Oh!
Ying tong ying tong
Ying tong ying tong
Ying tong iddle I po
Ying tong ying tong
Ying tong iddle I po
Iddle I po!

- The Goons
grimc

Oxycontin is a helluva drug.
Antinous / Moderator

I’m shocked that you didn’t mention the use of ‘gyp’. Aren’t you part Roma?
- Rob Beschizza
  
  It’s so densely packed with him, we’d be here all day picking out every offense!
Griefer

I’m no fan of Rush, but he does this sort of things intending to create a controversy.
amanicdroid

He’s an abomination.

But no one that happily listens to him cares that he’s an asshole.

Cowardly, stupid, hateful pricks.
Hools Verne

@JohnnyOC and lecti

Yes, clearly when I was commenting on somebody saying they were surprised to find out that Asian countries hold racist views of each other I was defending the right of racists everywhere to live free from criticism. I’m pretty fucking aware of the racism that exists in the United States and on Boing Boing. You’d think when I talk about how nationalism plays into codifying racism in the conscience of a country I might be speaking from the experience of an American who has seen what jingoism does. But no, clearly I’m trying to excuse one douchebag by saying that its not surprising that the Japanese are racist.
- lecti
  
  “by saying that its not surprising that the Japanese are racist.”
  
  *sigh* You clearly don’t get it, do you?
fataltourist

Oh man, what he said in Mandarin is hilarious!
DomoDomo

How come when folks do their racist Chinese gibberish impression thing, every fake word starts with ‘ch’?

I only ask because when I do *my* racist Chinese gibberish impression thing, I do the exact same thing. And I speak Chinese. So who started this?
Noodlehead

Well, with how much Rush dumps into the Chinese economy to support his raging drug addictions, I suppose he can get away with it.
Anonymous

Looking forward to the autotuned version…
Anonymous

It’s not nice to make fun of 12 year old’s for being racist. They don’t know any better.
CANTFIGHTTHEDITE

Hey, those are exactly my sentimonies.
DomoDomo

Also, if you want to mock Hu Jintao, try calling him as Huge Yindao (Sorry, I’m 9 apparently).
Dave Faris

Obnoxious asshole is obnoxious.
cycle23

Chappelle made this joke funnier. I’m all for Rush joining him in his media seclusion.
kitto

I’ve actually heard elderly Japanese women in Japan mock Koreans using the ol’ racist gibberish. It kind of made my head explode the first time.
- Hools Verne
  
  I don’t know about Korea or some of the smaller countries but I do know that Japan and China are both notoriously racist towards almost all of their neighbors and beyond. Not surprising really when you consider how much nationalism plays in their histories.
  - JohnnyOC
    
    “..but I do know that Japan and China are both notoriously racist towards almost all of their neighbors and beyond. Not surprising really when you consider how much nationalism plays in their histories.”
    
    So, in your opinion somehow makes it ok for this racist ass to do what he does? Just because you feel that “Well, I think almost all Asians are racist, so this is fine.”?
    
    And, BTW, when has America not been racist towards almost all of its neighbors and beyond here and in its past?
    
    And wouldn’t you say that our nationalism plays in to our history?
    
    I mean, we did let Commodore Perry go to Japan and pretty much force the country to open up trade.
    
    Or be a part of other western countries such as Britain and France and force China to “Westernize”, import Christianity, and pay back trumped-up “reparations” for defending itself which let to loss of life in Boxer Rebellion.
  - lecti
    
    ” don’t know about Korea or some of the smaller countries but I do know that Japan and China are both notoriously racist towards almost all of their neighbors and beyond. Not surprising really when you consider how much nationalism plays in their histories.”
    
    You should know that a LOT of us in the States are racist, with history of racial segregation and slavery. What’s your point? That it’s ok to be racist? Piss off. No one deserves racial discrimination.
    
    I don’t give a damn about some dictator elsewhere, but I do get very uncomfortable when you KNOW some of your acquaintances regard others as somewhat less than human just because they look a little different. Clowns like Limbaugh perpetuates this process – what’s next for him? Blackface? He’s not funny, unless you are racist yourself.
Anonymous

he forgot “ching chang walla walla bing bang”. What an ass.
Boondocker

“Rush Limbaugh says something offensive, snow blankets Canada, and our top headline, Bears: are they shitting in your woods? Coming up next on Not-So-Shocking News.”
Anonymous

I tried to listen to what rush was saying, but I was mesmerized by Rush’s man-boobs in that picture.
Rob Beschizza

I don’t think there’s anything offensive about Chinese gibberish. In fact, the art of speaking convincing foreign gibberish is an exalted one we’ve covered. The problem with Rush is that his idea of Chinese gibberish is to repeat an ethnic slur over and over, slowly mixing in Kung Fu noises as it gets increasingly repetitive.
- Lester
  
  The best example of a “good” fake foreign language speaker is still Sid Caesar
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBLM16fQ1es (skip the Larry King bit to about the one minute mark)
  
  This one is just freakin’ hilarious:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OW7GoIl0T8
Elmo Gearloose

I think EVERY culture does bizarre impressions of foreign languages.
They emphasize the jarring (to them) sounds and strange cadences. Here’s a good example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8

Try and translate that!
- grimc
  
  Every culture doesn’t reward people who do with an enormous number of listeners
Ugly Canuck

What does differentiate us is our cultures: but as they are not arbitrary (like the legal definitions which dtermine one’s “nation”) nor based upon bodily traits (like the attempt to distinguish ‘races’ based upon physical science),
they are mush less ‘convenient’ for the types of discourse in which the concepts of ‘nation’ and ‘race’ play a great role: those discourses which seek to differentiate us from each other by our various membership in defined groups.

For to determine ‘culture’, one must first carefully and fully observe the people who are participants in such. That necessary exercise, in turn, would tend to produce understanding and sympathy: which are assuredly NOT the goals which most people who use the language of ‘race’ and ‘nation’ are seeking to inspire in their audience.

They use those concepts not to elucidate nor understand other Nations or “races”, but to establish and promote separation, division and mistrust amongst people.
Mark Frauenfelder

The morons who worship Rush Limbaugh love it when he does stuff like this.
UUbuntu

I can’t believe nobody’s posted this example yet! Kathering Tate, language translator – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INOL2zVv7mw
Anonymous

I didn’t see anyone link to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdQDH_W5-rM (relevant part is at 30 seconds in)
Anonymous

What’s shocking to me is not that he knows what type of humor his audience likes; but rather what kind of humor his audience likes.
UndeadBard

What do you expect from a fat bloated opiate addict? He’ll die like Elvis on the pooper.
- Stefan Jones
  
  “He’ll die like Elvis on the pooper.”
  
  I’m betting on a petting zoo, or a rubber sheet covered with buttered okra in a cheap motel room.
  
  * * *
  What Mark said. You can picture Rush’s fans crowing and snorting over clod-bait like this.
kip w

Just wait. Next time we have a GOP administration, he’s going to be the ambassador to China.
KHirsch

I’m quite mystified as to why people think that this is offensive. Could someone explain it to me? Preferably someone who is actually Chinese and actually offended by it.

I’m not a fan of Limbaugh, so I’m not defending him because of that, I just don’t get it. I’ve heard fake English on several youtube videos and it’s interesting and sometimes amusing, but I’ve never found it offensive.

The word “gyp” is more interesting. I’m a fairly well educated guy, but I think I was an adult before I ever heard the notion that “gyp” was offensive. It had never occurred to me that the word gyp had anything to do with Gypsies. I doubt most Americans know that.

I’m not even sure that most Americans realize that Gypsies are an ethnic group, rather than just a generic term like “hobo”. There just aren’t many in America.
- Tensegrity
  
  I appreciate that you earnestly asked for explanation of the offense instead of dismissing it out of hand, like some others have done.
  
  As per my other comments, mocking Asian speech is a common insult that is used to highlight the supposed ‘otherness’ of Asians. I’ve heard it tons of times and it is always intended as an insult and a way to say ‘you do not belong here’.
  
  It is the same as calling someone a chink or a black person the n-word.
  
  It is this perception of otherness and not belonging that enables the racism that Asians have suffered since we arrived in America, from exclusionary immigration policies, anti-miscegenation laws and beliefs, and outright murder.
- Gloria
  
  It’s historical baggage. The same mechanisms have been used in the past with definite, destructive racist intent. Taping back your eyes or putting on some false buckteeth is on the same parallel.
  
  I certainly wouldn’t think of you as a horrible racist monster (and people have plenty of other non-racism reasons to disparage Rush Limbaugh), but I’d certainly regard you with a little contempt and recommend you find out more at your local library.
  
  What else is offensive: Men yelling Chinese (usually Mandarin) at me on the street, because, I guess, I’m a delicate Asian flower, and as some have pointed out, it emphasizes my otherness. Not only that, it trivializes my intellectual capability *and* my regional ethnic identity. Hey, I’ve learned English perfectly well, you ass. And I speak CANTONESE.
- penguinchris
  
  The difference is that fake Asian and Middle Eastern language sounds are (or were) commonly used as essential parts of making fun of offensive stereotypes. There’s a completely different context and connotation involved here than in the fake English things. I’m sure you could find someone doing fake English making fun of the British… and it would probably be hilarious, and isn’t really racially charged.
  
  Besides that I’m not sure I understand his use of the word “gyp” – I understand what is meant when one says they were “gypped”, and I understand why this is a racial slur of sorts. That doesn’t seem to be what he’s trying to say, though… seems like he’s trying to extend the word gyp to mean something else entirely.
  - KHirsch
    
    I don’t know what Limbaugh meant by “gyp”, either. Maybe it would have made sense with more context.
    
    I just looked up the etymology of “gyp”. It’s not clear that it did come from gypsy. The OED says “perhaps short for gipsy n. or for gippo n.1 2.” It says that the verb meaning “To cheat, trick, swindle” (and the related noun sense) is originally from the U.S., which makes it less likely, in my mind.
    
    There’s an older meaning of “gyp” for a college servant at Cambridge. They give a citation from 1805: “My bed-maker, whom we call a gyp, from a Greek word signifying a Vulture, runs away with everything he can lay his hands on.” But it’s not clear if that’s really the etymology for that sense.
    
    By the way, you can try the OED online for free through February 5th with the username and password “trynewoed”.
    
    http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/82877
    http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/82874#eid2134863
- Lt. Col. w00t
  
  I was probably well into my mid twenties before I figured out the etymology of ‘gypped’. If there’s any Roma in south Texas, I’ve never met one, which probably doesn’t help.
- Anonymous
  
  The reason it is offensive is because as an Asian American, it is not uncommon to be randomly walking down the street and have this type of gibberish yelled at you. It is rarer for an American traveling in a foreign country to suddenly have the locals break out some random approximation of English. When someone does this gibberish to an Asian person, it is usually meant to imply that person is foreign, doesn’t belong, and is ridiculous. Perhaps most importantly, it is offensive to comedy, because it is a tired and lame joke that requires zero creativity.
Brainspore

A lot of people accuse Rush of being a fat ignorant racist drug-addled hack but that’s really not fair. I mean the guy managed to drop 90 pounds for crying out loud.
andigopow

Surprised that nobody has mentioned that “JIP” is broadcaster jargon for “Join in Progress” which it sounds as if Rush means here. Simulcasting whatever was going on FOX at the time.

So don’t get on him for using “gyp.”

But, yeah, that mock-Chinese…. that’s not broadcast jargon for anything.
Enoch_Root

I could get much more worked up into a PC fervor if we weren’t talking about Hu Jintao. I just can’t bring myself to feel much sympathy for the guy. I understand Mr. Limbaugh doesn’t understand the Chinese language and is being a dick… but there is no way I am rising to an even incidental defense of anyone in China’s ruling clique.
- Tensegrity
  
  Rush is not criticizing the policies of China or its leaders in a useful manner. If he is doing that at all, it is by highlighting the supposed ‘otherness’ of Asians, which hurts everyone.
  
  Is it okay to call genocidal warlords in Africa the N-word?
  
  Dehumanizing others, even those you disagree with, is what enables the escalation of productive disagreement or reasonable conflict to war and genocide.
  
  The enemy of your enemy is not always your friend, and certainly not in this case.
lecti

Fucking racist asshole.
ill lich

What amazed me is how long it goes on. If it was a couple seconds I could maybe forgive it, but he just keeps going, which implies he was really enjoying himself and got carried away. I wonder how is dittoheads felt? Guffaws all around I bet.

Prediction (if this hasn’t happened already) he and his defenders will accuse liberals of being racist for being offended by this.
Anonymous

Does the FCC actually do anything besides fine broadcasters for airing naughty words? Racism and hate speech are cool? Really?
KWillets

If he were Sofia Coppola, he’d get an Oscar for it.
dblomqu1

Lighten up everyone. The whole world has gone crazy and uptight over everything. Just relax. how did this hurt anyone?
polarized_range

barbarbarbarbarbarbar
Elmo Gearloose

Rush Limbaugh has a cochlear implant. Hearing Chinese (or most other unknown languages) with that would be surreal:

http://www.pbs.org/saf/1205/features/Interactive/channel22.htm
kevinsky

Man I haven’t done fake Chinese gibberish since I was like 9. Why’s that? Oh, right, I grew up.
TheCrawNotTheCraw

Doesn’t it make sense that Rush would have contempt for his audience and Fox management: he’s getting paid a lot of money for this crap, and it doesn’t seem to matter to either his listerners or his bosees that it’s ignorant nonsense.

Because it’s “entertainment.” (Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.)
Daddyology

My problem with this isn’t whether or not someone who is Chinese finds it racist.

It’s that:

1.) given his history, I’d bet anything Mr. Someone Else’s Viagra most definitely intended this to be offensive to someone (and given the right’s fondness for crafting an entire ideology around pissing off liberals, that’s my first guess of his intended audience);

b.) most people actually don’t know that “gyp” is, in fact, a slur; and since Limbaughxycontin isn’t exactly known for his intellectual prowess, my guess he doesn’t, either (unlike his “Barack the Magic Negro” song);

iii.) as others have noted, Hu Jinta isn’t exactly a warm-fuzzy kind of guy deserving of a ton of respect; he runs a brutal regime that’s willfully destroying the environment, knowingly crushing human rights, and happily ensuring they’ll be the world’s economic (and, eventually, military) superpower in the 21st Century, eventually buying the U.S. into irrelevance … although none of that excuses VonDoctorshopper’s penchant for ethnic slurs.

Just my $.02 … keep the change.
coaxial

As my Chinese wife said, “What is that? It sounds like some language from Mars.”
Harry Kiester

Being Chinese, I feel I should be horrified, but I’m not. It’s really hard to be outraged by clowns.
Anonymous

Fox News… Lowest Common Denominator.
Two racial slurs for the price of one, and I bet he only understands he was being offensive on one front. Puke.
KHirsch

Both ill ich and avoision mention how long the fake Chinese goes on. Well, that was the whole point of what he was saying.

Maybe I got it right away because I heard about the awkward pauses on NPR this morning. The point is that there was no simultaneous translation during the press conference. The translators waited until the speaker had finished his whole question or whole answer before translating.

Here’s an item on CNN about it: http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/19/a-lost-in-translation-press-conference/
elmizzt

I think most Chinese will agree with me in that we find this HIRARIOUS! xD
Anonymous

All I need to know about Rush’s character is summed up in an image from his early-90s (cable access?) TV show where he displayed an awkward 12-year-old Chelsea Clinton with an ape. No integrity whatsoever.

It’s interesting to try to figure out vapid figures from cynical calculating ones on the far right.

With Rush, as with Beck and O’Reilly, you can see and hear them switch gears. (In this case, the media didn’t use a translator, stupid media, click whirr, stupid chinese for not being english, don’t they sound funny, haha)

Hannity or Palin, OTOH, are either method actors or active dupes. (I’d guess in that order, but frankly I can’t be sure)

Remember, no matter what, media caters to the majority. Ask Syfy.
hershmire

What I find awesome is that he knows how to pronounce “Hu Jintao” pretty well (for a non-Mandarin speaker) yet still makes this silly imitation of Chinese. A real ‘merican ignoramous would say “Hyu Jin-tow.” It just convinces me that, although he’s a smart guy, he’s just pandering to an ignorant audience.
Pea Hix

the Siri iPhone app thinks Rush is saying:

“Today if you don’t don’t don Fernando’s going to buy bye-bye 114 T… Doing today human job mama http://www.gender chart for it to buy bye-bye www.”

Dragon Dictation thinks he’s saying:

“Can dad you doing. Are you going to bye-bye want talking or are you just are things on the map you guys just get done charging for it. Bye-bye bye-bye just about.”
Mr. Winka

We owe them money so let’s try not to insult them. Which brings me to my other point, let’s stop borrowing so much money from them.
regeya

Oxy is a hell of a drug.
T’Pau

Hey guys, President Obama is giving the Chinese dictator some mad props and salutations for being a swell guy and all, but lets focus on Rush Limbaugh for a little bit, and not that horrible abuser of human rights. Cause we love Chinese dictators here.
- Mark Frauenfelder
  
  “Hey guys, President Obama is giving the Chinese dictator some mad props and salutations for being a swell guy and all”
  
  Oh brother. What US president since Nixon hasn’t sucked up to the Chinese gov’t?
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    To be fair, Reagan probably had no idea who they were.
Lobster

Of course Limbaugh’s pissed. He’s losing one of his favorite targets.
Vengefultacos

WORST. SCAT-SINGING. EVER.
Anonymous

To anyone who’s offended by this (which I would hope would be EVERYONE): I encourage you to visit Senator Leland Yee’s website. It gives a list of major companies that advertise on Limbaugh’s lame show. Please pick a company that you patronize and write to them; let them know how you feel. The only reason Limbaugh gets away with this is because of the $$$ it generates from his racist fans; the only way to stop him is to stop those $$$ from coming to him.
— Paul
MrJM

Achewood on topic: http://achewood.com/index.php?date=02212002
Incitatus

I donâ€™t know how Asians manage to speak their languages and keep a straight face.
Hools Verne

I thought I should add a note saying that “are” should be a “can be” after the fact since I figured that calling an entire nation racist probably wasn’t the best way of phrasing it, but I let it slide because I think it’s pretty fair to say Americans are racist. All of us yes. Our culture is racist and as much as all of us progressives like to hold our own cultural sensitivities up high as a way to look down on the more ignorant among us… we’re still fucking racist. Japanese culture? It’s pretty fucking racist. So is China’s.
- Ugly Canuck
  
  Don’t confuse “nationalism” and “racism” – not every Nation is also its own race.
  
  For example, the Japanese and the Chinese are of separate nations, but are often considered to be of the same race.
  
  Just so, Americans , of whatever race, are all Americans regardless.
  
  Personally, I do not see (nor have I ever seen) the point of distinguishing between races – other than to be racist.
  
  IMHO “race” is a ‘false construct’, which does not correspond to any actually-existing and important differences amongst people.
  Like Ptolemaic epi-cycles, they do not exist, and merely complicate discussions and actions.
  
  “Nationality”is OTOH a purely legal, purely human construct, which does not purport to discover some pre-existing physical actuality; and thus does have some ‘existence’ in actuality, always granted by humans: nevertheless, that conceptualization of the differences between peoples can also be as pernicious to humanity and its happiness, and to justice, as racism is.
  
  In the abstract, the differences between us amount to only what we wish to see.
  
  It is only when we descend to the consideration of specific individuals that our differences become resolvable: nations and races are merely convenient fictions.
blendergasket

I told the witch doctor
I was in love with you
I told the witch doctor
I was in love with you
And then the witch doctor
He told me what to do

He said that

Ooo eee,ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla, bing bang
Ooo eee ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla bing bang…
Ooo eee ,ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla ,bing bang
Ooo eee ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla bing bang

Speaking of Witch Doctors, this man needs an exorcism.
- _Username
  
  The witch doctor part sounds like every rap song Ive ever heard
okiedokie

Is it offensive? Sure.

Ya know what is more offensive? All the sick name-calling from commenters to this post (I thought Boingboing readers were intelligent)

Ya know what is even MORE offensive? That I can’t find the link to the Boinboing post from back in 2006 that brought Rosie O’Donnell to task when she did the same thing.
http://www.racialicious.com/2006/12/07/rosie-odonnell-mocks-asians-with-ching-chong-joke/

Hypocrites.
- MrJM
  
  Things to consider:
  
  â€¢ What was the goal of your post?
  
  â€¢ Do you believe you accomplished that goal?
  
  â€¢ What will you do differently in your next post to accomplished your goal?
  - okiedokie
    
    “Things to consider:
    
    â€¢ What was the goal of your post?”
    
    To point out the childishness that both sides have fallen to in discussing bigotry. One starts with racist parody and the other responds with schoolyard name calling. To also point out that Boingboing, if they are interesting in shining a light on bigotry, as opposed to just shouting down a radio personality, would have exposed Rosie ODonnell for this exact same thing back in ’06
    
    “â€¢ Do you believe you accomplished that goal?”
    
    I did point these things out, and I hope some folks take them to heart.
    
    “â€¢ What will you do differently in your next post to accomplished your goal?”
    
    Not a thing. Not one thing.
    - Brainspore
      
      Boingboing, if they are interesting in shining a light on bigotry, as opposed to just shouting down a radio personality, would have exposed Rosie ODonnell for this exact same thing back in ’06
      
      So they’re not allowed to call out one idiot blowhard unless they’ve already spent the time to call out every other idiot blowhard who has done something similar over the last five years? You gotta start somewhere. Besides, since when is Rosie O’Donnell an influential figure in American politics?
- Raj77
  
  You’re offended by people calling Rush Limbaugh nasty names? Aww, diddums.
  - okiedokie
    
    I’m offended whenever stoops to the level of name-calling rather than having a productive debate. That’s hwy I don’t listen to Ann Coulter, one of the top name callers in my book.
    
    I would thinkthat people would have advanced far beyond the playground when attempting to confront bigotry and racism.
    - Raj77
      
      I haven’t, personally, moved ‘beyond the schoolyard’ into milquetoast bleeding-heart relativism, no. My first reaction to bigotry at an individual level generally involves punching. I have on occasion sung the “string ‘em all up like Mussolini” song, too.
      
      When Rosie O’Donnell did this, it was a very poorly considered, unfunny joke as part of a comedy routine, but it wasn’t generally seen as ‘truly racist’ because there wasn’t malice behind it. Limbaugh is fuelled entirely by malice, and he is a dyed-in-the-wool proper-style racist motherfucker. I have a hard time believing that you’re truly so obtuse as to portray them as equivalents.
jlopere

Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don’t seem to see this.â€

~ Doris Lessing, British novelist and short story writer
- Tensegrity
  
  My comment #93 was intended as response to you.
  
  Again, go eat a bowl of ducks.
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r

Oh man. I’m 2nd generation Korean so my righteous indignation was prepped and ready to go. Then I listened to the clip and just started cracking up.

I couldn’t help but picture Rush sitting on a La-Z-Boy, furiously tugging at his half-limp cock. Laboriously breathing in that guttural way that fat people do, pock-marked back sticking to the leather upholstery, and smelling overwhelmingly of cheese sweats. And then going into a cartoon seizure.

Brain, you always know the right thing to say.
Anonymous

Interpreter. Translator is for the written word only, interpreters are used for spoken exchanges.

Heard that one on All Things Considered this afternoon.
GreatRewards

Everybody Wang Chung tonight!
Anonymous

limbaugh in the fujian dialect is lum par. Which means balls.
carolw

But was he pulling the corners of his eyes back with his fingers while he did it? That would have been the cherry on top.
^sarcasm
avoision

Man, that goes on for an uncomfortably long time. I thought it might be some “politically incorrect” phrase or whatnot, but this just deliberately goes on and on.

To KHirsch: I’m Chinese, and this audio snippet comes off as offensive to me. IMO, the response I feel isn’t a political one. The “fake Chinese” language isn’t meant to mock or refer to Jintao, but to me it feels directed at the Chinese language (and in turn, anyone who speaks it).

If I had to translate Rush’s “fake Chinese,” here’s how I’d interpret it:

1st sentence: “I couldn’t understand anything Jintao was saying.”
All other sentences: “Because those wacky Chinese people have that crazy gibberish language. Who can understand that? Certainly not me. Can you? Of course not. They’re unrefined. They’re so very different from us, they barely seem to know how to communicate.”

Whenever I hear “fake Chinese” thrown my way, it’s typically meant as an insult. It’s a schoolyard taunt, and I’m kicking myself for rising to the bait. I expect this sort of thing from high school kids, but not from people who are over 30.

Christ, donkey.
Anonymous

Sum Dum Wite Giy
Mister44

That was actually pretty funny.

THIS was even funnier:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/china-cold-open/1178451/

“Will you kiss me?”
endymion

Agreed with the school of thought that “gyp” is even more offensive than the faux-Chinese. Way to go Rush, two for the price of one.
Mister44

Wait – we can’t say “gyp” anymore? Aw man – what a… er.. ah…
primateous

That’s wong on so many levels.
Tensegrity

Are you attempting to say that finding offense with this mockery is ‘political correctness’? If so, then I do not appreciate your discounting the racism that Asians have suffered in America since the 1800′s. The supposed ‘otherness’ of Asians has been the justification for every manner of racist offenses from these everyday taunts that every Asian or Asian-American has suffered to outright murder (see Vincent Chin).

I expect this foolishness from Limbaugh and his lowbrow crowd, but I don’t expect to see apologists for this outright racism at BB.

Eat a bowl of ducks.
MrMike

Rush Limbaugh, once again proves he’s the poster boy for the Ugly American.
Clifton

Why is Boing Boing promoting this idiot? You’re giving him more views, and that translates to more ad money, and that’s the only thing he cares about.
Anonymous

I translated what the Chinese President said. It was:

“My fellow Chinese, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw America forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”
highlyverbal

Agree that the “gyp” part is more glaring.