Comedy's in sad shape and I have proof

[smjmcomic]

Copyed from Slate.com

The comedian known as Larry the Cable Guy (Dan Whitney) is the newest, and quite possibly the horniest, in a noble line of redneck philosophers. Following in the tradition of Hee Haw's Junior Samples, the humorist Lewis Grizzard, and his own colleague Jeff Foxworthy, Larry gives a voice to his own dyspeptic corner of the South. It is possible that this particular corner of Dixie exists only in Larry's imagination. It consists of strip clubs, flea markets, rodeos, Bass Pro Shops, the Waffle House, NASCAR events, and Long John Silver's. Dressing for all of them, Larry mounts the stage in a sleeveless flannel shirt, jeans, and a ball cap adorned with a fishhook. "I used to be a lifeguard," he says, "until some blue kid got me fired." A dim bulb whose chief interests are sex and food, Larry is an anachronism in the New South. He and his comrades from the film Blue Collar Comedy Tour have revived the ancient art of rednecking, one of comedy's most venerable forms.

It's tempting to view the success of the Blue Collar troubadours—the others are Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, and Ron White—as a triumph of savvy packaging. But the comedy speaks to a broadly American condition: the feeling of being left out. Blue Collar was mounted as a rejoinder to The Original Kings of Comedy (2000), a film directed by Spike Lee that featured four black comedians. As Foxworthy explained to the New York Times, "[T]hat show left out the people who were not hip. They're the ones who wake up every morning and go to work and go to war, and, dadgum, there's a whole lot of 'em out there." A flop in theaters, Blue Collar became a hit on Comedy Central and has spawned a TV variety show. Of the foursome, Foxworthy, Engvall, and White are witty, urbane observers of southern life; Larry is their redneck id. In March, his CD The Right to Bare Arms debuted at No. 1 on the country charts—a first for a comedy album—and remained in the top spot for four weeks. Pollstar magazine placed him as America's highest-grossing road comedian through July, with more than $15 million in ticket sales.

Redneck comedy—the creation of a cretinous, backwoods alter ego—was once useful in maintaining the delicate social fabric of the South. According to James C. Cobb, a history professor at the University of Georgia, the redneck comedian provided a rallying point for bourgeois and lower-class whites alike. With his front-porch humor and politically outrageous bons mots, the redneck comedian created an illusion of white equality across classes. Thus united, Cobb explains, Southern whites could better band together against common "foes"—newly enfranchised blacks, Northern carpetbaggers, and so forth. Later, in the stew of bus boycotts and school integration, the redneck comedian attained a peculiar grandeur. Upon hearing about Brown v. Board of Education, Brother Dave Gardner, a white comedian, is said to have remarked: "Let 'em go to school; we went and we didn't learn nothing."

[chelcie3]

smjmcomic,
Hard to say whether it's in sad shape or running on empty. But you gotta' respect what Foxworthy has done though. If you think about it...it's much like George Lopez and Carlos Mencia are doing right now. They're bringing a whole new audience to the forefront and making a killing.

[bingolong]

smjmcomic,
What the hell is a "prof"? Is that short for professor?])




...oh ok you were trying to spell "proof"!!!

[smjmcomic]

bingolong,



Or we could say I was trying to talk "street"


Never said I was bright

[smjmcomic]

bingolong,



Gotta love that edit button!

[bingolong]

smjmcomic,
;p

[tis2flyyy]

smjmcomic, bingolong

Now, I am in the dark - what the hell is proof and where the hell is the edit button??????

Excuse me, but I was just at the DIAMANTE's (next to West Coast Customs - the PIMP MY RIDE people) dropping off their payroll and they were smoking CHRONIC - like majorly. I caught a couple of strong whiffs - with the Santa Ana winds as they are around LA weather forecast and all........

So, I am H-I-G-H as a kite, right now.

As a matter of fact, I am about to ride on back over there - I think that I forgot something! (Like to take a few more whiffs!)


What the F*&K was I just talking about? I forgot. Forget it.

Now, where the hell did I just say that I was getting ready to go? MAN......I think I am going to eat this whole bag of LAYS potatoe chips and this whole pack of Kilbler Cookies, then go lay down and take a nap. Damn, that banana sure looks good...........


I am just tripping with ya'll!

Big T

[Murphdogg]

tis2flyyy, I hate to admit this..but I feel the urge to punch anyone directly in their neck when they say "GIT'R DONE" to me when I tell them I'm a comic..I'm not mad at the Larry the Cable Guy, he's got his hustle on and he's getting paid, but damn he sucks..

[tis2flyyy]

Murphdogg,


I was trying to make ya'll laugh, acting silly & shit in this thread!

[smjmcomic]

tis2flyyy,



Have you seen that show?? You know those guy gotta be smoking something. That shows pretty big now I bet ya they get some pretty good shit.

This thread was about how Larry the cable tard is the biggest working comic right now and how its bad for comedy.