Deep South: Difference between revisions

[[File:deepsouth_1093deepsouth 1093.jpg|frame|[[True Blood|Mullets]], [[Deliverance|banjos and stills galore!]]]]

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|Corrupt Hicks]]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|Southern Belles]]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]].

If you're a liberal urbanite from one of the coasts, then this is probably the last place on Earth you'd ever want to visit. Especially if you're an ethnic, religious, and/or [[Heteronormative Crusader|sexual minority]]. In fact, it ''will'' be the last place on Earth you'll ever go to if you piss off the locals, since everyone -- includingeveryone—including the snarling, tobacco-chewing sheriff who glowered at you in the gas station -- isstation—is quite happy to make your godless, yuppie ass ''[[Jailbird of Panama|disappear]]'' if they take a dislike to your demeanor. The only people in the Deep South who don't carry guns are the [[Ax Crazy|axe-]] or [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw-wielding]] [[Serial Killer|serial killers]].

Any part of the region that is not rural, backwoods, mountains, or bayous shows up on TV as merely [[The City]] or [[Suburbia]] with an accent. The sprawling metropolises of [[Atlanta]] and Charlotte might as well not exist. And while Nashville and [[New Orleans]] do exist, they're not without stereotypes of their own: N'awlins being a [[It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans|party city]] with the occasional vampire, and Nashville only known for country music. As far as writers -- largelywriters—largely based in Southern California -- areCalifornia—are concerned, the only true South is the Deep South. And any old state down there will do. Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, [[Critical Research Failure|Maryland]]... what's the difference?

* 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.

* ''[[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.<br /><br />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.

* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''--Joel—Joel, Mike and the Bots would take jabs at the [[Deep South]] anytime a movie featuring the stereotypes was screened. Since absolutely everyone--fateveryone—fat or thin, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, smart or dumb--getsdumb—gets lampooned equally on the show, it's not worth getting worked up about.

** Strangely, the [[Serious Business|locals reacted most strongly to NASCAR being dissed]], so maybe the stereotype of the [[Deep South]] has some [[Truth in Television]] to it.

* ''[[Starcraft]]'' - 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--andGerman—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.

* ''[[Left 4 Dead|Left 4 Dead 2]]'' chronicles the journey of four survivors of a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] making their way from Savannah, Georgia to New Orleans. Two of the characters are Southerners: Ellis, an overly energetic mechanic who loves guns, rambles at length about "[[The Munchausen|my buddy Keith]]", and is generally too good-natured to be a [[Good Ol' Boy]], and Coach an African-American high school football coach who loves food and plays the [[Team Dad]]. They are joined by two Northerners, Rochelle, a reporter from Cleveland, Ohio who takes on the dual roles of [[The Chick]] and [[Team Mom]], and Nick, a Vegas con-artist and borderline Guido [[Deadpan Snarker]]. Much of the humor in the game is based on Rochelle and Nick's observations of the Rochelle and Nick's [[Deep South]] views vs. Ellis and Coach's [[Sweet Home Alabama]] views. The two share a somewhat stereotypical love for NASCAR and southern music, Ellis going so far as to wish he were a woman so he could have his favorite racer's children. [[Jerkass|Nick]] makes fun of a more repulsive southern stereotype in the "tunnel of love" section of the Dark Carnival campaign by saying that the tunnel was created for hillbillies and noting that it used to give discounts for cousins.

* ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]''--Although—Although most if not all the humans your alien protagonist vaporizes are appropriately stupid, with most of them carrying around pretty vapid thoughts ("I Like Ike!") in their heads, your first mission takes place in an area called Turnipseed Farm, where you encounter incompetent mayors, violent farmers, ignorant housewives, ditzy teens, corrupt cops, and easy to fool cowboys. Slightly inverted because the area is located in the midwest instead of the Deep South.

** The show visits one of these locales in an episode entitled "To Live and Die in Dixie". The South is one of the series' favorite punching bags, and it receives a ''lot'' of low blows from the show. According to the show, the people in the South are still bitter about losing the [[Civil War]], and are behind about a hundred years in terms of culture and technology. The neighborhood schoolkids, who go to class in a one-room schoolhouse ,<ref>reality check: there are none in operation anywhere in the real South and haven't been in at least half a century</ref>, can be easily outsmarted by a pig, and their personal standards are so incredibly low that they think Meg is a goddess.

** It comes up yet again in "Lois Kills Stewie", this time targeting North Carolina with a sign reading "First in Flight, 48th in Education" ([[Did Not Do the Research|note that this information was very out of date - at the time of the episode's 2007 airing, N.C. was ranked 24th in education]]). An amnesiac Lois is lost in North Carolina, but finds work at a fat camp for obese kids who keep trying to eat each other. She soon makes a friend at the local small-town diner, who turns out to be a white supremacist, and is assaulted with a blunt object after an anti-Semitic joke when she tries to point out [[Godwin's Law|that same train of thought started the Holocaust]]. This might be ''barely'' justified as part of {{spoiler|Stewie's virtual-reality simulation of what'd happen if he tried to kill Lois}}, but it's never treated as an inaccuracy. It certainly fits in with the rest of the show's treatment of the South, and, if anything, is even meaner-spirited than those earlier portrayals. There are no ridiculous accents this time, at least. <ref>In reality, there are Klan chapters in every single state in the country, not just the South; the Klan reached the pinnacle of their power in Indiana in the 1920's, not Mississippi in the 1960's; those blonde twin girls who sing White Power songs are from California.</ref>

* 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."