I had so much fun revisiting another hillbilly movie the other day when I talked about Tucker and Dale vs. Evil I thought I would have a look at another one, this time starring David Spade, who doesn't actually have any background at all in real redneckism, but does a pretty good job displaying the stereotypes associated with rednecks.
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Things about this film that genuinely make me laugh is the way in which Joe Dirt is portrayed. There are a couple of aspects of his demeanor that are true to life for actual rednecks and others that are not so much.
Not True: The mullet is a popular haircut
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I wanna go ahead and set the record straight on this one. The feathered up top long in the back haircut gets unfairly attributed to rednecks and there was a time that this look was popular and that time was called the mid-80's. The mid-80's is when this was popular across all segments of society. It is a stupid look that I am certain we would all prefer to forget that we had. You would be hard-pressed to find any country folk that look this way now and think it is a good idea. I
True: Undeserved confidence and partners
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I don't know what it is, but rednecks in general are a confident lot, even though they have no justification for this. I know many rednecks who will with a complete lack of fear, approach a woman that is way out of their league. Many of them end up married to this person that is way out of their league - I dunno why this is or how it came to be, but at least in the part of the redneck world that I grew up in, we didn't have the usual lack of confidence that seems to plague other parts of society.
True: A love for muscle cars
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This is true even if said muscle car is a piece of garbage. I don't know much about engines myself, but for whatever reason it has been ingrained in the redneck community that a HEMI is better than other engines. Whether or not that is actually true, doesn't seem to be important.
Joe Dirt had a 1969 Dodge Daytona and was extremely proud of it even though it is clearly trash. I know a lot of folks that have some pieced together muscle car that is broken more often than not, but the owner hangs on to it and is tinkering with it on a regular basis.
It is important to note that these same people tend to have another, modern, sensible vehicle as well.
Not True: avoidance of the obscene
Joe Dirt is presented as a little bit dumb, but still very clean with how he chooses to talk to people. He almost never swears and when he does it is something a kid would say like "dang!"
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In general I think that rednecks are just as foul-mouthed as anyone else, although they do definitely tone it down if they are around their elders, especially grandparents for some reason.
At the end of the day Joe Dirt is a comedy and the stereotypes of rednecks are not to be taken too seriously. Unlike other marginalized sectors of society, we don't really mind if people want to make fun of characteristics that aren't necessarily true. We are not an overly sensitive bunch.
Joe Dirt did pretty well at theaters, enough to spawn a sequel for streaming services. I think both of these films are a lot of fun and can be enjoyed by rednecks and non-rednecks alike :)