I am two things: a writer and a public speaker. I was a good speaker at least nine years (1958) before I was a good writer (1967). I know what a good speaker should do.
Phil Robertson doesn't do any of it.
He speaks in a clipped English that I have not heard before. There is not a wasted word.
He gets to the point fast.
He has an endless supply of country aphorisms -- aphorisms that never make it into the city. This one is representative. "If you marry a woman when she is 15 or 16, she'll pick your ducks. If you wait until she's about 20, she'll pick your pocket."
There is a video where he, Miss Kay, son Jeb, and a grandson tell their stories. The males have deliverance stories. Miss Kay has a delivered early story.
The video is mostly black and white -- which grabs your attention. It looks like a low-cost production, but it has an eerie feel to it. I have never seen anything quite like it. It is a model of a talking-head video. It has enough image splicing to keep your attention, but it does not move off message.
The grandson had an interesting fact. When the Hollywood producers first showed up, they wanted a show based on the redneck stereotype. They wanted fights between family members. They wanted cursing. They got nowhere. "That's not our family." The prodicers now have the biggest hit on cable TV. They had no idea what the public would want to see.
This video is what the producers did not initially understand. Now they cannot put a lid on it. Everyone watching the show knows why these rednecks are different. The audience has grown.
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