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Imagine a couple of good ol’ boys sittin’ round doing any ol’ thing, Old Glory hanging with pride of place next to that of their home state Tennessee. In front lies Budweiser cans from days of hard boozin’. A balding trucker with a baseball cap sits next to a grizzly bear of a man in denim overalls, cigarette constantly in hand. They look straight down the barrel of a camera and issue an ultimatum. They’ve just declared their own private little war with the future Vice-President of the United States; they have just told the world they intend to go “Fightin’ Joe Biden.” These are the boys that deliver the razor-sharp Red State Update; the world renowned comedians and political commentators Jackie Broyles and Dunlap from broadcasting live out of Jackie’s Bait Shop in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

They’ve been on CNN decrying “Democrats and Decepticons” after reaching fame with their question posed to the Democratic Candidates during the CNN/YouTube debates (”Al Gore said he might want to run,” they asked mere months away from the primaries. “Does that hurt y’all’s feelings?”) Catching up with them over a couple of brews, I talked to the boys, even though they’re mad as hell now that a liberal Democrat occupies the White House.

“We’re mad as hee-all,” Dunlap says with a voice dripping in a thick Tennesseean drawl. “We’re madder because he’s doing all the things he said he’d do. It’s like rubbin’ salt in the wound.”
Jackie pipes up with a scratchy tone to his gruff voice. “Yeah, he’s a little arrogant.” Dunlap interjects. “Yeah. I’m gonna do all the things I said I was gonna do even if it bankrupts this country to hell.” I guess they might have been less bitter if Jackie’s haphazard bid for President got off the ground?

“Aww, hell no,” he complains. “I didn’t wanna run for President, no sir, that was Dunlap’s idea I had nothing to do with it.”

Dunlap replies, in all seriousness; “The people needed him.” “Nobody needed me,” he says, before changing his tune. “Well, looking at it now, maybe we’d be in better shape than we are now, but no! I ain’t runnin’ for President, no sir. I ain’t no politician.”

“Let the man finish his question,” Dunlap says, trying to calm him down. What about a run in 2012? Now I’ve gotten him all kinds of mad. “What the hell kinda question is that! I ain’t running for President!” Jackie protests.

Dunlap has a much bleaker outlook. “I don’t think he’ll be running. I don’t even think he’ll be alive. But if he makes it, I’ll definitely try to get him onto some state ballots.” Curiously enough, at this point, Dunlap played journalist.

“When’s the next Australian election?” Hinting at my Aussie accent. I tell him in 2010. It gives Dunlap an idea. Jackie for Prime Minister? But Jackie, unsurprisingly, wants no part of it; especially after I explained the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy to them in detail.

“Aw, hell,” Jackie says, “and we thought it was complicated enough over here.”

I allow Jackie and Dunlap to explore Australian culture with me as their guide for a while – Jackie was particularly curious about Australia the movie.

“I saw that movie, Australia, you know, that documentary of your history? All those guys running around chasing Black children.” Did he enjoy it? “Naw, I fell asleep during that.”

“Are there like, a lot of closeted homosexuals that run around with their shirts off in Australia, just like in the movie?” Dunlap enquires. I assure him that Australia has a diverse culture that has many kinds of people from all walks of life.
“Well in the movie,” Dunlap says, “It’s sort of like the focus. I’m just a bit concerned about that. I mean, I’ve got nothing against closeted homosexuals in general, it was just a question.”

Asking questions and then answering them in their own irreverent style is the focus of Jackie and Dunlap’s “Update” (http://redstateupdate.com), the characters born from the minds of Tennessee’s own Jonathan Shockley (Dunlap) and Travis Harmon (Jackie) out of almost necessity – they almost needed a vehicle with which to parody, back in 2007, an upcoming Presidential Election that they themselves would never have foreseen as being “so crazy.”

“The country hadn’t seen an election that nuts in a while,” Jonathan reflects. “I mean, even before the Primaries – two years before any voting even happened, people were looking to politics as entertainment.”
Entertaining as they were to add a “southern spin” on the election, Travis says that they merely got “caught in the midst of it all” and never expected their national, let alone international exposure via the debates.

“It was such a big surprise for us when our question was run during that debate; especially when we were making fun at the whole concept of there being debates in the first place.”
“Yeah,” Shockley adds, “especially when we made about ten of them and they were all basically mean-spirited jokes at the candidates’ expense.”

As for “being” Jackie and Dunlap, Harmon and Shockley try to make light – but never disrespectfully – of their Southern heritage via their exaggerated counterparts; although their message could be seen as universal.
“Only the South could produce these guys,” Shockley explains. “But then again they could be from anywhere.”
Harmon agrees. “I think there’s a blue-collar mentality about mistrusting the media. We don’t think they’re stupid or dumb rednecks. They comment on issues – hopefully humorously – to get people thinking.”
As for their political allegiance, they sum it up succinctly: “I guess they’re like those conservatives that just hate liberals – in their gut almost – and if you asked them to explain why, they just wouldn’t have an answer.”