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For National Farmers Day: Your Thumbnail Guide to Rube Comedy
Happy National Farmers Day!
As I’ve indicated now and again, I am 100% farm stock, descended from Connecticut Yankees on one side and Smokey Mountain Hillbillies on the other (with the odd exception here and there). I’d say that that rural heritage stops with my parents, but for the fact that my first job was on a dairy farm. Consequently, I was raised to appreciate rural humor, and have long been interested in the stage and screen history of such. It’s less well remembered but rubes have always constituted a popular stage “type”, same as blackface minstrelsy,the Irish stage “Paddy”,the “Hebrew”, and so forth, although with a representation that was certainly more affectionate and respectful. I thought it might be useful to spotlight some individual performers and vehicles which represent this rural type, drawn from the “Cracker” section of Travalanche, which has over 200 posts. (Got a problem with “Cracker”? I just told ya, I’m a Hillbilly/Yankee farmer hybrid, so get over yourself! It’s our “N” word! Own it!) Anyway, that section of Travalanche also features posts on many related topics, such as medicine shows, Wild West shows, country and folk singers,western movie stars and sidekicks etc. But the aim of this post is to keep it narrowly focused on American rural comedy as a tradition, and to trace its development over the past couple of centuries. If you don’t see a particular actor or comedian who is connected with a particular show or film series, you’ll likely find links to their posts on the page of the vehicle they appeared in. (Also, we’ve refrained from including artists such as Mark Twain or Buster Keaton, who certainly play the rural card a lot of the time, but also do all sorts of other things.)
If you are a fan of this kind of comedy I hope you enjoy it. If you are not, on account of whatever political or cultural biases you may have (or judge the comedians to have), it’s an important pop culture sub-category to know about anyway. Perhaps even more important.
And now, on to the comedy farmers:
The Hillbilly Bears
Hanna-Barbera animated Saturday morning cartoon show, ran originally 1965-67, but were frequently revived afterwards. I particularly loved the mumbly character of “Paw”.
P.S. I’m sorely tempted to include Stephen King here, and I might so do once I finish that post (it’s going to be, if you’ll pardon the expression, a monster). He is easily one of contemporary America’s primary proponents of rural humor, Maine being what it is. I’m sure I’ll keep adding to this list.
For over 200 posts on rural white American entertainers, go here.
For related show business history,please see my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famousand Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.
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