Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 5.05 Folklore and Folkways
Presentation #1 Title
Acting a Fool: The Humorous Local Character in Fact and Foolery
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In 2001, Sandra Ballard contributed an article to Back Talk in Appalachia that assessed the lineage of the hillbilly fool in film and literature, and provided an excellent overview of the fool archetype. Her work dealt with how outsiders created fools out of skewed stereotypes of mountain residents, but outsiders were not the only ones constructing hillbilly fools. This paper focuses on the folklore that surrounds “real people” that lived in Appalachian communities over a hundred years ago—namely, “Lie-Hew” Yonce of Beech Mountain, NC, and “Uncle Sol” of Mitchell County, NC. Both of these men have been deceased for at least seventy years, though humorous anecdotes about the two characters are still shared in the communities where they lived. A comparison of the tales and records of local characters throughout Appalachia and the United States, suggests that Lie-Hew and Uncle Sol represented archetypal and localized jesters ubiquitous in insular communities. The fool has classically occupied the role of truth-teller, challenging social hierarchy and power through jest, simultaneously providing a mirror that divulges a community’s values and fears. Taken in this light, the real value of humorous stories about Lie-Hew and other “local jesters” does not lie in how they reflect the fool, but in what they reveal about the fool’s community.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
William Ritter is a graduate student at Appalachian State University, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in Appalachian Studies. William is particularly interested in “jokelore” and humor in traditional storytelling and song.
Acting a Fool: The Humorous Local Character in Fact and Foolery
Smith Hall 108
In 2001, Sandra Ballard contributed an article to Back Talk in Appalachia that assessed the lineage of the hillbilly fool in film and literature, and provided an excellent overview of the fool archetype. Her work dealt with how outsiders created fools out of skewed stereotypes of mountain residents, but outsiders were not the only ones constructing hillbilly fools. This paper focuses on the folklore that surrounds “real people” that lived in Appalachian communities over a hundred years ago—namely, “Lie-Hew” Yonce of Beech Mountain, NC, and “Uncle Sol” of Mitchell County, NC. Both of these men have been deceased for at least seventy years, though humorous anecdotes about the two characters are still shared in the communities where they lived. A comparison of the tales and records of local characters throughout Appalachia and the United States, suggests that Lie-Hew and Uncle Sol represented archetypal and localized jesters ubiquitous in insular communities. The fool has classically occupied the role of truth-teller, challenging social hierarchy and power through jest, simultaneously providing a mirror that divulges a community’s values and fears. Taken in this light, the real value of humorous stories about Lie-Hew and other “local jesters” does not lie in how they reflect the fool, but in what they reveal about the fool’s community.
