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Redneck Math — or Wall Street Math? Print
Saturday, 25th October 2008 (by J.D.)This article is about Funny Money
Dave dropped a line the other day to share a video he discovered. He writes: “This little movie clip explains how 25 divided by 5 equals 14. I think it kind of sums up how we as a nation got into our current crisis.”
The folks on YouTube call this “Kentucky Math” (whatever that means), but lately it’s more like Wall Street math:
Ah, funny stuff for a Saturday morning!
(Never heard of Ma and Pa Kettle?)
October 25th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Nice. Funny, yes; but the Kettles are from Cape Flattery, Washington, not Kentucky. Geez.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Too funny!!!
October 25th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Ha! Thanks, cevec. I knew that “Kentucky” was just YouTube code for “redneck”, but I couldn’t find where the Kettles lived in my googling.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I died laughing watching this video. Too cooooool.
Cheers,
A Dawn Journal
http://www.adawnjournal.com
October 25th, 2008 at 11:04 am
oooohhhh J.D.,
I have been a fan of this blog for over 8 months, but I will remove your blog from my daily reads. I was ok with the title of Kentucky Math, granted that you took the video from youtube and didn’t title it yourself, but your comment that “Kentucky is code for redneck” is infuriating.
I am a female from Kentucky, hold 3 advanced degrees, have lived all over the US (both coasts, the North and the South) and traveled all over the world. This said, I am probably one of your most well educated readers. And I am from Kentucky. I don’t know where you live in this country or where you have traveled, but in all of MY travels, and in all the places I have lived, you will find that the derogatory term “redneck” exists everywhere (as cevec points out, the Kettles are from Washington), and is often (mis)labeled to describe a class, not a region. Many do not understand that distinction.
I hope this comment causes you to revoke your article for today, because in your (very well read) blog, you are most likely going to offend many readers. Please refrain from making such derogatory and stereotypical statements in the future, for the sake of your blog’s success.
October 25th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Hey Iber,
Relax. JD didn’t equate “Kentucky” with “redneck”. He merely interpreted that YouTube does.
I would think that a well-educated person such as yourself would be more offended at his reference of a Wikipedia article as a voice of authority…
Regardless, and not to belabor the point, but, Miriam-Webster defines redneck as a sometimes disparaging remark relating to a white member of the Southern rural laboring class.
Where’s Kentucky again?
October 25th, 2008 at 11:57 am
::chuckles:: Someone needs a chill-pill.
And that was awesome. Reminds me of when I was younger; I used to watch Ma and Pa Kettle with my grandparents.
October 25th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Interesting math tricks there!
I forwarded this to my brother who’s working on his doctorate right now, travels all over, etc…hope he won’t take it as badly as Ibir. More than likely, though, he’ll have bigger issues to complain about and will offset her readership loss.
October 25th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Ibir, it’s not me calling this Kentucky Math. That’s its title on YouTube. Having grown up in a small Oregon town (Canby), and having been called “redneck” the whole time I was growing up, I would never knowingly call residents of anyplace else redneck — except for Molalla, Oregon.
October 25th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
@ J.D
My issue is with your “interpretation” of Kentucky as being Youtube’s code for redneck. I would have posted this article without mention of a region, and would have strictly referred to it as Wall Stree math.
@ Dotty:
Interpretation is the proble- very subjective. And indicative of the speaker. And didn’t see a reference to Wikipedia, but if I did I would discard it without issue. Finally, despite the MW definition that tags a specific region, the term has evolved into a general stereotyping of a class of people. If that weren’t true, Jeff Foxworthy would have never made his millions because only “white member[s] of the Southern rural laboring class” would relate to his humor.
@ Jenny:
Stereotyping based on any factor (be it region, race, or religion) is a “big issue” in my book.
October 25th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
From a redneck in Tennessee, that looks like republican, trickle down economics, to me.
October 25th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
As a compromise, I’ve re-titled this “Redneck Math” instead of “Kentucky Math”. Which will just confuse the folks who read through the comments in days to come.
October 25th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Thanks, J.D., for your thoughtful email. I truly appreciate your sensitivity and responsiveness.
October 25th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
It’s just a silly comedy piece but changing the title of the article to a racist/classist thing doesn’t seem like the best decision. Why not just Wall St math? It’s called KY math on YouTube because it’s apparently OK to still make fun of the crushing poverty and illiteracy that the people of Appalachia have to contend with everyday.
October 25th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Well . .. glad to see everyone happy again.
Cheers,
A Dawn Journal
http://www.adawnjournal.com
October 25th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Norm,
That was not even remotely similar to trickle down anything. You do know that when you spend a dollar, the dollar ends up moving hands another 7 times? Like. That’s just how the economy works. Must suck to see that screw your economic philosophy.
And no one made fun of illiteracy. That is just silly.
October 26th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Very funny. Yes, like on Wall Street - add up a bunch of junk together, get AAA rating.
@Shaun - totally agree with everything you say.
@Norm - nothing to do with “trickle down” anything. “Trickle down” is quite simple: if your employer gets to pay less in taxes, it has more money to hire people, the earnings are better, you may actually get a slightly larger raise and, more importantly, get to keep your job. Conversely, if your employer has to pay more in taxes, the earnings will suffer; then your employer may lay you off or if you are lucky not give you a raise. The earnings suffer, stocks go down, including your 401K. The CEO is likely to get a large raise either way - life is not fair. So maybe instead of being envious of those who are better off, you think about what will help you keep your job or get a raise.
October 27th, 2008 at 2:03 am
It just goes to show your average person is smarter than wall street.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:24 am
They’re damned good at math !
October 30th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Funny. But, I believe that Abbott and Costello’s (pretty-much identical) routine predates this. IMO, A&C did it with much more aplomb, because I prefer their vaudeville timing. Here are three different scenarios of the same bit, as done by A&C:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNngwQGou9E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WMi5TUJDso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIJ0CikId8E
June 4th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I am from the eastern Kentucky/West Virginia/Southern Ohio area.
Anyone from this area is regarded as a redneck! The people tat usually try to hang that term on us are people from the more populous regions of the US, such as cities, and the mentality to call us that( or put down any group of people, for that matter) shows that they have their head much further up their wazoo than we could ever have.