Product Placement: Larry the Cable Guy's Hamburger Helper Knockoff

I can't in a million years figure out why this product is being offloaded at Big Lots, can you?

Harry Reid, "Negroes" and False Equivalency

This morning, on the right wing talk radio program (Morning Source with Alan Stock), the topic--this being Nevada--was still Harry Reid's comments from the political gossip book Game Change. And for the gazillionth time, I heard right-wing jabberers making a false equivalency. "Can you just imagine," the line goes, "if a Republican said the same things Harry Reid said?" Well, yes, we can imagine it, which kind of proves my point.

Reid has worked for many years for minority rights, and has no history of malice toward black people or anyone else. That is called "context," and I know that some Republicans have difficulty understanding why this is not the same thing as Trent Lott wishing that segregationist Strom Thurmond had won the 1948 presidential race, so that we wouldn't be having "all these problems" now. So let me help you out.

Suppose you heard that "Larry the Cable Guy" had called Britney Spears an inbred, white trash, trailer slut. Given his accent and delivery, you'd probably laugh or possibly not even react at all. Now, imagine Barack Obama said exactly the same thing. Yeah. It's not the same is it?

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

Dan Whitney: The Cable Guy?

Though this post is dated Monday morning, I'm actually writing it on Sunday night. We got a surprise day off at work, so I'm up a little later than usual. Sunday night television is sort of a wasteland, so I flipped over to Comedy Central. And what are they running tonight? Yet another Blue Collar Comedy Tour.

Now, I think I have a fairly good sense of humor, even if it is more dark and twisted than most people's. And though I've written a few posts about "conservative comedy" being an oxymoron, there is humor to be found with those guys. When you get past the tired "you might be a redneck" jokes, Jeff Foxworthy is pretty humorous. Bill Engvall can be too, and Ron White is drop-dead hysterically, side-splittingly funny. Let's see, who have I left out?

Oh yeah, "Larry the Cable Guy." There is no denying this guy has a fast wit, and a quick mind that belies his good ol' boy persona. He's also from the "mean streak" school of comedy that picks on perceived failings of others. You laugh, but you feel guilty about it.

As we all know, there are areas where it is generally permissable to skewer groups of people. Chris Rock can make fun of black people, Mario Cantone can make fun of gay people, Carlos Mencia can make fun of Hispanics (and just about everybody, apparently). So, why can't Larry the Cable Guy make fun of Southerners? Maybe because "Larry the Cable Guy" is a character, like "Pee Wee Herman," or "Elvira." Except, those characters are well known to be characters. I'm pretty sure much of his audience think he's for real, or at least Southern.

Here's the evidence that he's not:



UPDATE: I found one where he's not so nervous: