West Virginia Joins the Table

West Virginia joins the table and we take a deep dive on what its like to be a mountaineer! (You might want to take a look at my hand-dandy WV dictionary before watching.)

----WV Dictionary----
1. "red up/get red" - Get ready.
2. "Holler" - a unit of distance.
3. "Rednecks" - coal miners would wear red bandanas around their necks to show they were with the union and fighting for better working conditions.
4. "Any way, shape, form, or fashion" - a common phrase from Gov. Jim Justice
5. "Egg-sucking mask" - a common phrase from Gov. Jim Justice
6. "Out Wayne" - Going out to Wayne County... for some reason...

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----Next Shows----
7/23 - Atlanta, GA - SOLD OUT
8/13 - Tallahassee, FL - SOLD OUT
8/21 - Boca Raton, FL - The Boca Black Box
8/22 - Wesley Chapel, FL - Side Splitters @ The Grove
8/28 - Morris, MN - The University of Minnesota Morris

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[fayjune]

As a West Virginian, I am both stunned and impressed at how accurate that portrayal of a West Virginian is.

[panzer_]

As someone born and raised in West by god Virginia, I can confirm that Mothman deserves his own video

[UNION_JACK_THE_RIPPER]

Need to mention this. This year is the 100 year anniversary of the battle of Blair Mountain. RIP to those Coal miners from Yorkshire the coal capital of the UK

[comradepadraig]

As a native West Virginian, this is an amazing explanation of West by god Virginia.

[jaymieadkins]

as a raised west virginian and a golden horseshoe winner this made me smile thank you for highlighting so many wonderful things about Best Virginia™️

[beeandbear]

I feel like West Virginia should use this as a tourism ad, because I now feel inclined to visit West Virginia for the first time in my life. 😂😂😂 but maybe that's the Floridian in me.

[HurricaneGamer]

Surprised VT didn’t pop in when WV mentioned the Maple Syrup thing.

[vicky]

As a West Virginian, I would give this a million thumbs up if I could.

[carsonrush]

I could watch West Virginia videos for well over an hour.

In October, the kids will block the roads with trees, burning couches, and other debris to get days off from school. They celebrate Halloween all month long in the hills.

There's a lovely restaurant I went to called "Hill Billy Hotdogs". Half the restaurant's seating is in a school bus on blocks. They serve a 3-pound hotdog called "the home wrecker" and 5 or 10 pound hamburgers called the "single wide" and "double wide", respectively. The booths in the restaurant are made out of stuff like bathtubs cut in half. They give you markers to sign your name on the wall.

If I had to describe the culture of the Appalachian region briefly, I'd tell you that it's like they took a bottled piece of the 50's and dropped a drug war in it, and then tossed in a bunch of coal miners and home steaders. They're really down to earth people.

To fully imitate the accent, you take your general country accent, scrub the Texas twang and Southern sophistication out if it, and enunciate as little as possible while still being understandable. So you did it pretty darn well.

I love the landscape of the hills. You've got flower-filled valleys, clouds that touch the hill tops, fall colors, great snow, frog season (mix the chirps of crickets and birds at night), the slow roll of trains on tracks, long dirt roads, and banjo music in the distance... uh oh.

On the other hand you've got people that hang possum skulls at the entrance of their neighborhood, toilet flower pots, cars on blocks, moonshine stills, dog fighting, and so many drugs. People in Florida refer to hill people as "pill billies". I spent a year in the hills going door to door, and I saw some amazing stuff. They're either deeply self-sufficient or deeply in welfare, and almost every one of them would give you the shirt off their back... Just don't try to force it.

They're like a quieter, friendlier Florida man that'll bury you in the backyard after you've messed with them. They say "don't mess with Texas", but I'd tell you to never go stir up the hill folk. You're already lost in their maze, and you'll never escape their labyrinth. Here's some notable examples. The British lost the fight for the southern states when they woke up the swarm of sharpshooter trappers that were minding their own business in the hills, who proceeded to snipe their leaders one by one. The battle of Blair mountain had the government call out the army and airforce to fight (and lose to) a bunch of miners with rifles.

[CptRupert]

As a West Virginiaian, I’m kinda shocked by the accuracy of this video.

The research that went into it was pretty impressive, accent not too far off for some of us, and the Out Wayne reference was solid. Well done.

[shandrabrooks]

I love this one. West Virginia always gets crapped on but I think it’s history is fascinating…and I’m from Utah.

[sydneyc]

"What's a mountain?" So subtle yet so perfect

[HereToLearn]

Can’t wait to show this to MY Mountain Momma! She has a little music box that plays “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and that song will always remind me of her!

[tristan]

Heard "Country Roads" and came running.
West Virginia IS the BEST Virginia, hands down. Came here just to say this.
Congrats, this video just made it into my West Virginia History class.
Carry on.

[MakerOfChase]

This might be the best welcome to the table introduction yet. I could watch Florida fall in love with WVa for hours

[rgcwv]

Coming from a whole network of geeks in West Virginia we love this video and thought you did a fantastic job. There’s so many incorrect stereotypes and so much more to do here that a lot of people disregard. And yes moth man needs a video!

[Brucewayne_]

As a West Virginian I can confirm that if you sing country roads it is in our blood to sing along with you.

[AlicePhantom]

I love how Ben doesn't even need to act for his part, he was actually SO annoyed when he was on Tik Tok live gathering facts for West Virginia and people kept mentioning the dumb stereotype. Florida's rhyme tho was amazing, as well as West Virginia flipping everyone off. (That's gonna be fun for the discord lmao.)

[erbmiller]

As a Western Virginian I loved how you called out West Virginia's clam to Shenandoah River and Blue Ridge Mountains Claim. I live with in 10 miles of both the river and mountains.

[diannamallar]

Maine really needs to be invited to the Table. After all, it's not every state that gets their lobsters high before cooking them.