17
Redneck.
If you’ve ever made change in the offering plate .. . you
might be a redneck.
• If you go to the family reunion to meet women . . . you
might be a redneck.
• If you see a sign that says “say no to crack” and it
reminds you to pull your jeans up . . . you just might be
a redneck.
In these twelve jokes, Foxworthy abandons the revered tones that
he reserves for other occasions when rednecks are lauded or appreciated.
Indeed, it would seem appropriate to do so, as the context has changed.
The primary goal of standup comedy is to elicit laughter in the audience,
a goal he accomplishes in this instant and in the many to follow it. It is
also interesting to note that in this quick succession of twelve jokes
Foxworthy has set the basic discursive parameters for the hundreds of
redneck jokes he has delivered over the years. As noted, this joke cycle
veers sharply away from any notion of rednecks as good honest,
religious, hardworking folks. In fact, the contrary is true. What emerges
instead is the beginning of a discourse on rednecks that circumscribes
their identity as trash.
What can we deduce about rednecks from these twelve jokes?
Rednecks are probably stupid and uneducated. They are poor and make
unwise spending decisions with the money they do have. They are likely
to live in trailer homes and hence are more vulnerable to severe weather
such as tornadoes, a vulnerability that, presumably, we are encouraged to
find humorous. Rednecks abuse alcohol. They have a tacky sense of
fashion and fail to observe unspoken standards of social decorum. Their
yards are unkempt, cluttered, and most likely littered with non
functioning automobiles. They seem to have a general confusion over
what belongs inside and what outside. They are probably overweight and
are more closely than the rest of us defined by bodily abjection. They are
prone to sexual licentiousness and, of course, to incest.
Absent in these jokes and the hundreds to follow are any
evocations of the patriotie, church-going, war-fighting, hard-working,
salt-of-the-earth rednecks he has evoked elsewhere. There are no I f you
love your kids and work hard to support them . . . you might be a
Redneck jokes. Absent also is any appreciation of social or economic
forces that might contribute to the lifestyle markers. There is no
acknowledgment that access to quality and continuous education might
be influenced by one’s socioeconomic class, that scarcity of means might
increase instances of crime or encourage one to hold onto an undrivable
vehicle, that lawn maintenance for some may be precluded due to
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