A few years ago, Jeff Foxworthy and a couple of his buddies got together for a stand-up comedy show they took on tour, and eventually filmed. When released on DVD, the show sold like hotcakes. But we didn’t realize what had happened. We let the toothpaste out of the tube, and all we could say in response was “GIT R DONE!”
Sure, the accent was funny, the material was fresh and it was fun to see a grown man walk around in a flannel shirt with the sleeves cut off. I admit to having seen all three Blue Collar Comedy Tour DVDs, but I never watched the television show. Larry’s occasional turn of phrase and intelligence that showed past his dumb redneck persona was pretty entertaining for a while. But then it turned into a larger problem: that’s all he does.
Folks, Larry the Cable Guy is a character. He is not a real person. While it is not uncommon for stand-up comics to have characters in their repertoire, the character does not often become the man a la Ziggy Stardust. Even less common does a character with such a narrow range get so big. For Carlin’s sake, he’s only known for the character!
His real name is Daniel Whitney. Larry is one of several characters he used to do calls in to radio shows. That’s how he made it. Now, this character, which became rather tiresome circa 2005, is making a career out of it. Perhaps the one thing I just can’t forgive someone is when they intentionally make bad movies. I was willing to look past Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector because he did well in Cars. But then came 2007’s gem Delta Farce and just this past weekend, Witless Protection.
It’s one thing to go on the road doing what you love and having people love you for it, it’s quite another to become this decade’s Pauley Shore. Whitney crossed the line when he decided to move his character into cinema–if you can really call that fare such a name. He went from being something that was fun to see in bite-sized bits, an easily quotable comic, to an in-your-face fixture from which you cannot escape.
For those reasons, he is quickly gaining on Celine Dion on my list of People Most Likely to Be the Spawn of the Devil.
Yeah, out of the four members of the Blue Collar group, he’s the weakest.
Ron White, my favorite out of the bunch is, sadly, the second weakest compared to the honed professionalism of Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engval. He still stands head and shoulders above Larry because he talks about his real life. If only he didn’t repeat so much of the same material.
You got a problem with Pauley Shore? Them’s fightin’ words.