By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: October 6, 2009

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

REVIEW – Larry The Cable Guy – Tailgate Party (WBR Nashville) 2009

When it comes to gittin’-r-done, country comedian Larry The Cable Guy (Dan Whitney) is usually on the mark. His 2005 comedy recording, The Right To Bare Arms, was a hit and the off-color jokes, redneck observations and timing – believe it or not – were, well, funny.

This time, on the just-released live comedy recording Tailgate Party, on the WBR Nashville label, Larry does his routine before 50,000 fans at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska., and on the Fourth of July, to boot. And while the jokes are hit-n-miss, Larry The Cable Guy knows his audience and knows they love his affected redneck accent and observational humor.

Larry, a native of Pawnee City, Neb. and former Wendy’s hamburger flipper had the tough job of telling jokes ranging from bathroom humor to NASCAR jokes to “buying in bulk at the Walmart,” where Larry jokes that in the big-box clothing section he’s a “medium” and that even the infant section has clothes for husky tots.

Sure, a lot of the jokes are “corny,” but hey, he’s telling them before a bunch of Cornhuskers fans in Nebraska, so it seems to work. We get a lot of the usual Larry material that has the audience in stitches.

Fat jokes: “I’m so scared of the swine flu I won’t even watch ‘The View,’” Larry says, before apologizing.

His bit called “The Hot Dog Whisperer” has Larry making fun of his tubby sister and her love of hot dogs.

Staying on the food humor, Larry jokes about the “healthy heart” symbols on restaurant menus.

“Enough of that PC stuff. Let us eat what we ‘unt to eat. That’s why I eat at Waffle House. They’ve got one symbol to show how healthy the food is. It’s a fist, punching a heart. (Laugh) That’s good food right there. Everything comes with a side of grits and a defibrillator. That’s good stuff right there.”

And Larry manages to incorporate the fat humor with country music, noting how female country music stars’ names are hot – Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes, Taylor Swift, etc. – and then he throws in the name “Myrtle Fields” (as if she was a Country Music Award winner) for effect and riffs: “I can’t believe I won! Look out! Look out, she’s eatin’ the Oak Ridge Boys! Good Lord, Myrtle Fields just gobbled up ol’ ‘Giddy up, omm-poppa-mow-mow’like a Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pie out there. And she’s flossin’ with the Statler Brothers!”

The audience eats it up, as it were.

Midget jokes: “I was madder than a midget with a yo-yo.”

On a bit called “Global Warming,” Larry scoffs at the “B.S.-level” science of so-called global warming:  “Al Gore ain’t been to Lincoln, Nebraska from January to April” he says to the delight of the crowd.

Ethnic jokes? He typically doesn’t go there, except for this bit:

“If women from the South are Southern belles, are Mexican women taco belles? Now that’s funny right there. I did that joke in Mexico, they laughed their hind end off at that joke. Err, sorry, I was in Houston, sorry, I apologize, Houston.”

This was followed by a bit about the Mexican Air Force chasing UFOs and Larry muses about the absurd notion that Mexico actually has an air force.

We get a lot of the usual Larry material that has the audience in stitches. Sure, there are some pretty disgusting and obscene jokes involving body parts, body odor, body emissions – it’s like a fourth-grade boy is up on the stage getting to tell half the state of Nebraska that he gave a sick cow an enema and got a “facial” out of the deal. The crowd audibly groans at that one.

And when Larry shares a particularly bad joke, he likes to reply: “Lord, I apologize for that one right there and please be with the starving pygmies in New Guinea.”

Tailgate Party is not going to appeal to everyone and may not wow a lot a Larry The Cable Guy fans. I got the impression that the blue-collar comedian held back. Was it the home-state audience? Was it just weak material? Hard to say. There were some decent laughs to be found on this disc, but not enough. I guess you had to actually be there that day to fully appreciate it.

Grade – C+

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