Big green for a redneck

Comedian Foxworthy doin' real good, thank y'all

July 14, 2000
Web posted at: 5:17 p.m. EDT (2117 GMT)

From CNN NewsStand Correspondent Bruce Burkhardt
and CNN NewsStand Producer Tim Braun

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Jeff Foxworthy always knew he was funny. He was the kid who memorized Bill Cosby's comedy routines, the guy who joked around in the office break room, impersonating the boss.

Then, in 1984, friends persuaded him to enter a contest at a local comedy club. "I won the contest the first night I ever got on stage," he said. "And it sounds hokey, but I knew, 30 seconds into it: 'This is what I want to do.'"

Sixteen years later, Foxworthy has converted his "You might be a redneck if ..." routine into a $50 million comic empire.

No kidding. His first four CDs have sold more than 11 million copies, and his recent "Big Funny" release is faring well, too. Those sales, combined with videos, books and redneck calendars, have made him the best-selling comedian ever.

VIDEO You might be a redneck if... Join Jeff Foxworthy for a show in Ft. Myers, Florida, on April 14, 2000 Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

"My definition of a redneck is...the glorious absence of sophistication," Foxworthy said. "If you accept that definition -- the absence of sophistication -- it really doesn't know any financial bounds. I mean, Elvis was worth -- what? -- $100 million? You go to Graceland, they've got carpet on the ceiling."

Keeping the accent

Foxworthy, who grew up in a small town just south of Atlanta, recalls breaking the news to his mother that he was quitting his job as a computer serviceman to pursue comedy.

"It was one of those kitchen-table conversations where my mother's going, 'Are you on drugs?'

"'I'm not on drugs. I want to be a comic.'

"Then, of course, five years later, when I was on Johnny Carson, she was like, 'You know, you wasted all those years at IBM.'"

At first, he just performed around the South. But when he began venturing to New York and Chicago, people advised him to drop the Southern accent. Then came an epiphany.

Foxworthy meets a fan at a show in Ft. Myers, Florida, on April 14, 2000

He was being ribbed for his redneck roots one night at a Detroit club. It was adjacent to a bowling business, and Foxworthy took advantage of that fact.

"I said, 'You think you don't have rednecks?' Look out the window. People are valet parking at some bowling alley!"

That night, he went back to his hotel and wrote "Ten ways to tell if you're a Redneck," the first of what he guesses are about 3,000 redneck jokes.

His Southern humor began attracting big audiences, and the growing popularity led to Hollywood and the "The Jeff Foxworthy Show." But the TV sitcom only lasted two seasons, which Foxworthy blames on his naivete about Hollywood. Among other things, producers set the sitcom in Indiana, so as not to make the show "too Southern."

"I was like, 'Have you all heard me talk?'" Foxworthy recalled. "You know, nobody's making Seinfeld live in Indiana."

Home again

Foxworthy spent eight years in Los Angeles, but has moved back to Atlanta. He lives with his wife and two young daughters in one of the affluent northern suburbs that once seemed so distant as a child growing up on the other side of town.

Foxworthy has found success by defying the notion that entertainment has to target people who are hip and on the cutting edge.

"My theory always was that between New York and L.A. there's 200 million people that aren't hip and don't really want to be," he said.

Though often labeled a Southern comedian, Foxworthy has redefined the genre, taking it well beyond TV's "Hee Haw" to an audience that doesn't always speak with a twang.

It's a gift, and he knows it.

"I'm two decisions away from putting up drywall for a living," Foxworthy said. "I am, and there's nothing wrong with that, but whatever I got, it's through the grace of God, and I've got to use it right."

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Jeff Foxworthy

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