larry the cable guy

Biography

Early life

Whitney grew up on a pig farm in Nebraska. When he was sixteen, Whitney's family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. His father was a preacher who once played guitar with the Everly Brothers. He attended The King's Academy in West Palm Beach, where his father worked as the principal of The King's Academy's elementary school. Whitney played an instrument in the pep band. As a teenager he worked at Wendy's. In 1985, he began doing stand-up comedy at the Comedy Club in West Palm Beach on amateur nights at the encouragment of friends and coworkers; and, in 1991, he began doing radio comedy, where he would call into stations as fictional characters. The "Larry" character was created after his friend from a station asked him to call in as a cable installer.

Career

He started in Tampa Bay followed by stints at Rock 100 WDIZ and 101.1 WJRR Orlando before hooking up with the Blue Collar Boys. He became known in the South in the early 1990s when he made regular guest radio appearances on programs such as the Ron and Ron Show. He was also a regular during the late 1990s on 101.9 The Edge in Omaha, Nebraska on Friday mornings when he would call into Chris Baker's morning show, as well as the Kirk, Mark, and Lopez morning show on 98 Rock in Baltimore, MD. "Larry"'s trademarks are "redneck"-style humor delivered while speaking in an affected thick Southern dialect, recounting bizarre stories about his "family," and the using the phrase "Git-R-Done!" He is also known for his other commonly used expressions.

Often during his acts, a woman in the audience yells out that she loves him. He usually responds by saying, "I told you to wait in the truck" - a line cribbed from Tom Waits. He also sings Christmas songs like "Donny the Retard," "Titty Bar Christmas," and "I Pissed My Pants". He uses analogies like "Madder than a skinhead watching The Jeffersons," "Madder than a car load of queers getting pulled over for doin' a 69 in a 55".

In 2005, he was featured in Gretchen Wilson's music video for the song "All Jacked Up," playing dual roles as himself and a transvestite bar patron. In 2006, he starred in the film Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector and was the voice of Mater the tow truck in Disney/Pixar's animated film Cars.

Whitney has also seen considerable success from his comedic recordings. His comedy albums Lord, I Apologize, released in 2001, and The Right To Bare Arms, released in 2005, have both been certified gold by the RIAA.

Catch phrases

Larry the Cable Guy is one of a handful of comedians that use catchphrase humor. His most well-known is "GIT-R-DONE" (git er done) but he also has a few others which he mentioned in his book. These include the phrase "Yipper Dipper Ripper Stripper", one of which he started in his early career, and states as being a series of random, improvised words "with 'stripper' at the end of it." "Lord, I apologize", is one he tells when his joke is rejected by the audienced because it is off-colored. For example:

• "... I was so mad, I almost socked that cripple in the face. Lord, I apologize for that there... Be with the starvin' pygmies down in New Guinea. Amen"

That too, he claimed, was improvised. A few others include:

• "I don't care who you are. That's funny right there."
• "What the hell is this, Russia?"
• "That's Right!"
• "Edible Under-Britches" or simply "eatin' britches"
• "Do you believe that?"
• "Git-R-Done!"

Fictional family

His often-heard-of fictional family includes:

• A grandma, who gets the "walkin' farts"
• A grandpa, who uses a device to speak due to throat cancer
• A brother, who is not only deaf but has Tourette syndrome (and often flips the bird while speaking in sign language)
• A sister, Liddie, who is very overweight; This sister was also immortalized in a sketch on Blue Collar TV.
• Another sister, who looks like DeeWayne from the Ozarks, who has numerous moles; Larry has nicknamed her "Old Moley," "Holy Moley," and "Guacamoley." His sister is also overweight.
• His sister's husband, who is originally from Mexico
• His sister's baby, whom Larry has nicknamed "Rolie Polie Moley"
• A niece and nephew, parents unclear, who bring home fairy tale books that are now "politically correct," as read by Larry on Blue Collar TV
• A dog named Wilson whose tail was docked a little too long

Private life

Daniel Lawrence Whitney himself has become somewhat of an enigma; official biographies of him describe only the fictional life of Larry the Cable Guy, and he almost never speaks out of his "Larry" voice. In 2006, a video surfaced on the internet of his earlier standup was done in his normal persona. Some attribute the derivation of his name to his prior profession as a "cable guy," but he actually really never had such a job and got the name in order to hide his identity when calling in on radio shows. His reticence has led to rumors that he comes from a wealthy background and attended Andover Academy, but these rumors are untrue. A would-be-revealing documentary about his backstage life during stand-up tours was planned but then dropped from the Git-R-Done DVD.

He currently lives in Sanford, Florida which is right outside Orlando. He also has a home in Lincoln, Nebraska. He is, reportedly, a proud member of the Husker Nation and is a huge supporter of the University of Nebraska football team. During 2006 training camp, he sat in on one of the teams practices. He purchased one of the new skyboxes at Memorial Stadium.

In a March 2006 interview with CMT, Whitney announced that he and his wife Cara were expecting a child. Their son Wyatt was born on August 2, 2006.

Criticism

Whitney's act has been criticized for having racist and homophobic elements. In his book GIT-R-DONE, he begins a passage about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: "Let me ask some of these commie rag head carpet flying wicker basket on the head balancing scumbags something!"

In a 2005 Rolling Stone interview, comedian David Cross harshly criticized Whitney's act. [1] "It's a lot of anti-gay, racist humor — which people like in America — all couched in 'I'm telling it like it is.' He's in the right place at the right time for that gee-shucks, proud-to-be-a-redneck, I'm-just-a-straight-shooter-multimillionaire-in-cutoff-flannel-selling-ring-tones act. That's where we are as a nation now. We're in a state of vague American values and anti-intellectual pride."

Whitney responded to common criticisms of him as racist or insensitive by saying that most people are fine with his act, stating "the only people who are uptight at my shows are politically correct white people." He continued his defense in his book, GIT-R-DONE, devoting a chapter to the "P. C. Left". Cross responded with an open letter on his website expanding his criticism and defending his remarks.

Criticism also comes as many people say that his accent is faked in order for him to "become" the Larry the Cable Guy character. [2]

Trivia

• He was a radio personality on:
  • KMOD in Tulsa, OK
  • WJRR in Orlando, FL
  • WIYY in Baltimore, MD.
• He has mentioned Tulsa, Owasso, and Ponca City, Oklahoma in his comedic performances.
• He does not believe in global warming as stated in his stand-up and on his website.
• He is an advocate of seal clubbing.
• He is a conservative Republican and supports President George W. Bush.
• He is a Christian, thanking Jesus Christ on his concert end credits and apologizing to God for becoming a comedian.

Discography

• Salutations & Flatulations (1997)
• Lord, I Apologize (2001)
• A Very Larry Christmas (2004)
• The Right to Bare Arms (2005)

Bibliography

• Larry the Cable Guy (2005) GIT-R-DONE Crown ISBN 0-307-23742-7

Filmography

• Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie (2003)
• Blue Collar Comedy Tour: Rides Again (2004)
• Blue Collar TV (2004)
• Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector (2006)
• Cars (2006) (voice)
• Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One For the Road (2006)
• Delta Farce (2007)

External links

• Official Website
• Larry The Cable Guy at MySpace
• Larry The Cable Guy at the Internet Movie Database
• GIT-R-DONE Chapter 1 excerpt
• Larry The Cable Guy cast bio on The WB
• Larry The Cable Guy Music Videos
• Video interview with Larry The Cable Guy Backstage
• Rolling Stone Interview and biography
• Waco Tribune article
• Slate article
• An open letter to Larry the Cable Guy from comedian David Cross
• Video of Dan Whitney's stand-up before adopting the Larry the Cable Guy character