Legendary comic Jeff Foxworthy released his new stand-up comedy special, The Joke’s On Me, on June 1 with Fox News media streaming service, Fox Nation. It’s not your average hourlong comedy show.
To barter for the special, Foxworthy told Fox he wanted to show viewers the whole messy process of what it takes to create one. He was confident they wouldn’t agree to it. But they did.
Clips of the year he spent testing jokes at comedy clubs, along with intimate chats with both his wife and Larry, a childhood friend, are woven throughout the special. The clips, totaling about 15 minutes, give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into creating the show.
The remaining 45 minutes filmed at Gas South Theatre in Duluth, Georgia, is on new material, including a 14-minute joke about when he got bitten by a venomous snake. He also spends that time making the audience laugh about aging gracefully, his 42-year marriage, and a sweet story about his grandson to kickstart his closing “You might be a redneck” jokes — Foxworthy’s trademark.
A smidgen of the special was spent on political humor, an area Foxworthy purposefully avoids because he doesn’t want to split the room.
“It doesn’t matter what side you’re on; half the room hates you. I’d rather, to me, the biggest compliment is somebody going, ‘Oh my god, you’ve been in our house,’ or ‘I’ve done that,’ or ‘I’ve thought that,’” Foxworthy tells the Washington Examiner.
Nonetheless, Foxworthy shares an observation he’s made while working on this latest project: “Over the last few months, I’ve probably asked this about 10 times … and I don’t really know what I want to do with it … but I’ve asked the entire audience, ‘How many people trust your government?’
“Do you know, not one person has yet to raise their hand, and I go, ‘How many people trust your news?’ Nobody raises their hand. ‘How many people trust social media’ Nobody raised their hand, and I just think, what does that say about us, that we’re so used to being liked that we just accept it.”
Foxworthy then said, “But part of me thinks, well, doesn’t that make you just starve for the truth? For somebody to just tell you the truth, and I think that’s what most good comedy is,” noting that good comics are astute observers.
With a 57-year career in comedy, Foxworthy knows what he’s talking about: “Before I got into comedy, I’d never been out of the South through doing stand-up. I’ve been to all 50 states, probably most parts of all 50 states. What I have found is the geography changes and the accents change, but it’s been pretty amazing to me how much people are alike. And I think you could take people that were polar opposites politically, and you could sit down with them and say, ‘What do you want out of life?’ And I bet 85% of it would be the same. Yeah, like everybody wants to be loved, everybody wants to have somebody to love.”
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But comedy, as an industry, has not been immune to the effects of the digital age.
Indeed, as Foxworthy said with a laugh, “I made most of my big money by doing CDs or albums and DVDs … now nobody buys those, nobody buys CDs, nobody buys DVDs, so now it’s like everybody has their social media platform, but the hard thing about that is … we’re in such a short-attention span world that everybody’s social media content is 30-seconds long or 40-seconds long, and shoot, I have bits that are 15-minutes long.”
He continued, “If you need help with your social media, I am not the guy, but if you need help in writing a joke, or putting something together, I know how to do that. I guess the way we’ve done it has changed. I do think now it’s probably harder to separate from the pack.”
There was one unequivocal piece of advice, though, and it’s that one must love comedy to do it.
“Somebody will come up [to me] and they’ll go, ‘I think I want to be a comic, but … I’m not ready to quit my job,’ and I’m like, ‘well, if you’re not ready to quit your job, you really don’t want to be a comic,’ because, the ones that I know, it’s like once they discovered it, there was no other option, it was ‘I’m gonna do this regardless,’” Foxworthy said.
When asked if this was his last special, Foxworthy said, “Well, to be honest, Judy, I don’t know.”
“But it might be… If it is, I can live with it. I know it’s silly, but like from the time I started [his previous Netflix special, The Good Old Days], I used to tell my wife, ‘Don’t let me be the guy that’s not funny anymore, don’t let me keep doing it, because there’s nothing sadder than somebody that used to be good at something and they’re not anymore’ … whether it’s an athlete, a singer, a politician. It’s possible to stay at the dance too long.”
His wife, Pamela Gregg, offered wise words.
“She’s so much smarter than me, she would always say, ‘If you listen carefully, you’ll know,’ but at the end of this … I’m proud of that, I’m the old dude, but it’s still funny, still good, so I don’t want to do it too long. I’d rather stop where people have fond memories, instead of, ‘oh my god, remember when he used to be funny?’
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“So, I wouldn’t say 100% it’s the last, but there’s a good chance it’s the last, and I don’t think I would ever stop doing stand-up, I enjoy it too much.”
Foxworthy’s last special (maybe), The Joke’s On Me, is available now on FOX Nation.
