I was going to object to some of the stereotypes exhibited above, but then I reconsidered…

Way back when "The Beverly Hillbillies" was a current hit popular TV show, I remember that a reporter from TV Guide went into Appalachia to find some real hillbillies and get their reaction to the show. It was expected that they would find the stereotypes offensive, but on the contrary, they loved it! They remarked, "Of course the people around HERE aren't that backward, but there are some people over in [the next] County that are just like that!" And the people in the next county said more or less the same thing! I guess that tells you something about the nature of humor.

In my experience, there's nothing that true hillbillies like better than corny satire based on hillbilly stereotypes. (My mother was one.) The mugging with fake beards, exaggerated accents, overalls, etc., that you saw in "O Brother Where Art Thou?" were right on the money. That stuff thrives today in Branson, at Silver Dollar City and thereabouts.

I should add one qualification: Hillbillies do frown on dirty jokes and coarse language in mixed company. I read somewhere that Vance Randolph wouldn't even pronounce the title of his own book "Pissing in the Snow" when speaking to a mixed audience.