A Southerner Tells Better Jokes

Credit: Roswell, GA born comedian David Cross.

TRANSCRIPT:

Chuck Reece: One of the most famous Southern songwriters these days is Jason Isbell, who is from Green Hill, Alabama, an unincorporated community about halfway between Zip City and Lexington, just south of the Tennessee line. The first song of his that really got my attention, about twenty years ago, was written when he was a member of another band from North Alabama, the Drive-By Truckers. 

The song was called “Outfit.” In the chorus of that song, you hear a working-class father giving advice to his son. One piece of that advice is...

Don’t worry about losing your accent. A Southern man tells better jokes.

The first time I heard that lyric, I thought, a truer line has never been written. Southerners do tell better jokes. But could I prove it? 

I started thinking about this because here we are in the first week of April, which begins, of course, with April Fool’s Day. Once, while I lived in New York, a new acquaintance heard my accent and asked where I was from. 

“Georgia,” I replied.

He said, “I invited a guy from Georgia to a party one time, and he brought a ladder.” 

“Why would he do that?” I asked. 

“'Cuz I told him the drinks were on the house.”

I’d been had. He got me pretty good. 

Of course, that put me on a quest to find jokes to put down New Yorkers, but honestly, I can’t say I found enough to confirm Jason Isbell’s assertion. I did enjoy myself when a comedian from Roswell, Georgia, named David Cross moved to New York City while I living there. He had a great joke about trying to get a library card in Manhattan. He’d say:

New York's such a wonderful city. Although, I was at the library and the guy was very rude. I said, ‘I’d like a library card.’ He said, ‘You have to prove you're a citizen of New York.’ So I stabbed him.

The truth, alas, is that while I believe in my bones Jason Isbell was right, that Southerners do tell better jokes, I cannot prove it. Southerners probably tell better jokes about each other than other people tell about us. But I can’t go much farther than that.

I’ll just say this: If a friend invited you over for dinner on April Fool’s Day, I hope you were smart enough to take a tiny sip instead of a big gulp. Cuz at my house, on April Fool’s Day, that icy pitcher of Southern table wine, that sweet tea? 

It’s salted.

Come see us anytime at SalvationSouth.com.

 

Salvation South editor Chuck Reece comments on Southern culture and values in a weekly segment that airs Fridays at 7:45 a.m. during Morning Edition and 4:44 p.m. during All Things Considered on GPB Radio. Salvation South Deluxe is a series of longer Salvation South episodes which tell deeper stories of the Southern experience through the unique voices that live it. You can also find them here at GPB.org/Salvation-South and wherever you get your podcasts.