Larry the Cable Guy That Is Funny
The Real Reason We Don't Hear From Larry The Cablevision Guy Anymore
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Ten to fifteen years agone, it seemed like Larry the Cable Guy was everywhere. As part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour with Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White, and Bill Engvall, he entertained millions at stand-upwardly gigs with his down-home comedy and catchphrases similar "Git-R-Washed!" and "I don't care who yous are, that's funny, right in that location." He starred in a string of big-screen comedies, including Delta Farce, Witless Protection, and Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector, and has released ten albums, including the platinum-certified The Right to Bare Arms. He even had his own travelogue testify, But in America, and was the discipline of a Comedy Central roast. Only what's become lately of the guy born with the proper noun Dan Whitney? If you've missed him, you're not solitary—and this is what he'southward been upward to.
He walked away from Only in America
In 2011, Whitney started starring in Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy . The History Channel reality series institute Whitney traveling around America, going to interesting places and doing interesting things, sort of like a populist Anthony Bourdain. Among his adventures were going behind the scenes of a circus, making moonshine, excavation for gold, and riding with the Hells Angels. The show was a huge hit for History, only it was abruptly canceled afterward three seasons—mainly because it's difficult to make Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy without Larry the Cablevision Guy.
There were ii reasons he quit. The showtime was an episode in which he had to clean portable toilets at a music festival in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. "I didn't desire to practice information technology. I mean, that was ane of the nastiest things on the planet," he later on told a reporter. (During the episode he chosen it "probably one of the virtually disgusting things I've ever done in my life.") The other reason he walked away, as if he needed one, was that the show required him to exist on the road—which, combined with a career as a touring stand up-upwardly comedian, pulled him away from his family for as many as six days a week.
He broke a guy's arm
Whitney is a Nebraska native, and so of course he's a hardcore fan of the University of Nebraska Cormhuskers football squad. So information technology should come as no surprise that he tries to get to as many dwelling house games equally he can. He attended a game in 2016, and while watching from in a luxury suite, another guest challenged Whitney to an arm wrestling match. Whitney won... past likewise much. The comedian managed to break the guy's humerus—his funny os. The poor challenger had to take arm surgery and get a metallic plate installed...all because of an arm wrestling match with Larry the Cablevision Guy.
He never set out to be a megastar
Though he'due south since become a motion picture star, production pitchman, and standup comedy superstar, Whitney says that none of those things were ever his goal. In fact, when he started out in stand-upward in the early on '90s, he said all wanted was to "do what i relish doing for a living and make money at it."
"I've never been, y'all know, never been 1 of those guys where money'south—yeah, you wanna take care of your bills...but I never really ready out to be this huge star, because it'southward and so rare," Whitney said during an interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger. "I mean, when go you into something— How many comedians are at that place? How many tin can yous count on your hand that can sell out arenas, and a stadium, or do movies? Information technology'south a scattering," he continued.
Obviously, Whitney's now a member of that elusive social club, although he all the same seems surprised by his ain success. "So, getting into it, you're already thinking, 'Well, my odds are pretty slim, I just want to be funny...be able to have an audience that wants to come see me, but if I can kick dorsum every year, and I tin can accept 25 one-act clubs that wanna hire me considering they like me, and I tin can sell some tickets, I'm happy.' Fortunately for me, it just spun out of command and went really crazy, you know?"
He pauses his tour schedule during football season
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In what has to be the envy of any cerise-blooded American football fan, Whitney revealed that he's lucky enough to be able to put his career completely on concur each yr during football flavor. As we previously mentioned, Whitney's a dyed-in-the-wool member of the Sea of Red, which means he does not miss a Cornhuskers game, even if it means not taking a gig.
Speaking with The Charlotte Observer to promote his Backyard BBQ bout with fellow comedian Jeff Foxworthy, Whitney said, "It'll be fun; I'g looking forward to it. Although I have to tell you, I normally don't similar to tour during football season...For the kickoff time in 12 years, I'm missing a home game."
Simply put, comedians at Whitney's level make their money on theater and loonshit shows that generally happen on Fri, Saturday, and Lord's day nights. With Whitney willing to press pause on that for the better part of three months, it speaks volumes to where he'southward at both in his career and with his clear indifference towards existence an ever-present public figure.
He enjoys his Hollywood outsider condition
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Every bit a erstwhile member of The Blue Collar Comedy tour, too as a self-professed "country kid," Whitney understands his target demographic. Not only does he embrace his downward-home roots, but he'south also gone on the defense confronting supposed media stereotypes about so-called "racist rednecks."
During an interview on alt-right supporter Gavin McInnes' podcast (via The Bonfire), Whitney said, "They've drawn upward this picture of how they desire us to be, and when we're not how they want us to be, they go insane. They cannot handle information technology...And it frustrates them to no end, and that's why they become irritated. That's why they hate us. They detest what we stand up for, they hate our values, they hate us so bad. They desire it to be true, and it'southward non truthful."
With that negative view of mainstream media, it'due south no surprise that Whitney prefers to be on the fringes of the generally left-leaning Hollywood. He admitted as much to the Lincoln Journal Star while talking about his friendship with another successful Hollywood outsider, Tyler Perry. Whitney said that like the "Blue Collar" guys, Perry knew his Madea deed would be rejected by Hollywood, so "he built his audition without Hollywood. And we built our audience without Hollywood. And nosotros both became really successful, just grassroots-level." Whitney also said he admired how Perry "dumps [money] dorsum into Atlanta," and "hires local," adding, "I'd be doing the same affair if I had a studio in Lincoln." The real question is why doesn't he? Prilosec Studios has a nice band to it, no?
He's clowning effectually on the golf form
Like a lot of rich celebs (and non famous rich folk, to be perfectly frank), Whitney has also taken an involvement in the time-consuming sport of golf. Telling The Charlotte Observer that he "used to hate golf game" because he "thought it sucked," Whitney confessed that he now plays regularly, and even does "8 or 9 (Pro-Am events) a year."
One of them was the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which is regarded every bit ane of the more laid-dorsum golf events. Celebrities and pro golfers participate to enhance money for charity, and in 2017, Whitney played a few rounds. He was doing alright until he missed what should take been an easy, three-foot putt on the sixth hole. Calculation insult to injury, a fan shouted out from the gallery that he could've made the shot—so Whitney playfully called his barefaced, and invited the fan out to the greenish to prove information technology. He missed the shot, too.
He does a lot of corporate gigs
It'south a little-discussed merely incredibly lucrative side of professional comedy: well-known comedians can get paid a fortune for "corporate gigs" where they're hired to exist the entertainment for a huge company's convention, annual coming together, or managerial retreat. Even comedians who aren't every bit pop as they once were tin pull in some serious greenbacks on this circuit.
Acts similar Sinbad, George Lopez, or fifty-fifty longtime onetime host of The Tonight Bear witness Jay Leno are available for corporate bookings, just to proper name a few. If you ever head to your company's annual briefing in Toledo, don't be surprised to see a legend of comedy hovering over the refreshment table, waiting to try and go your stuffy CEO to giggle for a few minutes.
So naturally, Larry the Cable Guy makes a lot of these corporate appearances. And for his trouble, he's paid at least in the neighborhood of $150,000 to $299,000 — for each performance. And yes, that's a higher asking toll than any of the three aforementioned comics — even Leno.
He'southward a very busy commercial pitchman
Bektrom Foods, a visitor that makes Hamburger Helper-style dinners and other shelf-stable foods, licensed Larry'southward likeness for use on a line of products sold in grocery and drugstores. Larry has endorsed a few dozen items for Bektrom (and been paid handsomely for his problem), including Larry the Cablevision Guy Spicy Corn Muffin Mix and Larry the Cablevision Guy Cheesy Tuna Dinner. (Ironically, Whitney-as-Larry has also been the longtime pitchman for Prilosec, an over-the-counter medication to treat heartburn.) A snack food visitor called Shearer's has too paid Whitney for its Larry the Cable Guy Chips. Or for those who adopt to prepare their meals from scratch but who also like Larry the Cablevision Guy, Whitney sells a line of kitchen knives, including a "Melon Cuttin' Knife," a "Bonin' Pocketknife," a "Slicin'" Knife," and a "Tater Peeler."
He's still making movies
Larry the Cable Guy'due south moving picture career hasn't been a tremendous success — simply he has, to paraphrase the man himself, "gotten'er done." In the mid-2000s, Whitney starred in the confusingly namedLarry the Cablevision Guy: Health Inspector, along withDelta Farce andWitless Protection. Together, they have an boilerplate Rotten Tomatoes score of merely nether four-and-a-half. Their average audience score is much better at a petty over 44 percent, simply that's still non an indicator of Whitney's cinematic appeal.
And yet, while he's no longer starring in large-screen fish-out-of-water comedies similar Health Inspector or Witless Protection, Whitney is nonetheless making movies. Information technology'due south only that at present most of them are directly-to-video efforts, many of them sequels to theatrical releases. In improver to an appearance in A Madea Christmas, Whitney took over for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in Tooth Fairy ii and for Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All the Way 2. He's as well since reunited with his Blueish Collar Comedy Bout compatriot Jeff Foxworthy for the Netflix original Nosotros've Been Thinking.
He'southward a Pixar superstar
While Pixar's delightful animated movies are suitable for all audiences, the studio's Cars films are pretty much child stuff. Possibly yous haven't seen the movies about anthropomorphic automobiles, but they're insanely pop with kids, and so is Larry. Whitney is a superstar in Pixar state, having used his Larry voice for Mater, the dim-witted, buck-toothed, kind-hearted tow truck who becomes the all-time friend of famous race car Lightning McQueen. Mater was the breakout character of Cars, a box office smash, then he (and thus Whitney) was the focus of Cars 2 . The plot: Mater inadvertently becomes a James Bail-style international spy.
Whitney even gets emotional talking near how much Pixar "changed his life" and "introduced him to a whole new audience," in an interview with Graham Bensinger. "Information technology's an emotional thing when I talk most it, because I worked so difficult—y'all know, I did all these call-ins, and I did this, and I was on the road, and I never got to do stuff other people got to do...and then all the sudden there's this letter from Pixar and they gave me the role and I'm similar, 'You gotta exist kidding me! Thank you, Jesus!'"
The office finer expanded Whitney's already big built-in stand-upwards audition to a bespeak where if he never did anything simply Cars movies and the occasional sold-out arena and theater shows, he would still be rich for the residuum of his life.
What's next for Larry the Cablevision Guy
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Whitney has certainly plant his niche with his Larry persona, who's go i of the most memorable characters in comedy history. Millions of fans don't really care that he's not as hot equally he one time was, considering he still does a lot of shows and packs theaters across the country. In the meantime, he's pursuing new avenues to stay fresh, such every bit starring in projects for Netflix. All that, and the fact that he reprised his role every bit Mater in Cars iii, means Whitney's poised to Git-R-Done as Larry the Cable Guy over and over once again.
Larry the charitable guy
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Whitney has fabricated millions off of his Larry the Cable Guy act, and he hasn't been shy about altruistic that coin to causes he believes in. In his hometown of Pawnee Metropolis, Nebraska, he donated money for the metropolis to buy statues along its walking trails, and gave plenty cash for his old high school to buy new curtains, lights, and a soundboard. He'southward also a major patron of the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and its International Hip Dysplasia Institute going back to 2007, when Whitney's son Wyatt was born with hip dysplasia. Doctors in that location completely cured babe Wyatt of the event, and Whitney quietly donated lots of money to the medical circuitous through appearances on celebrity editions of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and Family Feud. In September 2010, he donated a whopping $5 million to the infirmary, which how boasts a Wyatt Whitney Wing. Whitney also co-founded (with his wife Cara), the Git-R-Done Foundation, which gits-r-washed, charity-wise, for causes affecting veterans and children.
He's got a radio show
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Watch out Howard Stern: Larry the Cable Guy is well on his way to condign the next King of All Media. We already know Whitney has starred in movies, commercials, has his own product line, and continues to perform his comedy all over the land, both in one-act clubs as well equally at corporate retreats. But since 2015, Whitney's too made his way to a brand new class of media: the radio.
In 2015, Whitney teamed up with Jeff Foxworthy to create a new station on SiriusXM satellite radio. The 24-hour channel, Jeff and Larry's Comedy Roundup, features clips of comedians, including hosting segments, material, and new shows they record just for the station. When the channel was first announced in May of that twelvemonth, Whitney expressed hopes that its programming would appeal to all fans of comedy:
"Looking forward to working with the expert folks at SiriusXM and with my buddy Jeff to assist produce and program the comedy you've come to know and beloved in our comedy roundup ... This'll be funny, I don't intendance who ya are!"
Source: https://www.looper.com/38359/real-reason-dont-hear-larry-cable-guy-anymore/