Larry the Cable Guy hooks up a following
Ami Saad's Jeep is notorious in her Shrewsbury neighborhood. First of all, it's purple. It's also emblazoned with ''Git-R-Done," the verbal high-five and catchphrase of her favorite comedian, Larry the Cable Guy. Some people are puzzled by it. Others think she's nuts. But Saad is willing to take the heat for her devotion to the blue collar comedian.
''Everyone makes fun of me, but I love it so much," she says.
The 19-year-old freshman at Bay State College admits she's a little obsessed. She has Larry pajama bottoms, stickers, window decals. She hopes to score a ''Git-R-Done" bandana to wear to the Orpheum Theatre, where the comic performs four nearly sold-out shows tonight and tomorrow.
Larry the Cable Guy isn't just a comedian, he's an industry, a money-minting favorite of red-state conservatives, and, if ticket sales are any indication, even of supposedly liberal Massachusetts residents. He has two gold albums to his credit, and his ''Git-R-Done" DVD has gone platinum 12 times over. His ''Right to Bear Arms" CD debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 last year and at No. 1 on the country charts, eventually selling almost 635,000 copies. (Arlington native Dane Cook's ''Retaliation," last year's most talked-about comedy album, sold roughly 532,000 copies.) His ''git-r-done" is shouted everywhere from sporting events to comedy shows, and Larry, whose real name is Dan Whitney, says he just gave the US Air Force the rights to use it in promotional materials.
His demographic is more diverse than one might expect. It's NASCAR and country music fans, but it's also urban professionals and students such as Saad, who became a fan in 2004 when she first saw him on the WB's sketch/variety show ''Blue Collar TV." It was a spinoff of the best-selling Blue Collar Comedy Tour and concert movie also starring Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall. All the comics were funny, she says, but Larry stood out. ''He has this whole slogan thing," she says, ''and you're like, yeah! Git-r-done."
Larry the Cable Guy's good-ol'-boy sensibility has served him well, making him one of the most successful comedians in the country. He has coined almost as many catchphrases as punch lines. There's ''Lord, I apologize" after he's reeled off a joke of questionable taste. And when he's delivered a line he thinks is hilarious but is obviously off color, there's ''I don't care who you are, that's funny."
Not everyone is a fan. Doug Stanhope, former cohost of ''The Man Show," posted a sarcastic appeal on his website to stop the proliferation of ''git-r-done" when people started shouting it at his shows. David Cross of ''Arrested Development" denounced Larry the Cable Guy's antigay and racist material in an article in Rolling Stone last year, and Whitney responded with a chapter in his new book, also called ''Git-R-Done," about what he sees as politically correct media that can't take a joke.
''My fans have one thing in common -- they don't care what I'm talking about, they pay money to laugh," says Whitney, 43. " They know I do silly, sophomoric type humor, and they love it."
The comedian is about to get even more conspicuous. Sirius Radio will add a new Blue Collar Comedy channel later this month. He'll tape the ''Blue Collar Comedy Tour -- One for the Road" with Foxworthy, Engvall, and Ron White next week in Washington, D.C., and tape a new solo special for Comedy Central in November. He can't see himself changing much after spending a lifetime building his career around his character.
''It's not my fault I got popular," he says. ''I've been doing the same stuff I've been doing for 20 years. I just work hard."
NICK A. ZAINO III
Larry the Cable Guy performs two shows tonight and two tomorrow at the Orpheum Theatre at 7 and 10 p.m. Tickets $47.25. Call 617-931-2000 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.
