Illustrating Absurdity by Being Absurd: The Update Themes Mar 2, 2021 TODD: Another one of the staples of Rush’s show, one of innovations of the Rush Limbaugh Show in the early years was the update theme, and when Rush would play a song parody which introduced a discussion of the various issues that he talked about to be on the edge of societal evolution. On his 30th anniversary in 2018, Rush Limbaugh took a look back. RUSH: Now, the update, which was a musical portion of the program, one of the principal ways that I pioneered combining politics with comedy and music. A lot of people have done it since, but it first happened here, the combination: Serious discussion, irreverent humor, the playing of rock ‘n’ roll music on the programs that people thought the audience would not be interested in. Pioneering stuff. And it was used to educate, to laugh, to create humor, and also inform people of things I wanted them to know about the left.