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George Lindsey wanted everyone to know that he was not a ''country comedian''
"I don't think I'm a 'country comedian.' I think I am a comedian with an accent,"
There's nothing wrong with being proud of your roots; in fact, plenty of people have become famous for telling stories of their hometown. People like Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, who were both raised in the South, used their childhood stories to their advantage, as they served as inspiration for many of the settings and characters in The Andy Griffith Show.
Plenty of rumors have alleged that Mayberry itself is based on Griffith's hometown of Mt. Airy, North Carolina, though a place like Mayberry always seems too good to be true in the real world. For Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, they wore the term "country" on their names like a badge of honor.
For others, however, it wasn't so easy. George Lindsey, best known for playing rural silly boy Goober Pyle, was quick to remind people that while his character was country, Lindsey himself was not. Lindsey, who was born in Alabama, actually spoke to the Leaf-Chronicle about his desire not to be viewed as a "country comedian," alluding to the more negative stereotypes that many Southerners are often satirized as having.
"I don't think I'm a 'country comedian.' I think I am a comedian with an accent," Lindsey said. "My connotation of a country comedian is you black out the front teeth and put freckles on his face. If you've ever seen me work, I work in a tuxedo."
"Although I don't think that Minnie Pearl and Andy Griffith and myself could work the same town at the same night," Lindsey said.
One quality that Lindsey was convinced that all comedians share, however, was a sense of melancholy in their lives, somewhere. "Comedians are a certain breed of people. I think all were either born destitute or in Brooklyn, or all were terribly unhappy. I think that years of saying, 'Hey, like me,' is what makes you funny. That's what happened to me." Lindsey said.
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