"Phony baloney plastic banana good time rock n rollers...."

Brian Doherty | July 25, 2006

While the radio was playing in the other room and I was barely paying attention, I swear I just heard coming from Rush Limbaugh's mouth the words "Phony baloney plastic banana good time rock n rollers."

I'm not looking for an explanation. And may Dave Barry, Rush (both talk show host and band) and all my readers forgive me, but I think I'm using that as a name for my next band.

Comments

|7.25.06 @ 1:05PM|#

Gotta be a back-up band name:
"Brian Doherty & the PBPBGTRnR."

kraorh|7.25.06 @ 1:10PM|#

I think he typically uses the expression to characterize naive peaceniks.

|7.25.06 @ 1:10PM|#

"Phony baloney plastic banana good time rock n rollers."

I completely believe you. I've had similar things happen to me when talk radio/tv is on in the background, behind my immediate thought processes, usually when I'm focusing on some task at hand. It's almost like they say something super ridiculous to make sure you're still listening, or otherwise to send you subliminal messages. I think this phenomenon needs a name. Any ideas? I think "The Smacky Phenomenon" has a nice ring to it.

|7.25.06 @ 1:14PM|#

I'm kind of ashamed to say this, but I was just out driving and was surfing through a few radio stations, including KMOX which carries Limbaugh, and I heard him say this too.

"Plastic banana"?

|7.25.06 @ 1:30PM|#

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Phony+baloney+plastic+banana+good+time+rock+n+rollers%22

|7.25.06 @ 1:30PM|#

A more important question would be why you are in hearing range of Limbaugh at all.

|7.25.06 @ 1:31PM|#

Brian,

I think it would make a better name for a concept record than it would for a working band. It is just too long.

|7.25.06 @ 1:31PM|#

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Phony+baloney+plastic+banana+good+time+rock+n+rollers%22

|7.25.06 @ 1:34PM|#

"Plastic banana"?

I think the drugs may have caused him to confuse the peaceniks he abhors with what he actually likes to have forcibly inserted into his anus.

|7.25.06 @ 1:34PM|#

I think it's perfect. I've alway thought of you as both a plastic banana and a good time rock n roller.

|7.25.06 @ 1:35PM|#

Rush used to reel off Long-haired, dope-smoking, maggot-infested, plastic banana, good time rock & roll, fm type to describe librul non-dittoheads fairly often. Since his drug hassles, has he dropped the dope references?

Of course, anyone who has been outed a a popper of little blue love pills might want to avoid banana comments. Speaking of which, has Rush been hanging with Deadheads, like that Coulter woman? My Plastic Banana may have some resonance for them.

Electric Banana was an alias of The Pretty Things. I don't think they ever played in support of The Strawberry Alarm Clock, but they should have. Add The Electric Prunes and Tangerine Dream you could've had a Magical Fruit Salad Tour: First stop, the Orange Bowl.

Kevin

|7.25.06 @ 1:46PM|#

I think that the only thing more repugnant to me than thinking about what stupid, inflammatory thing Rush Bimbo might say is thinking about what stupid, inflammatory thing he might say with a banana enima.

Thanks for that image, Smacky. I may not sleep right for a week!

|7.25.06 @ 1:46PM|#

I think it's perfect. I've alway thought of you as both a plastic banana and a good time rock n roller.

|7.25.06 @ 2:14PM|#

He uses that phrase a LOT. I heard him using it last fall. It's one of his favorites, apparently. I think it's awesome. The phoney baloney part I can do without, but "plastic banana, good time rock and roll" is perfect.

|7.25.06 @ 2:49PM|#

"He uses that phrase a LOT. I heard him using it last fall. It's one of his favorites, apparently. I think it's awesome. The phoney baloney part I can do without, but "plastic banana, good time rock and roll" is perfect."


It is pretty funny and truthfully Rush is a pretty entertaining and funny personality. That is why his critics hate him so much. If he were just another boring, non-threatening, conservative, ala George Will, no one would care enough to hate him. The fact is the guy is really funny and knows how to strike the perfect nerve in his detractors. That is why he drives them so crazy.

I think you could do a whole concept record "The Phoney Balony, Plastic Banana, Good Time Rock and Rollers". The whole record could be a faux album (in the mode of the Sgt Pepper or the Village Green Preservation Society) by a dimwitted overindulged rock and roll band pumping out rediculous leftist pieties.

|7.25.06 @ 2:52PM|#

When I pick up my guitar, I can assure everyone that the first thing that comes to mind is an artificial banana.

|7.25.06 @ 2:52PM|#

"He uses that phrase a LOT. I heard him using it last fall. It's one of his favorites, apparently. I think it's awesome. The phoney baloney part I can do without, but "plastic banana, good time rock and roll" is perfect."


It is pretty funny and truthfully Rush is a pretty entertaining and funny personality. That is why his critics hate him so much. If he were just another boring, non-threatening, conservative, ala George Will, no one would care enough to hate him. The fact is the guy is really funny and knows how to strike the perfect nerve in his detractors. That is why he drives them so crazy.

I think you could do a whole concept record "The Phoney Balony, Plastic Banana, Good Time Rock and Rollers". The whole record could be a faux album (in the mode of the Sgt Pepper or the Village Green Preservation Society) by a dimwitted overindulged rock and roll band pumping out rediculous leftist pieties.

|7.25.06 @ 3:05PM|#

I always thought "Learned Hand" would be a cool name for a band. I say this as a lawyer who hates lawyers who are too much into lawyers. I just think the name is cool. And, it has potential double meaning, which is always good in rock-n-roll.

Maybe even triple meaning, now that I think about it.

|7.25.06 @ 3:07PM|#

Actually, now that I consider it further, I wonder if it has anything to do with the cover of that Velvet Underground album, "Peel and See" I believe it is called. Maybe he sees them as the ultimate representation of the leftist hipsters of the last 30 years or so.

|7.25.06 @ 3:14PM|#

Pro,

I always thought "The Zoo Daddies" would be a great name for a band. It is a term I read once in a family law text book for fathers who are only allowed to see their kids on weekends for trips to places like the Zoo.

One added bonus to calling your band "Learned Hand" is that if you were the lead singer, everyone would think your name was "Learned".

|7.25.06 @ 3:15PM|#

I always thought "Learned Hand" would be a cool name for a band. I say this as a lawyer who hates lawyers who are too much into lawyers. I just think the name is cool.

Pro Libertate, I thought the *exact same thing* when I was a 1L! I also thought the "Case of the Hairy Hand" would make for a great concept album by said band.

|7.25.06 @ 4:04PM|#

Some tracks off of Learned Hand's eponymous first album:

• Ferae Naturae
  
• Schadenfreude Man
  
• Master of My Domain
  
• The Calculus of Negligence
  
• Unappointed (Don't Need no SCOTUS)
  
• Spirit of Liberty
  
• Back in Black (Robes)
  
• Wang Dang Sweet Poontang
  

And many more!

dhex|7.25.06 @ 4:08PM|#

no melt banana? what the hell, guys?

limbaugh by himself, not so entertaining. somewhere between sidewalk crank and subway nut. i'd probably feel different if i were on pills, however.

|7.25.06 @ 4:35PM|#

"Speaking of which, has Rush been hanging with Deadheads, like that Coulter woman?"

nononono...Coulter is a Deadite. Not a Dead Head. The differences are subtle, but incredibly important.

|7.25.06 @ 4:39PM|#

"Speaking of which, has Rush been hanging with Deadheads, like that Coulter woman?"

nononono...Coulter is a Deadite. Not a Dead Head. The differences are subtle, but incredibly important.

|7.25.06 @ 4:40PM|#

"Speaking of which, has Rush been hanging with Deadheads, like that Coulter woman?"

nononono...Coulter is a Deadite. Not a Dead Head. The differences are subtle, but incredibly important.

Kip|7.25.06 @ 4:56PM|#

WTF is does the plastic banana mean? Did he just throw the words 'plastic banana' randomly in there to color-up the phrase a little?

I like it. It neither lends to nor detracts from the validity of the point. I think you could throw it in anywhere. Like if i were describing those *fundie, homophobic, plastic banana, republican sheep*

|7.25.06 @ 5:08PM|#

I like it. It neither lends to nor detracts from the validity of the point. I think you could throw it in anywhere. Like if i were describing those *fundie, homophobic, plastic banana, republican sheep*

Let's test Kip's theory further.

I drive a Black Walnut Pearl Plastic Banana Toyota Camry.

|7.25.06 @ 10:08PM|#

Electrical Banana - it's bound to be the very next phase.

|7.25.06 @ 11:34PM|#

If Ann C is a Deadite, she better watch her shambling step in Minnesota.

Kevin

|7.26.06 @ 12:08AM|#

nononono...Coulter is a Deadite.

Hail to the the king, baby!