Corrupt Hick: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (revise quote template spacing) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
Line 11:
The [[Deep South|rural southern U.S.]], and indeed, the [[Oop North|rural north of England]], are apparently full of small towns run by evil hicks of some sort. His control over the town may be political, economic, religious, or purely criminal, but in most cases it gradually expands to "all of the above".
One of the most obvious hallmarks of a town run by a
He will almost certainly wear a [[Nice Hat|hat]], probably carry a gun, will probably chew tobacco, is almost always white, and is virtually [[Always Male]]. Good odds of being a [[Fat Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit]].
The underlings of a
[[Walking the Earth]] shows, particularly those set in the modern day, run into a ''lot'' of these. And virtually every adventure series or cop show made in the 1970s, whether it be [[Cannon]] or [[The Six Million Dollar Man]] or [[Wonder Woman]] had at least one episode featuring the corrupt hick scenario (so much so in fact that it's fair to refer to this not only as a trope, but a full-out cliche).
Line 25:
== Anime and Manga ==
* Parodied in ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]'', where Forte meets a
== Comic Books ==
Line 32:
** Actually, as far as being a KKK member goes, he probably just goes over the top to show how "Real" he is as he needs the Mooks of the KKK to deal with the Preacher. It was cheaper than hiring professional hitmen. Should not have bothered. The Preacher kicked the KKK out without breaking a sweat and the KKK took their frustrations out on Odin Quincannon by [[Incredibly Lame Pun|beating the meat]] King.
** The L'Angelles are as nasty as they come.
* One of ''[[The Authority]]'''s worst foes was a
* The Hulk Gang from [[Old Man Logan]] counts as this very much, even though they are located in California. The Hulk himself is the corrupt hick leading them and in charge of a territory called Hulkland. They are violent and quite murderous, considering how they murdered Logan's family and left the bodies unburied while he was busy trying to pay off a debt he owed them. Why? Because they got bored. They are a family of cannibals. Oh, and they are also inbred, because Hulk raped his own cousin Jennifer more than once to form the Hulk Gang!
Line 40:
* Appears in ''[[Troll 2]]'', with the added kicker that the evil townsfolk are also goblins in disguise.
* ''[[Road House]]'', staring Patrick Swayze, features a no-gooder trying to take over the bar and businesses in a little backwater town with his hired redneck muscle.
* ''[[Footloose]]'': Nicely subverted with the preacher
* ''[[Nothing but Trouble]]'': Judge Alvin
* ''[[Smokey and the Bandit]]'': Sheriff Buford T. Justice is ''treated'' as one of these, even though the titular Bandit ''is'' breaking the law left and right.
* Averted in ''[[My Cousin Vinny]]''. While the plot involves a pair of young New Yorkers being falsely arrested and tried for murder in a small Southern town, the false arrest is due to circumstantial evidence rather than a trumped-up charge, and it's clear the judge and lawmen are trying to do their jobs honestly.
Line 50:
** The film would seem to be both played straight and subverted. On the one hand, the rapists themselves play this deadly straight. On the other, {{spoiler|we never see the rapists again and}} while the rest of the hillbilly town is set up to be creepy and/or evil, they never really do anything, good or bad. Especially subverted in the case of the mentally challenged banjo player (probably the most famous character in the film), whose banjo playing provides a creepy soundtrack but who is otherwise benevolent.
** For particularly creepy hillbillies, expect to hear [[Deliverance|"Dueling Banjos"]]. (This is a conflation of the two [[All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game"|things people generally know about the film]]- that song and rapist hillbillies. In the actual film, they had nothing to do with one another.)
* ''[[Tank]]'': Major Zak Carey {{
* Reno Smith from ''[[Bad Day At Black Rock]]''.
* Herod of ''[[The Quick and the Dead]].'' Also an example of [[Asskicking Equals Authority]], since Herod is nigh unbeatable in a straight up fight {{spoiler|and is only blindsided and killed by someone who he thought was already dead}}.
Line 73:
* Several characters in the book ''[[Divine Evil]]'' by [[Nora Roberts]]. A sculptor named Clare Kimball goes back to her small hometown in Maryland, because she is suffering from depression and nightmares that stem from there and she hopes to deal with them. {{spoiler|It turns out that there is a coven/cult of Satanists in the town. The members of this coven/cult include Clare's father (who left out of guilt and the other members murdered him to ensure his silence), her love interest's Cameron Rafferty's hated stepfather (who ended up murdered), and Ernie (who is a teenaged city boy who the Satanists recruited and they attempted to corrupt him).}}
* Most of the characters identified as hillbillies avert this in ''[[Nerd In Shining Armor]]'' by [[Vicki Lewis Thompson]]. Three characters that can be called hillbillies are Genevive Terrence, Annabelle, and Lincoln (well, Lincoln apparently doesn't count, because he wasn't born or raised as one). They hail from a small community in Tennessee. Annabelle and Lincoln are apparently psychic. Genevive as a kid had sex with a boy named Clyde Loudermilk back in Tennessee. Why? Because he promised to take her out to a movie in exchange for sex. Too bad she found out after losing her virginity that he didn't even have enough money to go to the movies. Ouch.
* There is this one book whose title I forget. The plotline involves two female cousins and two men who have to go into a town that has a load of these people. They get on the bad side of a
* The locals in ''[[The Shadow Over Innsmouth]]'' by [[H.P. Lovecraft]]. They live in the ruined town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. They are very secretive, do not like outsiders, walk awkwardly, and look like a human combined with a fish or a frog.
* The trope is also used in the [[H.P. Lovecraft]] story ''[[Beyond The Wall Of Sleep]]''.
Line 88:
** The ''[[Master Ninja]]'' movies. Two of which were shown on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''.
* ''[[Airwolf]]'' features one in "Sweet Britches". Using prisoners as [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game|fodder for hunters]], he insults Caitlin, a female Texas Highway Patrol cop at this point in time (who wants a prisoner he's in fact killed), by calling her a "meter maid" and "sweet britches". Then he essentially encourages a group of men to gang-rape her, although where they got in that is not discussed, as a certain [[Black Helicopter]] arrives.
* ''[[American Gothic]]'s'' premise was based on a
* In one episode of ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'', a reporter thinks that Andy is one of these. Andy is talking about fishing, and she thinks that he's talking about lynching a black person.
* In ''Back to the 50s'', [[S Club 7]] encounters one of these in [[The Fifties|Fifties]] California.
* ''[[BJ And The Bear]]'': Sheriff Lobo who later reformed and got his own series.
* The ''[[Boston Legal]]'' episode "Happy Trails". There is a trial, but that's to be expected considering the main characters are lawyers. And it was just a big excuse for Alan to make an [[Author Filibuster]].
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': [[Nathan Fillion]]'s "Caleb", an evil southern preacher aligned with the First
* ''[[CSI]]'' had Grissom drive out to a podunk Nevadan town and deal with one of these. {{spoiler|Actually subverted; the sheriff's merely hiding a [[Big Secret]], and one that bucks his stereotype to boot}}.
* ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'' had a double set of classic Corrupt Hicks, with Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.
| |||