Election 2008

bilby commented on the list election-2008

Who does huckleberry refer to and why is it offensive?

December 1, 2007

uselessness commented on the list election-2008

Mike Huckabee. It's offensive because it makes him sound like a stupid backwoods redneck, à la Huckleberry Finn or Huckleberry Hound.

December 1, 2007

bilby commented on the list election-2008

Hmmm. I liked Huck Finn. Sure he was a backwoods type but he was also funny, irreverent, a likeable all-American boi. Yeah, I know, HF pulled all kind of scams and stunts which probably doesn't sit well with a campaigning politician. But most of them were well-intentioned and it's not as if anybody really thinks any pollie is squeaky clean. So I wouldn't automatically read the epithet as offensive but then again I'm a loong way away.

Never heard of the hound.

December 1, 2007

uselessness commented on the list election-2008

The context isn't so much in reference to Huck Finn himself, but the ignorant redneck archetype as a whole. Mike Huckabee is the governor of Arkansas, and there are those who would think that's enough to disqualify him from the White House. (Arkansas is an enigma of its own, lots of jokes about it.) Of course, Bill Clinton was once governor of Arkansas too, so whatever. And then there are those who just thing Huckleberry is fun to say. :-)

Huckleberry Hound was an old cartoon, I think. I don't know so much about that one, personally, but I've heard people refer to Huckabee as such, too.

December 1, 2007

chained_bear commented on the list election-2008

It's the same general thing with huckleberry whether hound or Huck Finn. It's disparaging to southerners. There's a lot of that in this country. (I'm originally from the North but have lived in the South for... oh... twelve years or so?)

I understand it's similar to southeasterners' attitudes toward people from Yorkshire/Northumberland in England, or people from Sydney/Melbourne toward people from, say, Alice Springs...? Maybe I'm going too far into the realm of "don't know WTF I'm talking about."

Edit: "I'm your huckleberry" is also some kind of idiomatic saying meaning "I'll take that bet," or "I'm the man for you." It was one of my favorite lines that Doc Holliday (played by Val Kilmer) kept saying in that fantabulously cheesy-fun movie "Tombstone."

December 1, 2007