RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, your host was discussed prominently on Bill Maher’s Real Time HBO show on Friday night. And, I must say, Bill Maher was eager to have people know that he agreed with me. Yes.

He also had to tell his audience, “Don’t misunderstand, I still hate Limbaugh, but he was right about this, and I said the same thing.” He had Seth MacFarlane from Family Guy on, and Seth MacFarlane said, “Well, you know, I don’t agree with much of what Rush said, but this is probably one of the most reasonable things he’s said.” Now, I know Seth fairly well, and we get along. These people, they go to where they go and they gotta say the right things. (interruption)

You want to hear this? All right.

It’s about the movie 12 Years a Slave. Remember all the grief that I caught about that? What did I say? Well, here. They talk about it. This is Friday night, Real Time on HBO, Seth MacFarlane along with Andrew Sullivan and the author Salman Rushdie. Those are the guests, and to set up the discussion about me and my comments that 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture ’cause it had “slave” in the title. That’s what I said. This movie, I don’t care what else, it was never not gonna win Best Picture.

It was automatic.

It was going to win Best Picture no matter if it didn’t win anything else, because it had the magic word in the title: “Slave.” Well, throughout the Drive-By Media, they were saying, “How dare he!” They made the mistake of thinking I was commenting on the movie. I haven’t even seen the movie. I wasn’t commenting on whether the movie’s any good or not. I was commenting on the political correctness in Hollywood, which Maher… When was the last time you heard one of these people eager to say, “Hey, hey! You know, hey, Limbaugh said something and I said that, too! I said that!”

Here we go…

MAHER: The day after Rush Limbaugh said, “There’s no way that movie,” talking about 12 Years a Slave, which won Best Picture, “was not going to win. It didn’t matter if it was good or bad. It had the magic word in the title: ‘Slave,'” and then I saw everybody on MSNBC went nuts that he said this, and I was basically saying the same thing.

MACFARLANE: (chuckling)

MAHER: I said, “You know, if you don’t have ‘Slaves’ or ‘AIDS’ in the title —

MACFARLANE: (chuckling)

MAHER: “– you were just not going to win this year,” and I think what the liberals didn’t understand is that this is not a comment. And I don’t like Rush Limbaugh either. It’s not a comment on the validity of the movie. It’s a comment on the predictability of Hollywood liberals who conflate a cause with performance.

MACFARLANE: Yeah.

RUSH: Now, he had to get the obligatory, “Hey, I don’t like Rush Limbaugh, either! Don’t any of you get that idea. I don’t want you people storming the stage here! I don’t like Rush Limbaugh, either.” So up next is Seth MacFarlane, Family Guy.

MACFARLANE: Of all of the things that Rush has said —

MAHER: Right.

MACFARLANE: — that I don’t agree with, that’s not the most unreasonable. I actually did happen to think that was the best movie of the bunch.

MAHER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: Right. “Of all the things Rush has said that I don’t agree with, that’s not the most unreasonable.” (interruption) What are you frowning at? You’re probably thinking, “Wait a minute, Seth has had me on his show. Why is he…?” (interruption) You’re not thinking that? What are you thinking? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. (interruption) I know. The thing is, you know where he tweeted this? Snerdley’s got a good point.

He says, “Maher is talking about this, about these Hollywood types, like he’s not one of them.” (chuckling) In fact, he tweeted this from the Vanity Fair Oscar party. He did. He tweeted his thing about “Slaves” and “AIDS” being in the title. He was at the Vanity Fair Oscar party. Snerdley said, “You don’t get into one of those things unless you’re a Hollywood liberal.” A good point. He’s making it sound like he’s not one of these Hollywood liberals.

Here’s Andrew Sullivan. We may as well get everybody in on this.

SULLIVAN: The Academy can make a political point if it wants. They won’t cop to it, but that’s what they’re doing. And the genius of the movie, it struck me, was that it really revealed fully … this country was basically a Nazi enterprise. (chuckling) Slavery was not something that happened in some part of it. It was intrinsic.

RUSH: Now, before you pooh-pooh it, I want you to understand that what he said here about slavery “was basically a Nazi enterprise,” is what leftists who can’t let go of it think. It is a huge issue. It is the primary reason they hate the country and will never love it and will never allow the country to end it. They will never admit that we’ve moved beyond it. We still are, in many ways. It’s just whatever issue that they say. Illegal immigration, our reluctance/our disagreement with amnesty, proves we’re still a slave state, see? We’ve still got Nazi tendencies. It’s what they believe. Up next and finally, Salman Rushdie and Seth MacFarlane wrap this bite up.

RUSHDIE: Taking on a great theme and doing it well —

MAHER: Right!

RUSHDIE: — is not a demerit, except in the world of Rush Limbaugh, who doesn’t need to see the film to judge it.

MACFARLANE: To Rush it is very much a demerit.

AUDIENCE: (laughter and applause)

MACFARLANE: Sorry. I’m sorry. I’m a big fan of yours, so —

RUSH: Making fun of Salman Rushdie there! Did you catch that?

That was Seth MacFarlane. “To Rush, it is very much is a demerit.” And Salman Rushdie says, it “is not a demerit except in the world of Rush Limbaugh who…” I didn’t say it was a demerit. I haven’t seen it. I don’t know if it’s a bad movie or not. That doesn’t matter. My only point was it was not gonna lose, no matter how many demerits it had, or how many merits that it had. But MacFarlane says, “To Rush, it is very much a demerit.” Sorry, sorry. I’m a big fan of yours, Salman, I couldn’t help imitating you, blah, blah, blah.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I just want to remind you about the movie 12 Years a Slave. Mr. Rushdie and Mr. Sullivan, the LA Times told us — they reported — that at least two Academy members voted for the movie even though they hadn’t seen it. Remember? They voted for it precisely for the reasons I knew that it would win. They couldn’t bring themselves to vote against it. They didn’t even see it. They didn’t even want to see it. They just voted for it. They knew what they had to do.