I got a good bit of e-mail when it was announced that “Larry the Cable Guy” would be performing at the John Paul Jones Arena. Some folks were upset that the stand-up comedian’s anti-intellectual, anti-gay, anti-Muslim, racist schtick was being given an audience by UVa. On the one hand, yeah, fair enough. But on the other hand, I think Charlottesville may devolve into liberal self-parody by getting all upset about the guy. (Speaking of liberal self-parody, everything I know about him comes from a feature article The New Yorker had about him a few months ago.)
Well, C-Ville Weekly apparently agrees that this ain’t right — J. Tobias Beard has a critical look at Larry the Cable Guy in the latest issue, and clearly doesn’t like what he sees.
Golly, that review makes me want to run out and buy a couple tickets.
Oh , whatever. If anyone doesn’t like him then don’t buy a ticket. Nobody’s putting a gun to anyone’s head and forcing them to listen to him.
It’s not a review of a show–it’s a feature piece analyzing Larry the Cable Guy’s appeal. Beard isn’t trying to sell tickets to the show; he’s trying to explain why this guy is so popular and what his popularity means. I thought it was a great article.
All the truly blue-collar white Americans (rural and urban alike) that I know are (a) not so one-dimensional as the caricature presented by “Larry” and (b) a hell of a lot less likely to go to one of his shows than are well-off, suburban young white males who like to THINK of themselves as edgy rebellious types. It’s George Allen and his confederate flag pin all over again.
S L O W news day, eh?
I can’t say I’m a fan, but I’ve seen him on the Blue Collar Comedy tour shows and I laughed — out loud even. Larry’s so extreme he’s a complete parody of the far-right. Even as a self-professed “enviroqueer” I have a hard time taking lefty umbrage from his schtick.
TLPatten is dead on. It’s a parody. This reminds me of when people got in a twist over Andrew Dice Clay, claiming he was a racist and misoginist. In reality, he is a Jewish guy named Andrew Silverstein who was poking fun at all the leather clad , macho mouth breathers. The fact that some of the people in the audience aren’t hip enough to realize that they are the butt of the joke only serves to put a big ol’ grin on my face.
“…the stand-up comedian’s anti-intellectual, anti-gay, anti-Muslim, racist schtick…” Isn’t that Bill O’Reillys schtick as well?
i don’t get it, if we fight for the injust of the poor people, why do we mock them? We put down Nascar, Wrestling, and Larry the Cable. Yet we have sit in for living wage for the poor? We vote for liberals who fight their fight. Yet we mock the poor? I am confused.
Daniel Whitney — aka “Larry the Cable Guy” — is hardly poor. He’s a millionaire many times over. He’s the one doing the mocking, not of the poor but the lower-middle-class.
Thanks to the cost of living around these parts, unfortunately lower middle class is poor. Ooops. Someone take the soapbox aware before I rant….
You know, this darn town really needs to get over itself. Not everyone in Charlottesville is a flaming liberal, and not all entertainment needs to be Cindy Sheehan or an art show.
If you don’t like Larry, don’t go to the show.
“Some folks were upset that the stand-up comedian’s anti-intellectual, anti-gay, anti-Muslim, racist schtick was being given an audience by UVa.”
No worse than that former Iranian president being given his butt-kissing audience. Consider Larry payback for that crap. Invite for the former leader of a county that wants to destroy us (even you guys) over for a fireside chat? What is WRONG with you people?
Larry pokes fun a blue collar rednecks – a group that enjoys poking fun at itself. A liberal-oriented parody would probably involve teenage sex, drugs, gangsta-rap, flag burning, and other forms of America-hating.
I swear, liberals paint themselves as “tolerant” yet are the most intolerant group of self centered, egotistical thought cops in the country.
You had your fun with the former Iranian president. The rest of us would rather watch Larry the Cable Guy.
Mike, you’re using the number one trick in the conservative playbook: the strawman argument.
“Some people….” Really? Who? I don’t know any liberal around here who’s outraged about Larry the Cable Guy playing at JPJ. I’m sure there’s somebody (you can always find someone to be offended about anything), but it’s hardly as if the liberal army is up in arms about it.
As a moderate liberal, I’m not at all offended by Larry, I simply don’t find him funny. I like redneck humor, and I like Foxworthy, but I was extremely underwhelmed when I saw Larry in the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. But, as several people have pointed out, I just voted with my wallet and didn’t get a ticket for the show.
Right on Pete!
I am a social progressive – as opposed to the reactionaries Larry ‘preaches to – and I could care less he’s coming. Heck, I even thought about getting tickets. He cracks me up, whether I’m laughing at him or with him. Not all “Libruls” are humor-impaired. Of course, like all strawmen, the earnest and humorless killjoy is much easier to ridicule.
I swear, liberals paint themselves as “tolerant” yet are the most intolerant group of self centered, egotistical thought cops in the country.
Here’s a test to see if this statement is true: When, if ever will the JPJ host a rap/hip-hop show?
You are dead-on Mike. Of course, check out the latest issue of the Hook. Charlottesville is so full of itself that it thinks its the new “Little Apple”. ughh…
I’m a little puzzled by this test. My conservative friends overwhelmingly dislike hip-hop, while my liberal friends tend strongly to like it. So is it hosting a hip-hop show that is to be taken as evidence of intolerance? Or not hosting a hop-hop show the evidence of intolerance?
Sadly, the only hip-hop acts that could actually fill the JPJ are crap. Well, Jay-Z might be able to pull it off. And Outkast is touring, but only with Big Boi, who’s nothing without Andre 3000.
I will say that if one were to have driven through Belmont the night of the Larry the Cable Guy show, you could’ve heard a pin drop!!
Maybe JPJ could also host a Klan rally. If you don’t like that sort of thing, just don’t buy a ticket.
[I’m not at all trying to equate Larry the Cable Guy with the KKK, merely trying to make the point that the issue of which events the University sponsors is in fact relevant… it’s not merely a case of “if you don’t like it don’t go” … by hosting the show the University is indirectly endorsing Larry the Cable Guy’s unfunny, xenophobic, misogynistic, bigoted anti-intellectualism. Which, in my opinion, is perhaps not the ideal thing for them to be doing.]
PS, those interested in that sort of thing can read David Cross’s open letter to Larry the Cable Guy here:
http://www.bobanddavid.com/david.asp?artId=183