Review of Red State Update

Red State Update is a comic video blog that has been going strong since October 2005.  The show was created by Jonathan Shockley and Travis Harmon of the duo Travis and Jonathan, whose tremendous web presence has led them to appear on the CNN/Youtube debates as their Red State Update characters, Jackie and Dunlap.  In addition to their quirky variety show and various parodies (whose targets include Werner Herzog, Johnny Appleseed, Rick Rubin , and the chupacabra), Red State Update is a sector of the Travis and Jonathan shenanigans where they rely on their Tennessee upbringing to examine all that is current in American life and culture.  Since the beginning of 2007, Salon.com‘s Video Dog has been ooffering up new videos every Tuesday, before they appear elsewhere on the web.

Jackie and Dunlap are two Red State-loving hicks who muse on the state of the Union with their own unique slant. Seated at a table brimming with Budweiser cans, Jackie – sporting lumberjack plaid and overalls – and Dunlap – rocking out an

American flag tee – use the American flag as a backdrop to their Southern twanged barbs.  They examine all the liberal “hoaxes”, such as the 9/11 conspiracy, with a fervor that even Ann Coulter might envy. Red State Update, with its right wing supremacy stance, is possibly the polar opposite of the Daily Show.

Dunlap is more attuned to the outside world than Jackie, and their rapport rests on Dunlap’s repeated attempts to clarify a given situations for  Jackie.  If The Dukes of Hazzard got their hands on a copy of US Weekly, they might come up with the kind of celebrity examination that Jackie and Dunlap deploy.

The show’s blog also categorizes the past video entries by date, so you can look back and reminisce on important events of the past few years.

Jackie and Dunlap spin things in such a zany way that any topic they cover is going to hold your interest, but 5^th Graders having sex is pretty special.