I don’t watch the animated series, “Squidbillies”, but I can’t resist it when the topic is the Civil War and memory. This is not the first time that the show has taken on the subject. In this brief clip the gang pokes fun at the light show displayed on the face of Stone Mountain in Georgia. Enjoy. Well, at least some of you. 🙂
[Uploaded to YouTube on September 19, 2014]“I’m Proud To Be a Confederate, Where We Still Have Slavery”
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Oh, boy. I love the Squidbillies. I’m pretty sure the guys who created this are from the South, and I know that the voice of Early is the rockabilly character who goes by Unknown Hinson. Even though they poke fun at this part of the region, it always feels like an inside joke. I’ve used the clip on their visit to the Museum of the True South before. Funny you should post this, because I’ve been thinking of doing a Pop South post on the series.
I would love to read a post about the series by you. Go for it.
I find this clip more disturbing than funny, because there are plenty of fellow Confederate reenactors in my organization, the 3rd Regiment Army of Northern Virginia (ANV), who would take that song seriously. (I especially thought of them when they showed General Lees driving off in various modes of transportation; a lot of them love NASCAR.) Of course, they would argue that the war was all about that dastardly tariff and states’ rights, not slavery.
I really don’t think they’re sad that those Yankees had to die.
Also, SEC! SEC! SEC!
I need to find this episode, there might be a lot to interpret beyond the usual southern slave dynamic. Squidbillies is supposedly set in Dahlonega, which is in the North Georgia Mountains (Appalachia). As I’m sure you know, Appalachia has its own interesting history with the peculiar institution and the Civil War.
I know a bit about Georgia history in that region from reading Jonathan Sarris’s excellent book. I know nothing about Squidbillies.
Sarris’s book is terrific, it is required reading at the UNG. Sarris is a really great guy as well. I had the honor of him providing commentary on a presentation I gave at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference a couple of years ago.
IMO it’s one of the darkest and funniest offerings in the whole dark and funny Adult Swim lineup on Comedy Central. There is a certain dose of love included in the savage satirizing of Appalachians.
I’m an Appalachian. I’d reciprocate the cartoon folks on the “dose of love,” but I’ve got a hard time seeing it.
Ya, I’m a North Georgia Appalachian. My usual reaction to Squidbillies satirizing Appalachians is usually the extension of my middle finger…
Danm this show!
It makes a mockery of southerners both black and white.
But unlike the PC i’m not going out of my way to have it banned.
I’m just going to stop watching it.
Right with you Rob.
Good for you, Michael.
Does anyone know what part of the country the writers are from?
Dave Willis, one of the creators, was raised in Conyers Georgia according to Wikipedia. Jack McBrayer, most famous as Kenneth from 30 Rock, is also from the town. I find that funny, since his character on 30 Rock is from Stone Mountain, GA. A bunch of running jokes in the show deal with him being a hick from the South.
Along similar lines, I think both of these gentlemen are lampooning a distinctly regional attitude toward Georgia “hillbillies.” Georgia has that dual nature of urban/rural, what with Atlanta’s influence on several aspects of Southern identity. Such a duality may be a featured part of Georgian identity, but because of Atlanta’s importance in the Global South, it comes off as a more generalized critique of the entire South instead of just Georgia.
PS: Ben L Jones and DeForrest Kelley are also from Conyers. Which makes this little town very influential in my own upbringing, since I loved Dukes of Hazzard and Star Trek.