The Recent Proclivity of Hillbilly Based Reality Television

Couldn't see it, so apologies if already mentioned, but this kind of thing is also popular in the UK... but with our own 'hillbilly' types.

Over here we have 'Irish Travellers' who are essentially nomadic gypsy types. We have a show called 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding' which originally started out about the ostentatious nature of the described event and then ended up documenting wider 'Traveller' culture.

It's all pretty interesting, tbf, but shied away from a lot of the negativity that comes with such communities. It's sort of intriguing in itself though - I grew up in an area favoured by Travellers and know full well how badly it can turn with crime and damage, but that show provided some good insight into what actually happens within their community itself.

Not all of it is positive, mind you.

TXRabbit
It has nothing to do with class-warfare or mocking society and Everything to do with selling T-Shirts at Wal Mart and Target and appealing to the mass-public who buys stupid #.

Don't think so? Tell me how many Duck Dynasty coffee mugs you see for sale at Macy's

Yeah,
Cause only the really smart people buy at Macy's.
That IQ test for a Macy's card is really tedious.

Mensa members get the lowest interest rates.

He was a bad man, bad to his wife, bad to his kids, he had never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, apparently wasn't raised Christian, dang I thought all those hillbillys were darn Christians.

Then he accepted Christ and turned his life around.

Watch the video

I am Second® - The Robertsons

youtu.be...

Stormdancer777

undo
and can repair every machine known to man and can put together working mechanical and electronic gadgets a''la macgiver, without having to read a manual first.

edit on 26-12-2013 by undo because: (no reason given)

That would be my husband, they don't make men like him anymore.

yeah they do, they are just migrating to computers and green tech. so now they are putting alternative energy devices and computers, together, in some of the most ingenious ways.

undo

Stormdancer777

undo
and can repair every machine known to man and can put together working mechanical and electronic gadgets a''la macgiver, without having to read a manual first.

edit on 26-12-2013 by undo because: (no reason given)

That would be my husband, they don't make men like him anymore.

yeah they do, they are just migrating to computers and green tech. so now they are putting alternative energy devices and computers, together, in some of the most ingenious ways.

that would be my son

Stormdancer777

undo

Stormdancer777

undo
and can repair every machine known to man and can put together working mechanical and electronic gadgets a''la macgiver, without having to read a manual first.

edit on 26-12-2013 by undo because: (no reason given)

That would be my husband, they don't make men like him anymore.

yeah they do, they are just migrating to computers and green tech. so now they are putting alternative energy devices and computers, together, in some of the most ingenious ways.

that would be my son

if some of the urbanites in this thread were to drive by this guy's house, they would think he was a hillbilly. but just listen to what he's saying.

is he exhibiting "baseness"?
he's intelligent, coherent, has a firm grasp of the language,
and understands and employs:

-carpentry
-construction
-plumbing
-electrical and propane installations
-economics
---off grid green technologies
---real estate values
---salvaging

he can read, speak legibly, operate motor vehicles of various kinds, create videos and use the internet to distribute them, plays the guitar and writes his own songs. he also has designed blueprints for similar homes and from the looks of it, has his own small business selling the kits to prospective off-griders.

sheesh what an uncouth and uneducated fellow.
he just needs a garage for his vehicles and appliances he's parting out which he may already have since the video is a few years old.

reply to post by undo


I luv it and have been encouraging my kids in that direction, couple more years I am praying to retire with something small, but not quite as small as a casket yet, lol

get off the grid

oh get some beach front property and build one of these (same guy, one of his blueprints)

Beachbum Cabin


that roof could be a garden or observatory or green house, but he's made it into a sun deck. cool lil beach house.

I'll vote for the first guy who promises to get rid of all these Hillbilly/Redneck reality shows that plague television these days.

rupertg
I'll vote for the first guy who promises to get rid of all these Hillbilly/Redneck reality shows that plague television these days.

replace the duck hunters with these guys? hey look, they are white, southern and have long beards. no one will notice the difference

reply to post by Mon1k3r


West side of the Miss. River along the Mo./Ia state line. Be carrying a Bible.

reply to post by Mon1k3r


It seems to me you're focusing on only the "Hillbillies."
Why is that?

The bottom line is that reality TV is easy and cheap, regardless of the subject. No actors to be paid 1 million per episode or more. No writers to deal with, most of whom write nothing but crap anyway. They can take a youngster from Iowa, throw him/her on stage, have them sing a song they never wrote, then judge them as if their "performance" is a matter of life and death, and either humiliate them or elevate them. The modern day Caesars giving their thumbs up or thumbs down. A distraction to keep the serfs happy.

It is everywhere. Cooking shows where judges act as if an underseasoned dish is a personal insult to them, as if the chef purposely tried to serve them a bad dish. No writers/actors to pay. Shows about fashion/tattoos/models/housewives, families with 20 children/aquairium builders/house builders/motorcycle builders...anything you can think of.

Why? Because right now it sells and is cheap. It will get old eventually, and "reality" TV will evolve or die, as people will eventually realize that very little of it is actually "real." This is something that stuck in my mind as soon as "Survivor" and "Big Brother" came out all those years ago." It has NEVER been about "reality." I'm so glad to have never wasted a minute of my life watching any of those kinds of shows.

You want reality? Hide the cameras/microphones so that your subject(s) has no clue they are being recorded. Then you have "reality."

Reality TV is when the people on the video DON'T know they're on the video. As soon as someone knows they are being taped, their "real" self changes, and you get the person who knows they're on tv, not the person living in the "real" moment.

There is fake-reality programing for nearly everything under the sun. Why are you focused like a laser on the "hillbilly" genre of these types of shows? Which show would teach people more about life? Duck Dynasty or American Idol?

I can tell you that to me, as an unknown songwriter/musician, "American Idol" is far more insulting to my intelligence than Duck Dynasty will ever be. As to what you find insults your intelligence, it's a matter of individual perspective/knowledge.

The bottom line though is, look around the TV universe. You might think the "billies" are overrepresented, but nearly everything is, to some degree, when it comes to TV that requires no actors and no writers.

All you need is an idea about who to put a video camera in front of, and whether or not the people you are taping are just to be observed, or observed, then judged. If the idea seems original to the masses, the sheeple will follow for awhile. Wouldn't want to show a lack of knowledge around the water cooler about what happened on show XYZ last night!

reply to post by Mon1k3r


Nice comparison: American men allowing women in combat and Tribal Afghanis keeping women from an education?
Or is that your way of saying Rednecks are a lot like the Taliban?

Keeping women out of combat is hardly stifling them and preventing them from being independent.
War is bad enough and I wish there were no men fighting, for God's sake let's keep the women out of it too.

I can see it now - 40 years in the future some child is asking how Mommy lost her legs in the war or why she has a metal plate in her head.
How about nightmares every night, PTSD and emotional breakdowns leading to suicide (just like the men!).
If that's equality I want no part of it.

Southern values including protecting women.
If that's a bad thing I plead guilty.

Mon1k3r
Children know that water comes out of a tap, but most of them these days don't know that if you don't drink it for a week, you will die. They also don't know how it comes out of the tap. They can't make the connection that when water comes out of a tap, it comes out because it is being pushed by electric pumps.

Can I hang out with you? I can play guitar. I'm useful.

Been comin' for a while... It first dawned on me when our second oldest grandson was still pre-school. We had some frozen, hot summer day treats and I asked him what his favorite flavor was. He said, "Purple."

We have at least one generation that perceives food in terms of appliance needed to reheat. The fact that grapes are purple is on the way to being lumped in with Useless Knowledge.

I'm concerned personally and for my country. Foraging, at one time, meant being able to live off the land. These days it's most likely to include the other refrigerators on the block...

Asktheanimals
Nice comparison: American men allowing women in combat and Tribal Afghanis keeping women from an education?
Or is that your way of saying Rednecks are a lot like the Taliban?

Keeping women out of combat is hardly stifling them and preventing them from being independent.
War is bad enough and I wish there were no men fighting, for God's sake let's keep the women out of it too.

Keeping women out of combat, because you're a man, or a southerner, and you think that they shouldn't be in combat is a lot like a man assuming that women should not be educated because they know better.

What if a woman wants to go to combat, or have a combat arms specialty? Are you the one who decides what she can or cannot do? And why is that? Because of your tradition? Your southern sensibility?

I was an infantryman for eight years, and I'll tell you, I know a lot of women that I would have rather had to my left and right than the men I did.

If a woman wants to serve, and she wants to decide in which manner she will serve, that is her prerogative, in my opinion. To stop her based on some arbitrary reason like, "Well I just don't think you should, because (insert superstition/tradition/logical fallacy here)...

Freedom.

I'm going with the first thought that popped into my head...is it because they are perhaps exploiting these so called rednecks to make the rest of us feel better about ourselves? I mean seriously, think about it....could you or I even feel good about our image in the mirror after watching Kim K. and Klan...they are impossibly pretty, beautiful..perfect in fact. Give us rednecks and people to laugh at and we just might watch cuz hey, then we don't look so bad? Just a thought, like I said.

reply to post by queenofsheba


I think it might be more about making the people they're featuring feel better about themselves, and their place in society.

Like I said before, there is a reason why evangelist christians are high on the list of potential domestic terrorists. They are disenfranchised not because they're rednecks, but because they're generally poor, as are the other types of poor people in this country.

And now their religion and faith is being attacked, because a lot of other shows on pay cable have to do with questioning, disproving, or otherwise making a mockery of the bible and it's followers. It's the systematic removal of religion, while inviting the religious into the mainstream of society by way of featuring them on television, making them semi-celebrities.

Hillbilly123069
reply to post by Mon1k3r

 

You will be at the mercy of these simple people in sync with the lands when the SHTF. City folks have forgotten how to survive without that neighborhood grocery store down the street. Without access to those, ya'll will be looking to the people next door for something to steal. Meanwhile, I won't be going hungry.

That's a bunch of bunk and all those people have money coming out their ears. Duck Dynasty even tells you that at the beginning he made a fortune on his device, a duck calling implement like a kazoo. Every one of them are millionaires that are "fronting" as low brow. Actually saw a pic of the guys of Duck Dynasty from just before the show they were totally in designer clothes and had no facial hair, but they (Producers) think that the "down home" feel would attract more viewers.

Also I am a not so homely fat or redneck person and I'd survive and have and can without grocery stores. Prejudice much?

Also I don't dress like down home country. You'd make a judgement based on my appearance and you'd totally be completely off.

I also wanted to add that I am a female and I don't want to have a "man protect me" I think those values are stupid and outdated, and it sickens me that we still aren't getting our earned respect or even acknowledged, like did you know women are less likely to get PTSD in Military instances because we are stronger of mind and will. That's why there is a story to this day of the Amazonian women warriors.

Gozer
reply to post by Mon1k3r

 

It seems to me you're focusing on only the "Hillbillies."
Why is that?

The reason I'm focusing on "hillbillies" here is to figure out the REASON why "hillbillies" are so popular.

And the answer to that question can only really be answered when another question is first, and that is, "Is the market for television shows driven by the consumers, or are these shows a result of some intent or purpose behind them on the part of television elite?"

Evangelist Christians are high on the list of potential domestic terrorists. One answer to the question why hillbillies are so popular could be that someone doesn't want them to be as disenfranchised a subset of the American populace as they are. If they are vilified and celebritized, then they would feel more a part of the group, no? And possibly might have less a reason to lash out against their would-be masters?

Another answer could be that they are actually on TV so that the sleeping middle class have someone to laugh at, whom they think they are better than, when they're actuallynot. Sleepy sleepy.