Laugh worthy
Comedian Jeff Foxworthy, of “Blue Collar TV” and “You Might Be a Redneck If …” fame, is not daunted in the least about appearing at a college in the far Northwest.
“I get tickled when people say ‘Southern comedian Jeff Foxworthy,’ ” he said from his home in Atlanta. “Well, I like being from the South, and it’s what I know and where I choose to live and raise my kids. But in my mind, I’m just a comedian. You never hear anyone refer to Jerry Seinfeld as ‘Northern comedian Jerry Seinfeld.’ “
So he’ll feel right at home at Gonzaga University’s McCarthey Athletic Center tonight, for no other reason than: Being a redneck is a state of mind.
“When I first started, I thought, ‘Well, this is unique to us (Southerners),’ ” said Foxworthy. “But then as a comic, when I started going around the country, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s not like that at all. They’re everywhere!’ “
He tapped into that redneck theme early in his career and hit a comic gold mine. Typical line: “You might be a redneck if … you’ve ever referred to fifth grade as your ‘senior year.’ “
“In New York or L.A. they ask me, ‘How many people are offended by this?’ ” said Foxworthy. “Nobody. It’s the opposite. The more guilty they are, the more they’re laughing.
“I think there are people under the impression that if you gave a redneck a billion dollars, they would want to wear Armani suits and drive Jaguars. They wouldn’t. They would buy bigger trucks, and they would go to every NASCAR race.”
Foxworthy’s comedy goes far beyond the redneck jokes. He is essentially an American everyman who specializes in everyday, middle-class observational humor. He reveres Bill Cosby, Jay Leno and Seinfeld.
He said he doesn’t need to look very far for humor. He just reports on what he sees around him, even when he’s not onstage.
“The Rolling Stones were in Atlanta last night, and their picture was in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,” said Foxworthy. “I showed my wife and said, ‘This is the Red Hat Club. If you put red hats on them, this is four old women here.’ “
He said he learned early to trust that “if I think this, or if my kids do it, or my wife says it, then surely we’re not the only ones.”
Foxworthy remembers one time he took a risk on that proposition.
“One night I was putting together a set for Johnny Carson and I had this whole men-and-women thing, and I said to my wife, ‘Is this funny? Why is it that women can lie down on a couch and take a nap without sticking a hand down the front of their pants?’ ” he said Foxworthy.
“She said, ‘That’s not funny. You’re going to embarrass yourself. I don’t know that other guys do that.’ But my theory was that two or three inches below the navel, guys have a sleep button and we can’t sleep unless we have a hand there.
“So I go on the ‘Tonight Show’ and I tell this joke, and every guy laughed and every woman punched the guy next to them. I thought, ‘Thank God, it’s not just me.’ “
Foxworthy brought his act to wider audiences several years ago when he helped launch the Blue Collar Comedy Tour.
“It was the weekend that the Kings of Comedy Tour came out and one of the guys said, ‘This is a show for the urban, hip audience,’ ” said Foxworthy. “So I called (fellow comedian) Bill Engvall and said, ‘That leaves a lot of people out.’ “
Last year, Foxworthy launched the small-screen version of the show, “Blue Collar TV,” on the WB, with Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy.
Keeping the raunchy Larry the Cable Guy in check is one of the show’s major challenges.
“When Larry turns 12, we’re going to throw him a party,” said Foxworthy. “Bill said to me, ‘You talked about rednecks for 15 years, and they came to life, right there beside you.’ “
Foxworthy will be on his own at tonight’s Gonzaga date, working on some new material and reviving some older material.
Why Gonzaga?
“They’re desperate for entertainment.”