Relax man, I was just screwing around. Now that you say it, I suppose the original incarnation of the show could fit a country theme, but the show shed those trappings a long time ago.
Yeah it’s hilarious now, with Steve Harvey hosting. Not redneck at all, even though is a disproportionate number of Georgia families (it’s filmed here).
I’m a big fan of Cracked.com and even though they’re mostly known for their over-the-top, hyperbole-laden, male-centric sarcasm they are actually also very good at delivering smart, insightful commentary regarding the hypocrisy of political correctness. And that column is a perfect example of this. I would go even further than Wong (the author) and say a huge element to it is that in current, oh-so tolerant America rednecks are the one group/culture you can make unlimited, unrestricted mockery of. Socially, racially, politically, financially, any aspect of it is open to ridicule in the name of laughs. I’m not saying that most of it isn’t funny nor am I offended by any of it, but it’s a huge double standard. The exact same joke structure can be applied to any other minority or culture and be just as funny, but it will get you instantly condemned and banned for life by the cultural elite.
The worst part is that, although they’ll never admit it (sometimes not even to themselves), they genuinely feel doing this isn’t bad because they think most of these people (southerners, hillbillies, low-income whites etc.) are ignorant racists anyway. They may not openly speak or act racist but they figure they all still think that way. And that their parents probably *did *speak & act openly that way. And that half their grandparents were probably Klan members!
At least the redneck versions are less caustic than the other reality shows which are nothing but organized back stabbing events. I don’t understand why someone would watch something like Survivors. They are the worst of humanity and no better than Jerry Springer who IMO should be escorted to the border and invited to leave.
Although I never watched his show (or any of its ilk) I can’t help but have a certain respect for Springer. He knew it was a freak show, never pretended it was anything else, and laughed all the way to the bank. On the other hand Oprah Winfrey for example seems to think she’s some wise, altruistic sage for the ages, like Edward R. Murrow or Mark Twain or something. She has an insufferable pretentiousness that she has in no way earned. I don’t begrudge her her billions, but she made it merely by entertaining bored, ignorant housewives and the unemployed with tawdry, salacious info-tainment for 25 years. She’s not Mark Twiain, she’s Vince McMahon! Her’s was just as much an exploitive freak show as Springer’s etc, but with a pseudo-air of respectability, which in my book makes her a complete phoney.
Survivor is technically a multi-part game show, much different than the Honey Boo Boos and Duck Dynastys of the world.
I think what Jerry Springer has done is reprehensible. His show gives credence the the lowest order of behavior and the fact that he knowingly does this makes him scum in my book. Oprah’s crime is not being Willam F buckley in a dress and that’s hardly on the level of evil that Springer exists in. He’s a scum pimp.
My mother is 90 years old. Sang in professional opera choruses, Master’s degree, world traveller.
She loves Redneck exploitation. Why? She knew people like that when she grew up.
I’ve watched ALL these shows with her. Halfway through there’s always a long anecdote from her about some second / third cousin/ whatever, who did ‘somthing like that’ when she was a girl.
Thank GOODNESS for these shows. I’m learning so much family history.
Yeah, it’s pretty clear that the guys on that show are very aware of what’s going on. The whole thing is clearly pretty scripted but you kind of have to look at it as a reality themed sitcom. They seem to wink at the audience in a “yeah, we know this is all ridiculous” sort of way.
Then what do you make of all the movies Woody Allen made in the eighties and nineties about neurotic, relationshipfailing, higher educated, therapyslinging New Yorkers? Were those a succes with healthy, happily married midwesterners who wanted to see “the troubled hipster in his natural habitat?”
Did any rednecks ever watch any Woody Allen film or any episode of Frasier to feel superior to? “Lookie-here! See those guys hemming and hawing and talkin’ mile-wide circles around it! See them makin’life a whole lotta difficult! Glad I’m keeping it simple. Pass me that soda pop, honey.”
Haha. Iv tryed to watch swamp people & I couldnt take it.