Jeffery Marshall "Jeff" Foxworthy (born September 6, 1958) is an American stand-up comedian and television personality. As the best-selling comedy recording artist of all time, he is a member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, a comedy troupe which also comprises
Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall and Ron White. Known for his "you might be a redneck" one-liners, Foxworthy has released six major-label comedy albums. His first two albums were each certified 3×multi-Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Foxworthy has also written several books based on his redneck jokes, as well as an autobiography entitled, No Shirt, No Shoes… No Problem!
Foxworthy has also made several ventures into television, first in the mid-1990s as the star of a sitcom called, The Jeff Foxworthy Show. He has also appeared alongside Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy in several Blue Collar television specials, most notably Blue Collar TV. Since 2007, he has been the host of the quiz show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? on Fox (2007-09) and syndication (2009-present). Foxworthy hosted a nationally syndicated radio show called The Foxworthy Countdown from April 1999 to December 2009.
Early life
Foxworthy was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the first child of James Abstance, a computer executive, and Carole Linda (Camp) Foxworthy. His grandfather, James Marvin Camp, was a Hapeville, Georgia, fireman for more than 30 years.
Foxworthy graduated from Hapeville High School. He attended Georgia Tech in Atlanta, but did not graduate. He worked for five years in mainframe computer maintenance at IBM (where his father also worked). At the urging of co-workers, he entered and won the Great Southeastern Laugh-off, at Atlanta's Punchline comedy club, in 1984.
Career
Comedy albums
Foxworthy received the award for "Best Stand-Up Comic" at the 1990 American Comedy Awards.
In 1993, he released You Might Be a Redneck If..., which started the "You Might Be a Redneck" fad, topped the comedy album charts and sold more than three million copies.
His July 1995 release, "Games Rednecks Play," received a 1996
Grammy nomination for "Best Spoken Comedy Album."
Totally Committed was released in May 1999. In conjunction with the CD was a one-hour HBO stand-up special by the same name. The CD reached "gold" status and received a 1999 Grammy Award nomination. The video of the song, Totally Committed featured frequent references to then-Atlanta Braves pitcher, Greg Maddux as well as an appearence at the very end by Maddux himself (along with teammate, John Smoltz).
In 2001, he received a nomination for "Best Spoken Comedy Album" at the 43rd Annual Grammys.
Foxworthy hosted Country Weekly's ""TNN Music City News Country Awards" show for 1998, 1999 and 2000.
Television
In 1995, he starred in The Jeff Foxworthy Show, a sitcom created out of his stand-up comedy persona. It aired on ABC, but was canceled after one season. NBC subsequently picked up the show, but it was again canceled after one season. Foxworthy later remarked that the network did not understand how to properly market his humor; thinking his routine was "too Southern" for a national network ("Has anyone heard me talk?", he commented in one of his stand-up routines), they based the first season of his sitcom in Bloomington, Indiana. The show later aired on Nick at Nite and CMT in 2005 and 2006. He also appeared in
Alan Jackson's video for I Don't Even Know Your Name in 1995.
Foxworthy hosted the game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? which aired on Fox in prime time. He is currently hosting the syndicated version of the show which started on September 21, 2009. In addition, he is a host on The Bucks of Tecomate which airs on Versus with Alabama native David Morris.
Blue collar comedy
In the early 2000s, Foxworthy had a career resurgence as a result of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, in which he and three other comedians (Larry the Cable Guy, Ron White, and Bill Engvall), specializing in common-man comedy, toured the country and performed for record crowds. The tour lasted three full years, constantly being extended after an initial run of 20 shows.
In 2004, he launched a new television show called Blue Collar TV on The WB Television Network, Comedy Central, and Comedy Network (2007). He served as executive producer, and starred alongside Blue Collar Comedy Tour-mates Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engvall. (Ron White turned the show down but made occasional guest appearances). The show was relatively successful compared to the anemic performance of the WB's other sitcoms. On Larry the Cable Guy's website, he posted that the show was canceled on October 17, 2005 by WB. Reruns of Blue Collar TV continued until the network merged with UPN to form The CW.
Jeff resurrected the Blue Collar TV format (albeit with only himself participating along with some of the Blue Collar TV co-hosts) on Country Music Television (CMT) with Foxworthy's Big Night Out. The show began airing in summer 2006 and was cancelled after one season.
Radio work
In April 1999, Foxworthy began The Foxworthy Countdown, a nationally syndicated, weekly radio show, which featured the top 30 country hits of the week, as reported by Mediabase. He received a Country Music Association nomination, in 2001, for "Broadcast Personality of the Year." The program's last broadcast — the 2009 year-end countdown — aired the weekend of December 27, 2009. " Blue Collar Comedy Radio airs on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 103 and is associated with Raw Dog Comedy on Sirius 104.
Personal life
Foxworthy has been married to Pamela Gregg since 1985 and has two daughters, Jordan (born in 1992) and Julianne (born in 1994).
A noted hunting enthusiast, Foxworthy has appeared as host and featured guest on several programs on the Outdoor Channel and Versus.
Biography courtesy of
Wikipedia
