McCain-Palin's Larry the Cable Guy Politics

Image from PierreTristam

One of the funniest comedy specials I ever watched was The Blue Collar Comedy Tour. I'm hardly their target audience, but I found myself laughing (lots) at Bill Engvall, Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White, and yes even Larry the Cable Guy. Foxworthy had long gone stale with his "you might be a redneck" shtick, but the gathering of blue collar type comedians revitalized his comedy. Engvall was funny too, and White is in a class of his own--simply hilarious. Larry is very funny too. But how many people know that Larry is really Dan Whitney, and isn't even southern?

Nothing wrong with that, as mentioned in the link above, Elvira and Pee Wee Herman are really Cassandra Petersen and Paul Rubens, even though they usually appeared in character. Most of their audience knew that they were just characters. But I'll bet a significant portion of Larry's audience have no idea. And he uses his persona to make fun of real rednecks, some of whom don't know that he's not one of them.

The article below compares the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign to Larry's career; that is, getting in cozy with a target audience, while misrepresenting who they really are. It's a brilliant comparison, in my opinion. Read on.

[Excerpt]

The End of 'Larry the Cable Guy Politics'

. . .Fortunately for America, Larry or Dan or whoever isn't running for president. At least, not this time.

Be it Larry the Cable Guy or his Ohio cousin, Joe the Plumber, or their political and spiritual leader, Bushie the Commander Guy, or their newly discovered co-star Sarah the Hockey Mom, it should be obvious to anyone watching that the Republicans have been engaging in a seemingly endless game of dress up, and pretending to be something they're clearly not. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post