Limbaugh insists next Bond must be white, Scottish

Rush Limbaugh is stirring up Twitter, again, and he knows it.

Never afraid to opine on anything, the talk-radio titan declared on his show that the next James Bond actor has to be white and Scottish, because that's how creator Ian Fleming envisioned him.

Therefore, he said, British actor Idris Elba need not apply because he's black and definitely not Scottish.

"James Bond is a total concept put together by Ian Fleming. He was white and Scottish. Period. That is who James Bond is," Limbaugh said. "But now (they are) suggesting that the next James Bond should be Idris Elba, a black Briton, rather than a white from Scotland. But that's not who James Bond is."

Cue the outraged, profane, incredulous tweets, and even a few clever ones.

Let's review: Elba, the sexy London-born movie and TV star (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Luther) of African descent (Ghana and Sierra Leone), has been floated as a possible new Bond after Daniel Craig moves on.

Floated where? Well, in the hacked-and-leaked Sony email dump over the last month. But that's another story.

Anyway, Limbaugh was sputtering about this idea on his show on Wednesday, which his many media critics rushed to capture.

Limbaugh, of course, was perfectly aware that what he said was provocative (he's no fool). "I know it's racist to probably point this out," he concluded.

The response on Twitter was resounding: Ya think, Rushbo?

There were more, many, many more, but a lot of them are not suitable for family reading.

Among the best tweets were those that hoped Limbaugh's comment would actually lead to Elba's getting the gig. That potential twist cannot have escaped Limbaugh's notice, so you have to wonder why he even brought the topic up.

But it may not work out like that anyway. Elba, who's lately become an Ebola-fighting activist, has said he'd take the role if it was offered to him but it's still just a rumor. Plus, he told NPR he has some reservations about being the "first black Bond."

"I just don't want to be the black James Bond," he said. "Sean Connery wasn't the Scottish James Bond, and Daniel Craig wasn't the blue-eyed James Bond, so if I played him, I don't want to be called the black James Bond."

Some tweeters had another role in mind, but it's probably not on, as the Brits say: Elba is too tall and too thin: