Deep South: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''We'll try to stay serene and calm
''When Alabama gets [[Atomic Hate|the bomb]].''|[[Tom Lehrer]], "[[Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us/Quotes|Who's Next]]?"}}
|[[Tom Lehrer]], "[[Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us/Quotes|Who's Next]]?"}}
 
{{quote|'''Sam Donaldson:''' ''Governor Clinton, let's be frank. You're running for president, yet your only experience has been as the governor of a small, backward state with a population of drunken hillbillies riding around in pickup trucks. The main streets of your capital city, Little Rock, are something out of ''[[Li'l Abner]]'', with buxom underage girls in their cutoff denims prancing around in front of Jethro and Billy Bob, while corncob-pipe-smoking, shotgun-toting grannies fire indiscriminately at runaway hogs.''
'''Bill Clinton:''' ''I'm sorry, Sam, do you have a question?''|''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/92/92cdebate.phtml Debate '92].}}
|''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/92/92cdebate.phtml Debate '92].}}
 
The [[Deep South]]: home of fat redneck sheriffs, hillbillies, moonshiners, [[Politically-Incorrect Villain|Klan members]], tobacco-chawin' [[Good Ol' Boy]]s missing half their teeth, and all other manner of [[Corrupt Hick]]s, not to mention [[The Fundamentalist|fire-and-brimstone preachers]], [[Apron Matron|iron-bound matriarchs]], [[Fat Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit|white-suited plantation owners]], [[Southern Belle]]s in flouncy gowns or short-shorts with crop tops, and possums. Some [[Kissing Cousins]] could also be in the mix somewhere.
 
Although the real mid-southern and southeastern United States has a far wider range of locales and settings, the '''Deep South''' as it appears on TV is usually one tiny rural town after another, separated by miles of farmland or steep, forested mountainsides. Its inhabitants always seem to be about fifty years behind the times, at least as far as social issues are concerned, and some might even be fighting the [[The American Civil War|The Recent Un-Pleasantries]] still. This trope has major [[Unfortunate Implications]].
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
 
== Anime ==
* ''[[Blaster Knuckle]]'' is the story of a black man in the 1880's who battles demons who use the Ku Klux Klan to cover their [[I Am a Humanitarian|flesh-eating tendencies]] on the nearest safe target. As one might expect, [[Hero with Bad Publicity|he has a bit of a PR problem]]. Oh, and the Deep South looks a lot more like the Wild West.
 
== Comic BookBooks ==
* ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)|Preacher]]''
* Doug TenNapel's ''[[Creature Tech]]'' thoroughly subverts this with the town of Turlock. First, the town's sub-literate rednecks turn out to be more accepting of a giant insect-man than the protagonist is. Second, several townspeople are revealed to be quite intelligent: the pastor was formerly a biologist, and another man taught himself quantum mechanics. Third, Turlock is actually in rural [[Hollywood California|California]].
* Seth from ''[[The Authority]]'' is pretty much the worst of Southern stereotypes blatantly distilled into a genetic freak of nature.
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== Film ==
* ''[[Smokey and the Bandit]]'', naturally.
* Played straight in ''[[Gone with the Wind.]]''.
* There are several racist rednecks in ''[[The Blind Side]]''; Lynne Tuohy lampshades this trope by calling one of them "[[Deliverance]]." On the other hand, the Tuohys are representative of [[Sweet Home Alabama]].
* The movie ''[[Deliverance]]'' is the uber example of this trope. Outsiders would be wise not to mention it to real Southerners for any reason but to mock it.
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* The stereotyped cruelty of the Deep South is used as both plot device and major driving force in the award-winning film ''[[Lawn Dogs]]''. Many people in the gated community there are cruel, quick to judge, and look down upon hard-working lower-classman Trent. {{spoiler|He is even beaten, twice, for things he didn't do.}} What's more, the screenwriter, who created the story, is from the Deep South herself.
* ''[[Song of the South]]'' became Disney's [[Redheaded Stepchild]] film due to its portrayal of [[Unfortunate Implications|happy sharecroppers]] (idealizing Reconstruction-era racism in the Deep South). The movie contains [[Magical Negro|Uncle Remus]] stories about Br'er Rabbit [[Briar Patching|("Please don't throw me in the briar patch!")]] and gave us the [[Ear Worm]] "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah", which incidentally is the ''only'' part of the film in the past couple decades that Disney has allowed to see the light of day in America.
* [[Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle|Harold and Kumar]] visit the Deep South when they ''Escape from Guantanamo Bay'', and encounter, among other things, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|a Ku Klux Klan rally, an inbred mutant child, and Neil Patrick Harris]].
* ''[[Forrest Gump]]''
* ''[[O Brother, Where Art Thou?]]?'' takes place in the 1930's Deep South (it's never outright stated where), and was largely shot in Mississippi.
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* ''[[Requiem for a Dream]]'': The boys end up in a Southern prison, which doesn't take kindly to drug-addicted New Yorkers.
* ''[[Mississippi Burning]]'' & ''[[In the Heat of the Night]]'' both set in the deep south and tackle racism and [[Corrupt Hicks]].
* ''Southern Comfort'' pits a bunch of Nation Guardsmen against a gang of local [[Ragin Cajun]] s who don't take too kindly to outsiders invading their territory and stealing their boats.
* The screenwriter of the ''[[Cape Fear]]'' remake directed by Martin Scorsese admits as a "New York Jew", he wrote Max Cady to be a "Monster of the South" speaking in tongues like something out of a tent show revival.
 
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* Subverted in ''[[Bimbos of the Death Sun|Zombies of the Gene Pool]]'', which is set in Tennessee. Jay Omega worries that he and his fellow professor-slash-girlfriend Marion have stumbled upon a diner like this. Then a big bearded man comes up to the table and starts intimidating Jay...until Marion tells him to knock it off. It turns out, the "redneck" is a Joyce scholar professor and a friend of Marion's who wanted to have a little fun at the expense of yet another "''[[Deliverance]]'' sucker" as he puts it.
* In [[Kim Newman]]'s ''[[Dark Future (novel)|Demon Download]]'' series, the main Op Agency in the the Southern States is called 'The Good Ole Boys,' and the most prevalent gangcults are the Klu Klux Klan and The Knights of The White Magnolia. The G.O.B are portrayed as being pretty much an entire organization of [[Live and Let Die (film)|J.W Peppers]] and [[The Dukes of Hazzard|Boss Hoggs]], chewing tobacco, lording it over "the coloured folks" and generally being a bunch of bigoted rednecks. With guns. And the legal power to arrest you and sell you into slavery.
* ''[[Deliverance]]'', by James Dickey. Southerners will complain at length about the movie and the novel and the horrible stereotypes it represents. It's worth noting Dickey was born and raised in Atlanta, living and working in the Southeast for most of his life.
 
 
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* ''[[American Gothic]]'' (the show, not the painting: that one takes [[Down on the Farm|rural]] [[Flyover Country|Iowa]] as its inspiration)
* ''[[The Beverly Hillbillies]]'': The early seasons featured Mr. Drysdale and Miss Hathaway as the straight men, looking on at those wacky hillbillies and how unfamiliar they were with the big city. They eventually shifted to Jed being the straight man, solving problems because his homespun wisdom made him smarter than city folk, with Mr. Drysdale being a comic character. Later on, much of the humor of the Clampetts' unfamiliarity with the modern world came from making fun of the stranger aspects of the modern world, like when the Clampetts meet a bunch of hippies.
:Of course, as the title of the series states, the Clampetts are, specifically, "Hillbillies". That is, rural Appalachian hillfolk rather than just generic Southerners. The Clampetts were from Tennessee ([[The Movie]] incorrectly says Arkansas - whose hillfolk instead come from the Ozarks, which also stretch into Missouri), but Appalachian culture goes as far north as Ohio and Pennsylvania, so it's not even an exclusively "Southern" stereotype.
 
Of course, as the title of the series states, the Clampetts are, specifically, "Hillbillies". That is, rural Appalachian hillfolk rather than just generic Southerners. The Clampetts were from Tennessee ([[The Movie]] incorrectly says Arkansas - whose hillfolk instead come from the Ozarks, which also stretch into Missouri), but Appalachian culture goes as far north as Ohio and Pennsylvania, so it's not even an exclusively "Southern" stereotype.
* ''[[In the Heat of the Night]]''. Virgil Tibbs is arrested because he's a black guy. He's asked what people call him. His response: "[[They Call Me Mister Tibbs]]".
* ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]''.
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* Somebody in the crew making ''[[True Blood]]'' must have been reading TV Tropes, because the opening credits show all cliches from the main entry, pretty much in the order they are listed. The Sookie Stackhouse novels - upon which [[True Blood]] is based - explores this trope as well, but with a far more balanced perspective.
* At least one episode of ''[[The Incredible Hulk]]'' had Banner running afoul of a [[Corrupt Hick|corrupt sheriff]] in a little Southern town.
* ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' never lets you forget the main character's Southern roots (specifically, Tennessee). Taken to extremes when a snooty set of parents spent the entire episode mocking the [[The Deep South]].
** Interestingly enough, Disney apparently originally tried to make Miley Cyrus speak in that standard bland SoCal dialect that all their other personalities use, but even the most rigorous dialog coaching failed to erase her accent, so they just gave up.
* ''[[Justified (TV series)|Justified]]'' does this, although it's much more nuanced than many other TV shows.
* ''[[ER]]'' brought Dr. Benton to the backwater town of Pascagoula, MS, where minorities were looked upon with suspicion and residents were wary of treatment from him. When this episode aired, it caused residents of the real Pascagoula (a medium-sized city), to protest its portrayal.
* ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'' has had more than a few hillbilly jokes thrown up, but [[N-Word Privileges|Wayne Brady]] can always be counted on to provide his own unique spin on the trope:
{{quote|''[[Scenes from a Hat" suggestion: "Visions of Hell other than fire and brimstone.]]''
'''Colin:''' (miming driving) Mississippi... I'm ''still'' in Mississippi...
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'''Wayne:''' (singing) Oh, you won't find me in Alabamaaaa... }}
* ''[[True Life]]'' had an episode called "The Theriot Family: [[Incredibly Lame Pun|The Riot]] in the Bayou" about a large Louisiana family that likes to have fun. They fall into most of the stereotypes of the South as well as some [[New Orleans]] stereotypes.
* The [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] show ''[[GCB]]'' is about a single mother and widow who moves from Santa Barbara, California to her hometown of Dallas, Texas. The show pretty much plays up all of the stereotypes of the South and Texas.
* [[CMT]] has a tendency for these types of show, most of them were reality shows.
 
 
== Music ==
* [[Tom Lehrer]], "[https://web.archive.org/web/20081030071405/http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/dixie.htm I Wanna Go Back to Dixie]."
* [[Lynyrd Skynyrd]]. Especially "[[Sweet Home Alabama]]", [[Trope Namer]] for more positive portrayals of the Deep South. As the quintessential Southern Rock band, their entire sound is pretty much synonymous with stereotypical "Southernness" nowadays, though whether you regard this as good or bad is a matter of opinion.
* [[Neil Young]]'s [[Protest Song]] "Southern Man", against which "Sweet Home Alabama" is partly a [[Take That]], is an opposing example, graphically portraying and condemning the abuses of slavery and racism.
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* "Sweet home Alabama / Play that dead band's song..." Ironically, [[Lynyrd Skynyrd]] is still touring, while [[Warren Zevon]] has been dead for years.
* [[Phil Ochs]]' "Here's to the State of Mississippi".
* "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia" by written by Bobby Russell and sung in 1972 by his then-wife Vicki Lawrence recounts a sad tale of poverty, adultery, murder, and corrupt public officials in the Deep South.
* Occurs in [[Insane Clown Posse]]'s "Chicken Huntin'", "Your Rebel Flag", and others. Additionally, the [[Psychopathic Records]] artist [[Boondox]], simply is this trope personified.
* Nina Simone's [[wikipedia:Mississippi Goddam|"Mississippi Goddam"]]
* Anthony and Those Other Guys' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqnWQgU5AOU&feature=plcp&context=C3982292UDOEgsToPDskLtPcZIM_hmZZGJkqDag9Pd "Sunburn"], which is loosely based on a real person.
* Tends to be a favorite setting for [[Randy Newman]], especially his controversial hit "Rednecks" and the more subtle, but just as pointed, "Birmingham".
* [[Ray Stevens]]' song "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" invokes this trope.
 
 
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* The musical ''[[Finian's Rainbow]]'' is set in the fictitious state of Missitucky. What undoubtedly will help carry this Southern state "forward to yesterday" (to quote the stirring words of Senator Billboard Rawkins) are its poll tax, restrictive covenants and black servants carrying mint juleps (the traditional minstrel shuffling and "yawk, yawk" accents, however, are evidently not taught at Tuskegee).
* Larry Shue's ''[[The Foreigner]]'' takes place in rural Georgia, featuring KKK members as the villains.
* ''[[Oklahoma!]]''<ref>Its twangy dialect aside, the "Southern-ness" of the actual state is debatable, due to it being settled largely from non-southern Kansas.</ref>
* [[Tennessee Williams]] was from Mississippi, and all of his plays are set in the Deep South.
** ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire]]''
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'' - the Terrans are the Deep South [[In Space]]! Nearly all the Terrans are apparently from the Deep South; many of the heroic ''and'' the villainous Terrans use syntax and expressions stereotypically attributed to Deep Southerners. Keep in mind, there are no references to specific cultural features of the real life Deep South - racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. Focus is almost solely on the accent: the [[Sergeant Rock|Good Guy]] in the setting is a southern Terran with a distinct accent, while General Duke, an evil character, also has a very, ''very'' thick accent right out of a Civil War movie. In the expansion pack, the non-Terran humans are European, specifically Russian and German—and are almost universally evil. The United Earth Directorate is, more or less, a mish-mash of [[Commie Land]] and [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi Germany]]. Not ''every'' Terran has a Southern accent though: Sarah Kerrigan does not, and Jim Raynor's is debatable, as his accent is a sort of "Generic Rural" that can sound vaguely Southern at times (listen to him say "right on"). Tell you what, it's an Indiana accent. Southern Indiana. Basically Midwestern, but with a few traces of Southern from the dialect of Indiana's original Virginian settlers. If the Battlecruiser voices are any indication, there are also some Russians lumped in with them as well. The wiki even mentions traces of Japanese culture. Still, it seems that much of Terran civilization is dominated by heavy American (i.e. Southern) influences.
** The Terran Confederacy were originally comprised of prisoners who crash landed in the Korprulu Sector. It is pointed out that the Terran Confederacy (using a modified Confederate States Army naval Jack as their flag) is considered corrupt, is plagued by several rebel groups, has nuked a rebelling planet (Korhal) and is eventually [[It Got Worse|overthrown by the even worse]] [[The Empire|Terran Dominion]]. Actually, most of the human factions [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|are shown as more or less evil]], except [[La Résistance|Raynor's Raiders]].
* The villains in ''[[Infamous (video game series)|inFamous 2]]'' are Anti Mutant Rednecks.
* ''[[Oddworld]]: Stranger's Wrath'' is set in an alien version of this, populated by hillbilly chicken people and toadlike outlaws.
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* In the episode "Inherit the Judgement-The Dope's Trial," ''[[Duckman]]'' heads to the Deep South where he is put on trial for being an "eggolutionist."
* ''[[Squidbillies]]''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110615080154/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-570997817440305842 Alabama Man] from the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Chinpokomon".<ref>"Not all people from Alabama are wife-beaters."</ref>
** They did it again in "Worldwide Recorder Concert" where the class all travels to Arkansas, and Mr Garrison is forced to confront his father about molestation, {{spoiler|specifically, why his dad ''didn't'' molest him.}} The episode goes on to insinuate that Arkansans {{spoiler|other than Mr Garrison, Sr.}} are a bunch of child molesters.
* David Banner's ''That Crook'd Sipp'' was a [[One-Episode Wonder]] about the Beauregards, a dysfunctional family whose members embodied just about every unflattering Southern stereotype imaginable, from stuffy Old South plantation owners to unwashed rednecks.
 
 
== Other ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Settings]]
[[Category:UsefulIndexed Notes/TheStates Unitedof StatesAmerica]]
[[Category:Deep South{{PAGENAME}}]]