You Might Be A Comedy Legend
How Jeff Foxworthy elevated being a redneck to an artform.
Early on in his stand-up comedy career, Jeff Foxworthy received the best advice he ever ignored.
“They told me, ‘You gotta go take some voice lessons and lose that stupid accent you got,’” he said. “I was very stubborn about my Southern accent… I kind of drew a line in the sand."
"I’m not going to pretend to be something else.”
Instead, the Atlanta native leaned into his Southern roots, making its foibles and idiosyncrasies the tentpole of his whole act. He’d soon find out that while the South may have invented the redneck, it hardly had a monopoly on them. “I was finding that once you got 10 minutes outside of any city, the accent changed and the scenery changed, but that redneck attitude and lifestyle was everywhere,” he said. “Down South we have four wheelers, up north they have snowmobiles. But we’re both ending up in the emergency room.”
In fact, the joke that would come to define his career, the iconic “You might be a redneck if…” riff, was born in the least Southern spot you can imagine: Lavonia, Michigan.
Catch the fun Jeff Foxworthy is the stirring up on NBC’s
Foxworthy has joined the ranks of fellow celebrity judges Kenan Thompson, Chrissy Teigen and host Amanda Seales on NBC’s new competition series for the next generation of comedians. The series features the world’s best comedic acts and embraces every style of comedy performance, opening the doors for countless comedians. Foxworthy fans can also tune into his comedy channel “Jeff & Larry’s Comedy Roundup” on SiriusXM and his comedy special with Larry the Cable Guy “We’ve Been Thinking” available on Netflix.
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