The idea that Southerners are backward and stupid still exists today in some yankee minds, I’ve even see signs of it in some Freepers, most frequently from Massachusetts, of all places, LOL.
yep...been a little cadre here all of my 10 years..I never knew there were conservatives like this till FR
Maybe. But Hee Haw wasn't produced in Boston or Cambridge. It didn't even find it's biggest audience there.
New York and Hollywood have been quick to pick up on Southern stereotypes, but they were only picking up on comic routines created by Southerners -- Jim Nabors, Andy Griffith, Minnie Pearl, Ray Stevens. New Englanders didn't play a role in that.
New York and Los Angeles and Chicago didn't need Boston to teach them to make fun of Southerners. There were enough Southerners around to do the job.
Of course if you want to look further back for the roots of the stereotypes, you find the comic "stage Yankee" of the 19th century, the fellow from backwoods Vermont who might not have much book larnin' but who puts the city slickers in their place, and behind him all the comic rustics of the British and classical theater.
In any case, you guys give it as well as get it. A lot of it is laughter at the snobbish Yankees, but lately I notice a lot of Southern snobbery at the expense of rustbelt Northerners.