Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday joined the ranks of those questioning whether Hollywood movies played a part in motivating Elliot Rodger, the son of a filmmaker, to go on a shooting rampage before taking his own life near the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Limbaugh singled out “The Hunger Games” franchise because Rodger’s father, Peter Rodger, was an assistant director on the film.
“This is crucial! This is what this guy’s dad did. It’s teenagers killing other teenagers,” Limbaugh said on his radio show, according to a transcript. “It’s a survivalist game. It doesn’t matter why. They’re being forced to, but they’re still doing it.”
“This kid might say he was forced to by societal pressure. Right. Some of them are adults. But it still involved killing,” he added. “‘Why not blame Hollywood movies here?’ Oh, we can never, ever go there.”
Rodger also recorded a YouTube video before his deadly shooting spree in which he vowed to exact “revenge against humanity,” women who spurned his affections in particular. Limbaugh guessed that Rodger believed “everybody was just having a life of pure, total hedonism,” and suggested Rodger’s father contributed to that warped perception.
“What could go wrong here? You’ve got an estranged mother and dad,” he said. “The dad produces oddball moves like ‘The Hunger Games,’ and as a side hobby, he takes photos of nude women’s bare rear ends in exotic locales around the country… They’re in art galleries! This guy takes black and white — for the most part — artsy photos of nude women from the rear, focusing on their butts.”
Limbaugh wasn’t the first to examine Rodger’s connections to the entertainment industry. Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday provoked the wrath of actor Seth Rogen and director Judd Apatow when she suggested that “frat-boy fantasies” depicted in Hollywood movies, like the moviemaking duo’s new film “Neighbors,” could have informed Rodger’s twisted version of reality.
