Line #9 Main/FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit


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3	%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
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6	[[quoteright:319:[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/af8aafcc6c9cbb9a970c510ff2a8a7b4.jpg]]]]
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8	->''He's six foot one way, two foot the other\
9	And he weighs three hundred pounds\
10	His coat's so big, he couldn't pay the tailor\
11	And it won't go halfway round''
12	-->-- Description of a slaveowner from ''Kingdom Coming,'' '''Henry Clay Work'''
13
14	Like DastardlyWhiplash, this is an oddly specific character. Often a villain, or at the very least extremely shady, the Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit is where the SmallTownTyrant intersects with the VillainousGlutton. They are always obese. They always speak with a strong Southern accent, normally an upper-class drawl. They are almost always dressed in a white suit, cane optional. If it's not truly white, it'll be pale enough to have the same effect. If it's someplace in the DeepSouth, like Mississippi or Louisiana, they will be extremely sweaty and constantly dabbing themselves with a handkerchief when not lazily fanning themselves. This is optional in places like Kentucky, but they will occasionally [[HeatWave manage to be sweaty]] even in an Appalachian winter.
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16	The root of the stereotype is in historic Southern fashions, combined with negative stereotypes of plantation owners. The white suit was an enduring Southern fashion well into the 1970s, and can still be seen to this day because the South is ''hot'', not to mention humid. The best such suits were made of linen, which is naturally moisture-wicking and highly thermally conductive; the next-best quality was seersucker, a cotton weave in which most of the cloth stays away from the skin. (Seersucker suits are fashionable to this day in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC, which is very much a part of the South's subtropical climate zone.) Being white meant that the suit reflected light, and so didn't get hot as fast as other fabrics; it also allowed its wearer to show off that he didn't have to do anything that would get his clothing dirty.
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18	Historical figures who sported the Southern white suit included Creator/MarkTwain and [[UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken Colonel Harland Sanders]], but neither of them were particularly fat nor particularly villainous, unless in the latter's case you asked the chickens. Mark Twain's satires of Southern aristocracy might have been the TropeCodifier here.
19
20	The villainous version is a shameless glutton; the usual objects of his gluttony are mainstream Southern foods (sweet, fatty dishes which originated in the wet, cold, rainy Scottish Lowlands, and were definitely not adapted to suit the wet, hot, rainy Southern ones), but he's often found in association with gumbo, suggesting that he may have Cajun origins.
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22	He occasionally has JabbaTableManners and often has a careless, laid-back manner. He's probably NouveauRiche and quite possibly a SmallTownTyrant; he's almost certainly not an aristocratic, genteel, warlike SouthernGentleman.
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24	He might be rich by anyone's standards, or he might just be better off than the rural poverty that surrounds him. One way or the other, he can afford very large quantities of very good food, and it's not at all unlikely that he gets the money from being part of, or the leader of, a corrupt local government.
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26	One occasionally sees an uncorrupt or out-and-out heroic character of this sort. They sometimes sell food; at other times, they, like the SouthernGentleman, are [[SimpleCountryLawyer lawyers]].
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28	For non-fat, non-sweaty, non-Southerners who may have a different set of villainous characteristics, see VillainInAWhiteSuit. For Southerners too blue-blooded to sweat, see SouthernGentleman. For characters who are more powerful and even less genteel, see SmallTownTyrant (remembering that there's a lot of overlap). For villains who eat a great deal, Southern or not, see VillainousGlutton. And for other stereotypes of the obese, compare and contrast FatBastard, FatIdiot, FatSlob, and SubParSupremacist.
29
30	[[noreallife]]
31
32	----
33	!!Examples:
34
35	[[foldercontrol]]
36
37	[[folder:Advertising]]
38	* A Little Caesar's Pizza commercial for its bacon-wrapped pepperoni pizza features the SimpleCountryLawyer variant who would like to reassure the audience that having that much bacon on one pizza is "perfectly legal."
39	* A series of commercials for Roomaire (No Sweat!) air conditioners in the mid-1980s used a typical country song playing on midwestern and southern stereotypes this way. "The big fat sheriff was heard to mutter/ If it don't cool off, I'll turn to butter."
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	%%[[folder:Comic Books]]
43	%%* The Holy Roller, from ''ComicBook/WildCards''.
44	%%[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
47	* Layton T. Montgomery (played by Creator/JohnGoodman), the attorney defending the honey industry from Barry's lawsuit in ''WesternAnimation/BeeMovie''.
48	* "Big Daddy" Labouff from ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', also played by John Goodman, is a rare positive example. He's a Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit and a bit of a glutton, but a pretty NiceGuy: a DotingParent, ''immensely'' NiceToTheWaiter, and popular enough to be elected King of Mardi Gras five years in a row. Goodman seems to like this role.
49	%%* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'' has the mayor of Dirt, minus the sweaty part -- reptiles can't sweat.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
53	* Senator Seabright "Sebe" Cooley of South Carolina in ''Film/AdviseAndConsent'', although he's more wily and shrewd than villainous.
54	* One shows up in ''Film/AngelHeart''. He gets his head boiled in gumbo.
55	* Davido, the greedy building developer from (the live-action part of) ''Film/ArthurAndTheInvisibles''. What he's truly after is the treasure hidden by Arthur's grandfather in the world of the Minimoys.
56	* CJ Ramage III from ''Film/BlackstockBoneyard'' is the white suit-clad mayor of a South Carolina town and an [[LargeHam over-the-top]] racist who is constantly shown publicly disparaging Black people.
57	%%* Loren Visser in ''Film/BloodSimple'' is probably the ultimate villainous example of this.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
58	%%* Judge Josh, corrupt patriarch of Texas City, in ''Film/BreakerBreaker.''%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
59	%%* Burl Ives as Big Daddy in ''Film/CatOnAHotTinRoof''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
60	* ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' isn't set in the American South, and Signor Ferrari is a suave Italian, but he otherwise fits the description quite well.
61	* ''Film/Constantine2005'': The personification of [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]]. Complete with Louisiana accent and white suit, which should be noted, is missing shoes, so you can see filth literally dripping off of his bare feet. Probably hot tar or pitch -- which sort of makes sense.
62	* {{Parodied\|Trope}} in ''Film/DoctorDetroit'', in which Clifford pretends to be an example of this trope in order to curry favor with a judge who is an actual example.
63	* Sheriff Bess is this in ''Film/AFaceInTheCrowd''. He doesn't have the white suit on when we see him, but we can assume he ''has'' one.
64	* ''Film/FreedomOnMyMind'': A stock footage newsreel shows a fat double-chinned sheriff in a white shirt blocking entrance to a county courthouse where voter registrations are accepted. This causes a moment of conflict between the white and black civil rights activists. The white kids from all over Yankeeland laugh at the stereotypical newsreel. The black activists who are native to Mississippi get angry, pointing out that this is all deadly serious.
65	* ''Film/GunsGirlsAndGambling'': Creator/PowersBoothe isn't especially fat, but everything else about the The Rancher fits the bill: he is a SmallTownTyrant who [[IOwnThisTown controls everything not on the reservation]] and dresses in a white suit and cowboy hat.
66	* In ''Film/{{JFK}}'', John Candy portrays RealLife New Orleans defense attorney Dean Andrews this way.
67	* ''Film/Life1999'' features at least three examples. Two are prison wardens, the first of whom fits the trope to a T. The second warden is identical in appearance but a much more decent human being. A minor but eventually important villain at the beginning of the film also shows that fat, sweaty, white-bedecked Southern bastards aren't exclusively white.
68	%%* ''Film/TheLongestYard'' (2005 version): He's a friend of the prison warden and behaves as you expect from a fat southerner.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
69	* ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'': Doc Hopper, the owner of Doc Hopper's French-Fried Frog Legs is fat, Southern, and wears a white suit. He also tries to [[LetsMeetTheMeat force Kermit to advertise his restaurant]], resorting to attempting both brainwashing and ''murder'' when he refuses.
70	* ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'': Governor Pappy O'Daniel. Corrupt, but in a self-interested, neutral way. Also, John Goodman plays a straighter, evil example, as a shady bible salesman/[[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Klansman]] who beats the heroes senseless with a tree branch and steals their money. The RealLife Pappy O'Daniel is not an example, however.
71	* Although the main villain from ''Film/OverdrawnAtTheMemoryBank'' has based himself on a character from ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'', he still belongs to this trope, particularly when it comes to his constant eating and his FauxAffablyEvil personality.
72	* The John Sayles movie ''Film/PassionFish'' kinda-sorta {{avert\|edTrope}}s this, or maybe {{deconstruct\|edTrope}}s it. A Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit shows up at one point, but he's the main character's gay cousin (who else wears a white suit nowadays?) and the two of them spend a delightful evening drinking heavily and trading family stories.
73	* The BigBad of ''Film/PrimeCut'' is an overweight, psychopathic lookalike to Boss Hogg.
74	* An ancillary character in ''Film/{{Psycho}}'', a customer at the realty office Marion works for. He flirts outrageously with her and ostentatiously pays for his tens-of-thousands-of-dollars purchase in cash ("[[TemptingFate Never carry more than I can afford to lose]]!"), which sets off the plot.
75	* Senator Raymond Clark in ''Literature/SevenDaysInMay'' is a non-villainous example of the trope.
76	* ''Film/TalesFromTheHood2'': Minus the fat and sweaty parts, William [[MeaningfulName Cotton]] sports one, and [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain jokes about how Henry would have been serving the party in the good ol' days, rather than hosting it]].
77	* South American variant in ''Film/ThatManFromRio''. As Adrian is shining a shoeshine kid's shoes (not having any money for the kid doing his), a fat guy in white brushes the kid aside to get his own shoes done. Adrian polishes his white shoes black, and, of course, he can't see his own shoes.
78	* ''Film/TheWaterboy'': One of Bobby's professors -- so much so that Bobby [[LampshadeHanging calls him Colonel Sanders]]. He isn't evil so much as a ButtMonkey, and he quickly finds out the hard way that [[BerserkButton you don't make fun of Mama]].
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Literature]]
82	%%* OlderThanRadio: Col. Grangerford from ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
83	%%* The villain in ''Literature/ArtemisFowl and the Time Paradox''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
84	* Ignatius Reilly in ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'' actually ''aspires'' to this.
85	* ''Literature/ElementalAssassin'': Captain Wayne Stephenson is a DirtyCop who is constantly dabbing away sweat with a handkerchief. In ''Spider's Bite'', he shows up at a formal fundraiser wearing a white suit.
86	%%* Jimmy Jay Jenkins from the ''Literature/InDeath'' series by Creator/NoraRoberts.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
87	%%* {{Invoked\|Trope}} by one of Richie Tozier's Voice characters in ''Literature/{{IT}}''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
88	* A horror story "The Suit" by G.W. Thomas had the white suit be a ClingyCostume; its overweight Southern owner is [[DealWithTheDevil promised wealth and power]] if he keeps feeding the suit with his own fat. Problem is the suit's hunger exceeds his intake of food.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
92	* "Boss" Jefferson Davis Hogg, from ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard''. Possibly the TropeCodifier.
93	* On ''Series/GoodEats'', Alton has an uncle (actually Alton in a costume) who wears a white suit (although he isn't fat or abnormally sweaty), since he's supposed to be a parody of Col. Sanders. He usually shows up when the recipe in question is distinctly Southern (such as fried catfish).
94	* In the ''Series/HorribleHistories'' sketch about Harriet Tubman, she has to hide from one of these -- [[FatIdiot he's stupid enough for her to do so easily]].
95	* In ''Series/MadTV1995'' the recurring character Son of {{Film/Dolemite}}'s ArchEnemy is the fat, sweaty white Sheriff.
96	-->''"[[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Kill that boy]]! Kill 'em dead!"''
97	* ''Series/MagicCity'': Florida State Senator Ned Sloat represents Northern Florida. The more north you go in Florida, the more Southern you get.
98	* ''Series/{{Matlock}}'': [[SimpleCountryLawyer Ben Matlock]] has the suit, is a bit on the large side, and sweats a lot, but he's the protagonist and [[GoodLawyersGoodClients his clients are always innocent]]. He can be really terrifying when he harangues the witness though.
99	* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': Jake Morgan, the villain in "Bayou", is a fat, sweaty southerner in a white suit who runs a [[HumanTraffickers white slavery ring]].
100	* Ray Ray (who is skinny) and Randy (who is not) as "[[{{Heel}} The Man]]" in ''Series/MyNameIsEarl''.
101	-->'''The Man:''' ''"[[SassyBlackWoman YOU]]! [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Back of the bus]]!"''
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Music]]
105	* The lead singer of the Serbian turbofolk metal band ''Pero Defformero''[[https://s3.amazonaws.com/bit-photos/large/198886.jpeg cultivates this image]], as a parody of the group of Balkan music genres turbofolk belongs to, in which male artists often exhibit a Southeastern European version of the trope.
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
109	* Gary Hart (no relation to the Hart Family or Jimmy Hart), a prominent wrestling personality in the South during the territorial days, did the Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit routine.
110	* Although Ernie Ladd wasn't fat, he did have some of the mannerisms. Southern accent, intensely classist and racist, and when doing interviews, he sometimes donned white or otherwise pastel suits.
111	%%* Colonel Robert Parker%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
112	* Wrestling/JimCornette, who didn't like working people or women and (at the very least) was very unconscious or apathetic to the concerns of black people, and often wore a white suit. But he didn't get fat until a fall from a scaffold busted his knees.
113	[[/folder]]
114
115	[[folder:Theatre]]
116	* Some productions of ''Theatre/FiniansRainbow'' make Senator Rawkins look this way, though it isn't indicated in the script and doesn't follow OriginalCastPrecedent.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Video Games]]
120	* ''Franchise/{{Hitman}}'':
121	** Skip Muldoon of ''[[VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney Blood Money]]'' is the captain of a luxury Mississippi riverboat, drug smuggler, and DepravedBisexual with an emphasis on the depraved. His half-brother, John "Pappy" Le Blanc, is the paranoid, senile, and dangerously rich head of the drug cartel that Skip worked for.
122	** Blake Dexter, the BigBad of ''[[VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution Absolution]]'', has the girth, suit, drawl and attitude down to a 'T', [[SubvertedTrope except]] he's actually a Midwesterner from South Dakota. It's very obvious that Dexter and his cowboy hat-wearing cronies were originally meant to be Texan, but for whatever reason this was changed sometime before release.
123	* While he's not fat, Emile Dufraisne from ''VideoGame/SplinterCellDoubleAgent'' otherwise fits this trope.
124	* The villain of ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfBayouBilly'' is one of these. He kidnaps Billy's girlfriend Annabelle and takes her to his estate just outside TheBigEasy, and Billy has to go on a [[NintendoHard very difficult]] adventure to rescue her.
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Web Original]]
128	* In reaction to Tariq Nasheed's controversial documentary ''Buck Breaking'', right-wing [[MemeticMutation memers]] began crafting memes featuring Pepe the Frog as a fat sweaty southerner in a white suit to make fun of it. [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1668136176 This]] is a relatively inoffensive example, most of them are much worse.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Western Animation]]
132	* Mayor Toadstool of ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' doesn’t wear the white suit but qualified in all the other ways including being a CorruptPolitician (though he mellows by the second season).
133	* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE8TheForgotten The Forgotten]]", [[DisposableVagrant homeless people are being kidnapped]] and forced to work in a mine run by one of these types, pictured above complete with a piece of fried chicken and a fan. (All he lacked was a Southern accent.)
134	* Mr. Fishchoder (who even has a white EyepatchOfPower) from ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', minus the fat part.
135	* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': Piggish villain Hoggish Greedley usually prefers the army fatigue look, but appears in a white suit on occasion. He has a grandfather, Don Porkaloin, who plays this trope to the hilt.
136	%%* The principal of GESH from ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
137	* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Jimmy Nixon [=McGarfield=], the Fourth Grade President-for-Life, is a tween example. He starts out with the typical white suit, [[spoiler:but gets a black one once he's officially a villain]].
138	* Big Boss, the main villain of ''WesternAnimation/COPS1988'', minus the Southerner part.
139	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome and several other buildings and companies in Dimmsdale, and the richest and most powerful man in the city. Based on his mannerisms and Western attire, he is most likely a parody of American businessman William Randolph Hearst.
140	* [[Characters/FamilyGuyPeterGriffin Peter Griffin]] briefly becomes one for the sake of a cutaway in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS18E16StartMeUp Start Me Up]]".
141	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
142	** {{Parodied\|Trope}} with the [[SimpleCountryLawyer anthropomorphic chicken lawyer]].
143	** Played straight in "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E12TheDeepSouth The Deep South]]" with a Fat Southern [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent Merman]] in a white suit.
144	* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has [[EnfanteTerrible Gideon Gleeful]]. He's ten years old and his suit is baby blue, but he's chubby, pig-like, has an impressive Southern drawl, is a SmallTownTyrant and a [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior villain through and through]].
145	* Hose of the Guapo Brothers in ''WesternAnimation/TheMrPeabodyAndShermanShow'' qualifies.
146	* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/SaturdaySupercade'', the Donkey Kong cartoon "Mississippi Madness" has someone named Colonel Culpepper as the main antagonist, who plans to steal a jewel.
147	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
148	** The recurring character of the Rich Texan fits the "fat", "southerner", and "in a white (or, at least, light tan) suit" elements of the trope, though he isn't commonly shown to be sweaty or gluttonous. He is very rich and occasionally somewhat shady.
149	** [[Characters/TheSimpsonsHomerSimpson Homer Simpson]] is definitely trying for the look when he restyles himself as "Colonel Homer", manager of Lurleen Lumpkin in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E20ColonelHomer the third-season episode of the same name]]. He brings the suit out again in Season 19's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E16PapaDontLeech Papa Don't Leech]]" when Lurleen returns to Springfield.
150	** Also played with in the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E15BartTheFink Bart the Fink]]", in which the [[IntimidatingRevenueService IRS]] is investigating Krusty the Klown's [[SwissBankAccount offshore accounts]] and a Fat Sweaty Cayman Islander in a White Suit answers the phone:
151	--->'''Fat Sweaty Guy:''' ''[laughs]'' Ho ho, I'm sorry. [[IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou I can't divulge information about that customer's secret, illegal account]]. ''[hangs up]'' [[OhCrap Oh, crap, I shouldn't have said he was a customer]]. Oh, crap! I shouldn't have said it was a secret. [[RuleOfThree OH, CRAP]]! I ''certainly'' shouldn't have said it was illegal! Eh, it's too hot today. ''[fans himself]''
152	** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E9MayoredToTheMob Mayored to the Mob]]": Homer trains to become Mayor Quimby's bodyguard by going to Leavelle's Bodyguard Academy, where Leavelle (Creator/MarkHamill) is this trope. Judging by his accent, he seems to be from Texas.
153	** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E21TheMonkeySuit The Monkey Suit]]": During the trial against Lisa and evolution, Ned has an overweight SimpleCountryLawyer named Wallace Brady (guest-starred by Creator/LarryHagman) at his side. The guy opposes Lisa and greatly supports creationism, calling evolution a load of "Hollywood hooey", not to mention he's not afraid of manipulating the audience at the courtroom with a cute baby deer (Bambi apparently) by claiming evolution is what allowed humans to kill his mother, with the intent of siding people against Lisa. [[AmoralAttorney Brady also sees no problem whatsoever with sending an eight-year-old girl straight to jail if it means teaching religion at schools]].
154	** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E12LoveSpringfieldianStyle Love, Springfieldian Style]]": Wiggum himself gets a related classic line, after watching a racially insensitive cartoon: "[[EveryoneHasStandards Even I find this offensive, and I'm a fat Southern sheriff]]!"
155	%%** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E24TheSimpsonsSpinOffShowcase The Simpsons Spinoff Showcase]]": Big Daddy from the show "Wiggum P.I." is a classic example.%%How?
156	%%** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E5EIEIAnnoyedGrunt [=E-I-E-I-[Annoyed Grunt]=]]]": The southern general who Homer fights a duel with is also an example.
157	* The father of the alligator SouthernBelle sisters from ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventuresHowISpentMyVacation''. Voiced by [[Series/TheDukesOfHazzard Boss Hogg]] (Sorrell Booke) himself, no less.
158	* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'': Tiny Attorney, another heroic example. Bonus points are awarded for simultaneously being a SimpleCountryLawyer.
159	[[/folder]]

Context Main / FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit