Laugh Track: Ron White — More Than Blue Collar Comedy

Did you know that Ron White has been doing stand up for almost 25 years? Probably not. If you know of Ron White, you probably know him from his stint with Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy and their Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Well, Ron White has a large body of work that often gets overlooked by people who just focus on his Blue Collar Comedy work, and that’s a shame.

Ron White is a true Southerner (unlike Larry the Cable Guy). He started doing stand up in 1987 at age 31. Since White started his stand up career relatively late in life, he had a full career before he started doing stand up. During this time, he served in the Navy (which is where he was nicknamed Tater Salad).

He worked the club circuit for quite a while, focusing on Canada. He built up quite a following there and eventually managed to get an album released in 1990. Titled Tater Salad aka. Busted in Des Moines, it didn’t really go anywhere and is currently out of print. It showcases a different side of Ron White, as is the case with many artists’ first albums (if you don’t believe us, go and listen to George Carlin’s first few albums). He followed that up with the 1994 album Truckstop Comedy, which also failed to gain any traction.

After the release of Truckstop Comedy, White didn’t release another album for almost 10 years. During the mid- to late-90s, he continued touring and slowly built up a reputation as one of the funniest comedians working. It wasn’t until he joined Jeff Foxworthy’s Blue Collar Comedy Tour in 2000 that he truly became popular. In 2001, they released the album Blue Collar Comedy Tour and two years later starred in a stand up concert film of the same name.

Ron White’s stand up never fit really well with the rest of the group, as he tends to work dirty; the rest of the group, who project a family friendly persona, never let White do his dirtiest material on stage. When Foxworthy developed a television show based around the Blue Collar Comedy Tour group, Ron White decided not to participate.

Instead, he released a solo album, Drunk in Public, which made it all the way to #2 on the Billboard US Comedy charts and was certified Gold by the RIAA (meaning it sold more than 500,000 copies). Since then, he has released two more albums, You Can’t Fix Stupid and Behavioral Problems, both of which were #1 on the Billboard US Comedy Charts.

In 2005, White had his own short-lived variety show on the CW network. It only lasted one season, but only one episode actually aired. Since then, he has been sticking mostly to stand up. He has appeared several times over the last few years at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, Canada.

This year, he had a small part in the film Horrible Bosses, playing a copy who interrogates Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day.