Monday, May 17, 2010

Hangin' with the hillbillies

Much like Mystery Science Theater, Comics Curmudgeon never fails to crack me up.

What really made me laugh was his response to the mystifying Snuffy Smith (is this strip STILL APPEARING? Why, why, why?) "It’s also possible that I’m misreading this, and that “does he have an occupation” is hillbilly dialect for “is he constipated?"

May I also just say that I love the word "hillbilly?" If using it is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

And I always think of the Simpsons episode where they say "Siamese twins want to be called 'conjoined twins,'" and Dr. Hibbert's response is, "yeah, well hillbillies want to be called 'sons of the soil,' but it ain't gonna happen."

Per Wikipedia: "the term first appeared in print in a 1900 New York Journal article, with the definition: "a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him."

Update: In the comments, Mike mentions the short-lived Hanna Barbera cartoon, "The Hillbilly Bears," so I had to add it in. This deserves to be on DVD, or at least late-night Boomerang reruns. (Looks like, based on the watermarked YouTube videos, Cartoon Network has shown it recently.)


1 comment:

Mike said...

Don't forget the Hanna Barbera cartoon, The Hillbilly Bears. I loved that cartoon, but there is no way it will be shown on TV again I bet.