Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Larry The Cable Guy: Remain Seated’ on Comedy Dynamics, The One-Liner Character’s First Solo Special In A Decade

It’s been four years since we saw Larry the Cable Guy telling new jokes on our streaming platforms, but a decade since he has put out a solo special of his own. Can he still git-r-done in 2020?

LARRY THE CABLE GUY: REMAIN SEATED: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Dan Whitney created the voice of “Larry the Cable Guy” some three decades ago as a character for to morning radio show appearances in Florida and across the South. His character became more popular than Whitney’s own act (which you can see on Amazon Prime in an episode of An Evening of the Improv from 1991, an episode that also features a young Marc Maron!), so much so that he became more popular than his bigger-billed tour mates on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour in the early 2000s. In 2016, Larry and Jeff Foxworthy (who share a SiriusXM comedy radio channel) put out a joint hour together for Netflix, We’ve Been Thinking…. But Larry himself hasn’t put out a solo hour in a decade, so his fans are rightly excited to see what he’s been thinking recently. His new hour, Larry the Cable Guy: Remain Seated, is not on Netflix, but rather available for streaming rental or download purchase via other platforms, via Comedy Dynamics.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: If you somehow find yourself not knowing who Larry the Cable Guy is in 2020, I don’t know what to tell you. Oh, wait. That’s my job. Alrighty then. So he’s spiritually descended from Rodney Dangerfield (who himself was a character created by Jack Roy because he couldn’t get respect as a comedian before then), and as a one-liner guy with catchphrases, it’s no wonder Larry became fast and longtime friends with Foxworthy.

Memorable Jokes: Though his stock-in-trade is the one-liner, Larry the Cable Guy devotes some more significant chunks of time to Walmart, the wonders of county/state fairs, the weirdness of his family, and both the wonders and the weirdness of Las Vegas.

We’re in one of those weird moments in history where, thanks to a sudden upheaval, a pre-recorded bit can become even more memorable, either because it has become suddenly and awkwardly outdated, or because the premise and punchlines hit so much harder knowing what we know now. So when Larry goes on a run of jokes making fun of the people who shop at Walmart, as well as the folks who work there, it’s all good, clean fun for a while. Larry mocks the after-midnight crowd at Walmart, the very idea of getting your haircut there (you’ll need to buy a hat on your way out), the lack of customer service, and on the other extreme, a buddy who rented out the superstore for a wedding.

In the middle of all of that, though, he also ponders getting a flu shot there, upon his wife’s suggestion. “Are you kidding me? I ain’t getting a flu shot at Walmart. Dag gum. Normally I get vaccinated before I go in there! Get a flu shot at Walmart. The flu’s the last thing I’m worried about at Walmart. Alright. Dag gum, they probably got ebola behind a box in there somewhere I didn’t know about.” He even tags the bit with a joke about seeing a guy outside Walmart wearing a hazmat suit. Maybe this is the joking we need to keep Americans under quarantine?

Later in the hour, his worries about hypochondria hit so much closer to home. Precisely because so many of us are home, worrying about the slightest symptom. Even though his jokes about the matter are so casual that he’s suggesting walk-in medical clinics include wine lists to put him at ease.

And then there’s his Halloween material, which goes to extremes. He earns an applause break from his Joliet, Ill., audience with a one-liner about visiting a health store in a dress (his Halloween costume? “Trans-fat”). But then he flips the entire concept and the joke onto himself a second time, going meta as he takes his kids trick-or-treating, only to discover the neighbors don’t recognize him, thinking instead he’s just another guy in costume as Larry the Cable Guy. Adding further insult? His neighbors don’t much care for “Larry.” “Next time, I’m gonna go as Foxworthy,” he says. “I don’t care if anybody thinks he sucks.”

Our Take: Has Larry the Cable Guy watched Nanette?

I’m seriously curious. Hannah Gadsby made a point in her Emmy-winning Netflix special from 2018 to distance herself from her career-long habit of self-deprecation, declaring in it: “Because do you understand what self-deprecation means when it comes from somebody who already exists in the margins? It’s not humility. It’s humiliation.”

Dan Whitney isn’t marginal by most measurements. He’s a wildly successful and wealthy comedian who has starred in movies (some hits, such as the Disney/Pixar animated franchise, Cars; some not so much, such as Witless Protection), sold a ton of merchandise and concert tickets, including a football stadium in 2009 (six years before Kevin Hart matched it). And yet he remains a proud, self-deprecating, character comedian, through and through.

Larry makes fun of his weight, his looks, and his reputation.

When he focuses on other people or topics, the jokes aren’t always the most creative or original, and sometimes they’re downright disgusting, but that’s not why anyone comes to see Larry. They keep coming to see Larry because he makes them feel good.

And despite a hacky joke here or there, you have to give Larry credit. He’s perhaps the first middle-aged male comedian in a long while to discuss his colonoscopy and completely avoid the most obvious jokes about it. That’s gittin’-r-done.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you enjoy Larry or the Blue Collar guys, you’ll enjoy ponying up the money for his new hour as an escape from all of your other worries. There’s more grins than groans in this hour, by a country mile.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Where to stream Larry The Cable Guy: Remain Seated