Jeff Foxworthy turned an insult into a compliment when someone criticized where he came from.
During a recent interview with Fox News Digital, the 67-year-old actor and comedian discussed his new stand-up special, “The Joke’s on Me,” and recalled the time someone called him a “redneck” and how he turned what was meant to be an insult into a compliment.
He explained that “one of the nicest compliments” someone once gave him was commending his ability to turn what “was supposed to be an insult … into a badge of honor.”
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“I said, ‘Well, that’s cool, because when people get offended, they act like if you gave rednecks a billion dollars, they wouldn’t be rednecks,'” he said.
“I said they would still be rednecks. They would just have bigger boats, bigger trucks. I mean, more things to shoot at. They’re happy with who they are. And I’ve always got asked, ‘How do you come up with that?’ And I’m like. There’s no research going on. It’s my family and my friend group that trust me.”
Foxworthy first began telling jokes about rednecks in the late ’80s, and found them to be successful, so he continued telling them, even closing his 1990 special with one.
He explained that “they were easy to remember” and said they would always “get a laugh.” After telling the jokes on stage for a while, he “thought, well people are tired of this” and stopped telling them.
“The last time I did them onstage was during the Blue Collar Comedy Tour” in 2003, he said.
WATCH: Foxworthy explained how he turned an insult into a joke for his stand-up.
After more than 20 years of staying away from the jokes, Foxworthy felt like it was time to bring them back. He recalled telling the crowd, “I hadn’t done these in 20 years, but I’m thinking about for this special, bringing them back.
“I said that because when I said that if you’ve ever peed in the pool, the entire audience went, ‘You might be a redneck.’ And I went, ‘Oh, wow, this stuck to people’s bones, you know?'” he said.
“And I say, ‘Well, what if I did some to close, if that was my first special, and all these years later, this is my last.’ It kind of seemed like a nice little way to put a bow on it.”
He then went back and looked at all the redneck jokes he had written over the years, “and pulled out a bunch of them” to try at his next gig at a comedy club.
“It was like, I never stopped doing them,” he said. “It was like going back 35 years, which was really cool for me. It’s like one of your babies. You bring it back out and people go, ‘Oh, we still love it.'”
WATCH: Jeff Foxworthy explains why he stopped telling ‘redneck’ jokes
Foxworthy’s latest comedy special, “The Joke’s on Me” began streaming on Fox Nation in June. Unlike other comedy specials, this one gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at the joke-writing process that goes into creating a special.
The comedian told Fox News Digital he was inspired to create the unique special after watching a documentary about the Beatles and realizing that “seeing the process didn’t take anything away from the finished product,” but rather made it better “because you saw the struggle that went into creating that.”
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When Fox Nation approached him with the offer to do a stand-up special, he pitched them the behind-the-scenes idea.
“I said, ‘But if you’re willing to try something different, if you will show me note cards in hand, going into a club on a Tuesday night or a Wednesday night and just throwing these thoughts out.’ Because one of the things that still fascinates me after over 40 years about stand-up is I still don’t know what people are gonna laugh at,” he said.
“You would think after 40 years, I would know. Now, I’ll go in there with an idea, ‘Oh, this is really funny.’ And then nobody laughs. Or I’ll have a card where I think this is so stupid, I’m embarrassed to say it, and you throw it out there and everybody’s beaten the tables laughing. And you’re like, really? And, so, I wanted to show that. And Fox Nation was the first place that ever said, ‘OK, we’ll do it.'”
Foxworthy has hinted that this could be his last stand-up special but assures fans that doesn’t mean he will never perform on a stage again.
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He told Fox News Digital he has reached a point in his life where the time he would rather spend with his grandkids or on his tractor.
WATCH: Jeff Foxworthy clears up his comments about retiring from stand-up
“I’ve been on the road nonstop,” he added. “I laugh at my music friends when they say they’re on tour. I said, ‘Well, tour implies it stops. At some point,’ I said, ‘I’ve been on tour since 1984.’ It just never stopped. I still love stand-up. I just don’t know that I’m willing. And, to be honest, I’m not sure I can do anything any better than this, which just feels like a good place to stop.”
Foxworthy’s Fox Nation special, “The Joke’s On Me,” is available to watch now.
