Gawd these people really are sickening. Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory... they all had comedy routines parodying this sort of backwards hick. That was more than five decades ago, fer crissake. What other topical jokes from the 60s could you make today that would make sense. "Hey, those Beatles! What's with the hair? They look like the Lennon Sisters! (tish boom)"
But bigoted small town redneck jokes? They're as fresh as they were fifty years ago because the people haven't changed a lick. Oh, sure, they've learned not to say the N-word in mixed company, but get 'em behind closed doors or in a group of their peers and it's still as common as it ever was.
How are social conservatives cheered by something like this? It depresses the crap out of me. Sure, the strip malls have replaced the old main street emporiums but even having not been back there since that era, I'd probably recognize the conversations at the Tuscaloosa McDonald's because it's the exact same as the conversations at the old Mamma's Chicken 'n Biscuits from my childhood.
I was buttonholed on a bus in September 2016 by a guy who clearly wanted to strike up a conversation with me about how great it is to be white. The opening line was about the yachts we saw out the window. "When trump wins, we'll all have one of those, you'll see." He was complaining about 'you know,
them (armwave)' meaning nonwhite people, basically most people in Vancouver.
"Those darkies smoke that stuff in public.
In public" - I deduced he meant black people smoke mj in public in Vancouver. Well, yeah, that's probably true. So do white people. Everybody does, it's perfectly legal. Meanwhile, I pointed out this guy was sucking on a bottle of gin in a paper bag on a public bus, which was 100% criminal. He waved his hands, "Trump will fix all that. He'll send 'em all back and we can do what we want, say what we want."
It brought the reality of it all home to me: socially, we have a long way to go, these people are out there, breeding quiverfulls, speaking cautiously for now, but waiting for their moment.
Dude was straight from Central Casting, and even today I wonder if it wasn't some sort of street performance art by a bored 75 year old actor between roles.