Limbaugh Defends Chinese Imitation as Stephen Colbert Mocks it

When translation problems during President Obama's and Chinese President Hu Jintao's joint news conference on Wednesday led to long periods of only Chinese dialogue, Rush Limbaugh decided to impersonate it on his radio show. But that didn't sit well with some, and by Thursday he was the butt of jokes and defending his actions -- in his own Rush Limbaugh way.

The gist of Limbaugh's comments, and language portrayal, is that the audience was left for minutes not knowing what was being said. So, he thought he would recite what he thought he heard and try to interpret it:

That led to widespread ridicule. For example, on Thursday Stephen Colbert devoted an entire segment to making fun of Rush making fun of the presser:

On the same day, Limbaugh defended his imitation by joking some more that he was doing the country a "service":

And then played a clip of comedian Sid Caesar doing his own Chinese language interpretation:

I think it's fair to say Rush really doesn't care about the criticism.

UPDATE:

On Thursday, Limbaugh found an unlikely defender: Rosie O'Donnell. O'Donnell infamously did a similar imitation in 2006 while describing that her interview of a drunk Danny DeVito while with "The View" was so bit it was grabbing headlines in China. She came under fire for that, and on Thursday used her radio show to ask why Chinese accents can't be imitated.

And as a bonus, the guests on her show even decry the extreme political correctness in this country: