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'''Bill Clinton:''' ''I'm sorry, Sam, do you have a question?''|''[[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 ==
* ''[[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 Book ==
* ''[[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]]
* 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 [[
** 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?
{{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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* "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"
* 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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** 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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