Larry the Cable Guy—who is actually a good ol’ Southern boy character played by a Nebraska-born comedian named Dan Whitney—is the kind of guy who you can count on to git-r-done. (That it his oft-repeated catchphrase.) The standout of the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” has been one of the most successful comedians of all time, parlaying what was once a morning radio show bit into not only live comedy dates but merchandise sales, multiple TV shows, voicing Mater in the Cars movies, appearing on a line of packaged foods, and shilling over-the-counter heartburn medication.
The schtick, and appeal, of Larry is that he’s kind of dumb, but well-meaning. (He’ll follow a slightly off-color joke with “I don’t care who are, that’s funny right there” in his thick, affected country-folk accent.) In real life, Larry/Dan Whitney isn’t dumb at all. You can’t be that dumb and have a career that multifaceted and wildly successful. Mr. Cable Guy is very active on Twitter, where he sometimes gets into heated debates with people over those things people say you shouldn’t talk about in polite company: religion and politics. He’s a Christian, and he’s conservative, and he likes to have conversations about those things.
This week, however, Larry got into a Twitter debate with Paul Nehlan, an alt-right white nationalist dude running for Paul Ryan’s congressional seat. Now, these aren’t the kind of people who easily change their minds, but Larry the Cable Guy, of all people, tried to talk some sense into the guy. Larry knows his scripture.
The exchange was deleted, but there is such a thing as screencapping.
Twitter is an amazing place where you can observe Larry the cable guy talking theology with with white nationalists and trying to reason with them pic.twitter.com/Alz9ygdM94
— Wild Geerters (@steinkobbe) January 23, 2018
People on Twitter were surprised, to say the least.