The list of hillbilly stereotypes is long and mostly undeserved. It is not true that every hillbilly kills their dinner with their old pickup truck. It is not true that they’re all related or uneducated. They’re not stuck out in the middle of nowhere anymore either. They have come to live in the big cities, everywhere. They shop at grocery stores and watch the same TV we all do. Though our views of the world may differ from that of a true hillbilly, we do still live in the same world. Actually, we all live in the same country.
For all the processed meats in a can, what is so wrong with wanting to know where your food comes from? At least if you hit the possum, you know what wood it lived in and you don’t have to worry about additives that can kill you. Sure beats reading all them labels at the store, but hillbillies actually shop at Wal-Mart with the rest of us. Why go through all that trouble of sitting and waiting for a possum to cross the road?
Ever meet someone who could really say “I am my own Grandpa”? I doubt it. Yet we have this picture in our heads that everyone in the Appalachians or Ozarks is related to each other. Far be it for me to discredit years of beliefs, but it really just isn’t true. The mountains are not full of the characters from The Hills Have Eyes or Wrong Turn. Hillbillies go to the dentist and everything. If only there was one movie that actually put hillbillies in a good light, maybe they wouldn’t have to live with all these stereotypes. We obviously base so many of our stereotypes on how Hollywood portrays a group of people.
One major stereotype of a hillbilly is that they are so poor they have to live off the land. In the real world, we call them farmers. If you ask me, there is nothing wrong with doing a hard day of work, and taking pride in what you do. Who cares if you don’t have everything you want when you have everything you need. There is nothing wrong with a person who is happy with who they are. There are a LOT of us who are poorer these days than we want to be. Maybe hillbillies have one up on us. They are perfectly content with having antenna TV instead of cable, at least until digital transition day.
So what have we learned? Well, it’s not good to judge a book by its cover, or a hillbilly by their overalls. Everybody is just trying to live their own life. The world is smaller now and you never know when you might run into a hillbilly, even in a big city. Remember, wherever you live, you’re “down south” from someone else and you never know what stereotype they put on you.
Written by Cashonna Berger, Copyright 2009 HillbillyCrackpot.com all rights reserved and may not be republished in any form.
10 replies on “Funny Hillbilly Stereotypes”
The stereotype of intimate relations with close family members, such as brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and first cousins, and that “I am my own grandpa” isn’t entirely true. Second and third cousins are like distant relatives, so they don’t count, as much. And remember that hillbilly educational program, the movie ‘Deliverence’, you don’t have to be kinfolk at all, as long as “you got a purty mouf”. Then there’s the worried look the livestock gets in their eyes when certain famiily members come into the barn. So keep in mind, stereotypes are’nt always true, most of the time.
My favorite stereotypes are the ones that can still play records and have big speakers.
In my lifetime I have known of a close family type “relationship” only twice. One was in Michigan, the other in Ohio. Of all the years I have rambled through Ky I havent met up with any first cousins who were makin babies.
Its Ok in Appalachia to play but dont make babies, right?
Hey, I’m a lucky person who has just recently became richer tonight…a new family member came into our lives…my cousin is now the proud grandparent of a healthy baby girl!!
This is where richness lies!
Congradjulashons Jackie, on the 12th I became a Granny for the 6th time.As for the story……..
Where I growed up in Kentucky, the only gym you cood go to was at the school.Everbody elses mom cood shoo you up the holler[make you go home].Packin water from the well was your job, no questions asked, or protests made.The garden was our convenience store, if you got hungry, you dug up a tater, rolled the skin off with your shirt, and ate it, dirt and all, and so fer, hit aint killt nobody I no of.Mebbe evun pick sum sour grass with them liitle yeller flairs.They was ever kinda nut tree you could want, and plenty of rocks to crack em open.So, before any uf y’all start feelun saree fer us HillBillys, thank about the Garden of Eden weuns was raysd in.
Hey, ya’ll, I kin rekollekt a growin up in Beaver Creek in Knott. Hit shore was fun. I recall them catalogs, newspapers, corncobs an’ sich thangs as that. I allus liked them air red cobs best cause they done a good job o’ cleaning and stopped the itch at the same time, but hit did cause a little burnin’ . I also didn’t know I wuz a hillbilly ’til I come to Ohio. They told me I wuz one. Took a long time fer me to catch onto what deyl wuz a trynna tell me tho. They shore talked funny. Come to find out, anyone they didn’t like wuz a hillbilly. Yep, I hadda haul the coal from the bank to th’ house; hadda dig hit first; hadda draw water from da well in a ten quart bailer. Hadda build the fire in the mawnin, get the coal in at nite, take the ashes out, chop the kindlin’ and sich thangs as that. Ifen I had it all to do over, wouldn’t change a thang ‘ceptin wouldn’t go to Ohio.
Hey Jimbo glad you stopped by and left your comment, sorry ya wound up in Ohi!
i gotta tell you, you guys just proved me wrong. in the cream of wheat article i commented on overly sensitive recipients of stereotypes, and how hillbillies were not on this large list of groups. come on people, who give a crap what hollywood thinks of us. it’s a god send. it scares people from invading our unsoiled way of life and overrunning it with iphones and pop music, fast food and desk jobs. it would no longer be gods country. america is slowly decaying due to commercialism and evergrowing technology. the outside world is growing lazy, spoiled and thoughtless. why worry about what these people think about us. if, god forbid, war ever hits american soil, do you think the cubicle athletes with carpal tunnel syndrome, the guy who depends on fast food for nutrition and carries pepper spray are going to do anything for this country? no, it will be the survivalists. the hunters. the hard working blue collar hillbilly who spends his life earning what he has and fighting to keep it. take some pride in that fact.
Hell I grew up as what I like to call a Lil’billy but aint nothing wrong with all that yal because till I came out to california i spent my whole life thinkin we was rich, well i never wanted for anything had food and clothes love and a home and the holler was like my own little wonderland i say keep on a rockin my hillbillie people and remember when your money and things and health are all gone all you got left is yer kin and yal know thats one thing you really caint live without
So, now I’m wondering who is calling Alaskans hillbillies! Lol! Not going to comment too much, just wanted to say that this site was funny and I’m going to share it with my friends. I was just bored and googled ohio hillbillies. But I feel so much more informed now! Thankyou!
I reely like dis site a bunch! I does my own hillbilly show on the YouTube. I loves to cook and invent things, plus I likes to comment on de news.