History Main / SmallTownTyrant

If he's not [[DirtyCop a cop]] or involved in local politics, odds are that he's [[CorruptCorporateExecutive a businessman]], especially a CattleBaron or RailroadBaron in period settings, who doesn't want those irritating townsfolk getting in the way of his precious profits -- that is, unless he ''literally'' [[CompanyTown owns the town]].

* In ''VideoGame/FarCry5'', [[SinisterMinister Joseph Seed]] and his siblings serve as a [[ExaggeratedTrope scaled-up version of this]]: the leaders of an ApocalypseCult who amassed a great deal of land and influence throughought a HopeCounty of rural UsefulNotes/{{Montana}} through charisma, brainwashing, bribery and plain old violence. Then, when law enforcement makes a disastrous attempt to arrest Joseph, his followers break out an arsenal of military-grade weaponry and forcibly take control of the entire county, brainwashing or killing any who resist.

His underlings will be either corrupt themselves or [[CluelessDeputy clueless]] -- areas that tolerate these folks generally don't get reformed from inside. If it's a [[HillbillyHorrors horror story]], he may be keeping a MadwomanInTheAttic, as well as hiding much worse things from the public eye.

* ''FanFic/AGreatAndPowerfulHeart'': Sheriff Brass runs the small rural town of Promise. In his first scene, he threatens to lock Trixie up indefenitely over [[FelonyMisdemeanor a minor technicality]] unless he does his bidding. [[spoiler: Later, it is revealed he's a member of Filli Terram, a group of earth pony bigots, and that [[WouldHurtAChild he abandoned two children to die for not being earth ponies]] ]].

* ''Film/{{Goldstone}}'': Maureen is the mayor of Goldstone, and is in bed with the local mining corporation as they try to push through a crooked land deal. She will do anything, including murder, to make sure she gets her piece of the pie.

* ''Film/NeverGrowOld'': Initially, [[PreacherMan Preacher Pike]] is the de facto ruler of Garlow: trying to turn it into his vision of paradise on Earth by [[DryCrusader banning alcohol, gambling and whores]]. When Dutch Albert moves and starts turning the town in a WretchedHive, he challenges Pike for the position of most powerful man in Garlow. Throughout, the Sheriff remains caught between the two of them.

* ''Film/RedHill'': Old Bill is the local police inspector, and he dispenses justice if, when and how he sees fit. He also has distinct ideas of what the future of the town should be, and reacts harshly to any critics of his vision.

* ''Film/RoadHouse1989'': Brad Wesley's personal fortune and business savvy (he's apparently very talented at getting the town big-name retail franchises) has reinvigorated the economy of Jasper single-handed, and as a result he has enough influence to run the place like a crime boss. All the local merchants have to regularly pay up to the "Jasper Improvement Society", the front organization for his protection racket, and are harassed by his hired muscle if they don't; until Dalton arrives and cleans up the Double Deuce, Wesley was also forcing Tilghman to employ both his nephew (who steals from the till) and one of his goons as a bartender and bouncer, respectively. Brad Wesley is so immensely powerful, in fact, that his men can ''destroy a car dealership with a monster truck in broad daylight'', and not even have to worry about police intervention. [[spoiler:The climax features the men of Jasper finally turning on him as one and riddling him with bullets before he can kill Dalton.]]
* In ''Film/ShootOutAtMedicineBend'', shady businessman Eb Clark has been slowly [[IOwnThisTown taking over Medicine Bend]]. He controls the mayor and the sheriff, owns most of the major business, and runs a bandit gang that robs wagon trains leaving the town, forcing them to return to Medicine Bend to resupply from Clark's businesses.

* A small example, but it's pretty much stated that the reason Willie Rumson in ''Literature/OneFatSummer'' is able to get away with harassing the vacationing summer people in general, and Bobby in particular, is because his uncle is Sheriff and covers for him. Driven home when the man actually gives BOBBY a citation after Willie and his friends steal his first week's pay from Dr. Kahn. It is mentioned, though, that Sheriff Rumson can't do anything for his nephew in regards to an assault or murder charge, something Willie's friends apparently have to remind him of.
* In ''Literature/RiverOfTeeth'', Travers rules the Harriet. Through various means involving business machinations and the occasional burned down ranch he has managed to secure the exclusive rights to own businesses on the Harriet. Though technically he has to follow federal law as much as everyone else, the Harriet is in such a remote location and has gained enough reputation as a lawless place that he basically does what he wants, including throwing cheating customers to the feral hippos and ordering around the rangers assigned to the Gate.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': A [[CorruptCop sheriff's deputy]] is a Corrupt Hick. He has such an intense fear/hatred of Arabs that he [[spoiler:plants evidence of bomb making in the garage of a young Arab man who has recently moved in]], justifying it as a 'pre-emptive strike'.

* ''Series/{{Justified}}'': The deeply corrupt nature and poor economy of [[WretchedHive Harlan County]] makes its various towns a haven for characters like these. Bo Crowder had most of the sheriff's department and judicial system in his back pocket during his heyday, and his son, Boyd, aims to do the same. The town of Bennett is even worse than the rest of Harlan, Mags Bennett and her sons ruling the entire town through fear and tradition. There's a succession of crooked sheriffs, various town officials who are on the take, and a group of local elites, known as the Clover Hillers, who think that their social status gives them the right to run the county as they see fit. About the only good news is that they, and outsiders like the Dixie Mafia and Detroit Mob, end up forming competing factions, keeping each other somewhat in check.
* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Storybrooke, Maine is controlled by two: Regina Mills, its UltimateAuthorityMayor, and Mr. Gold, who [[IOwnThisTown owns the town (literally)]]. It's not quite accurate to refer to either of these as "hicks", however, as they aren't uneducated or a bumpkins; both are depicted as extremely intelligent, cultured characters (although Gold's original Rumpelstiltskin personality is depicted as a "country hick" to a degree in the recent origin episode). Also a bit of a subversion on two counts: The town was [[spoiler: literally created to be such by Regina (the Evil Queen) using dark magic, yet despite this she slowly does a HeelFaceTurn and becomes one of the town's protectors]]. Additionally, [[spoiler: while Mr. Gold experiences a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor, this is mostly due to him being a genuinely flawed and traumatized character who constantly ends up making mistakes he deeply regrets thanks to his dependence on dark magic, rather than out of wholehearted treachery or genuine malice]].
* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In "Act of Terror", Percival Bertram is a CorruptCorporateExecutive looking and acting every bit of this trope who supports right-wing conservative politicians and brands himself as a super-patriot advocating that the U.S. should take gloves of with respect to terrorists to U.S. interests in the Middle East. However, the alleged super-patriot finances terrorism in the Middle East against U.S. interests (supposedly to create a self-fulfilling prophecy gaining his own business interests.)
* Mr Gribble in ''Series/RoundTheTwist'' is an Australian version of this, particularly when he becomes mayor of the tiny rural town of Port Niranda in seasons 3 and 4. As the main antagonist, throughout the series he spends most of his time bullying, bribing and cheating his way towards what he wants.

* Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg of ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'', of the FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit and HarmlessVillain variants. His basically runs Hazzard County as his own little sandbox to run scams and get rich quick schemes out of. What he doesn't own in the county, he taxes as much as he can get away with. His minions in the Sherrif's department are corrupt (Sheriff Roscoe), clueless (Deputy Enos) or both (Deputy Cletus, Boss Hogg's nephew)

* Ward, a security guard from ''VideoGame/TheOrionConspiracy''. He is openly racist, sexist, and whatever term you would like to apply. Just about everything that comes out of his mouth is an insult. Practically nobody likes him, and at least one character refers to him as a redneck, and says that he is so dumb that insults will just fly right over his head. Bonus points for the fact that he hates the Irish main character Devlin [=McCormack=], because his first name is [[spoiler: Malachi, an Irish first name]].

* The ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' episode "Citizen Khan" has the Sea Duck stopped by a sheriff for flying over the town's airspace, and then sentenced to work in the mines by the same guy as judge. All while the town's OnlySaneWoman protests that he doesn't actually hold ''either'' of these positions, it's just that nobody else does.

* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': Sheriff Hugo Root is a racist, alcoholic hick who regularly and brutally beat his son, and who was feared and loathed by his town. The first thing he says to his son after the latter's failed suicide attempt? "Shoulda put it in your mouth, you dumb little fuck."

* ''Film/RedHill'': Old Bill is the local police inspector, and he dispenses justice if, when and how he sees fit. He also has distinct ideas of what the future of the town should be, and reacts harshly to any critics of his vision.

* Mayor Jim Bob Buchanon of the ''Literature/ArlyHanks'' mysteries is a piggish petty tyrant of sorts, at least to the meager extent possible in a skint-broke town with less than 800 people. He falls short where genuine evil is concerned, due to incompetence and a tendency to fall prey when ''real'' villains KickTheSonOfABitch.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}: [[spoiler:Mayor Tortoise John]] is the BigBad of the film who deliberately cuts off his people's supply of water to force them into handing over their land for his own purposes.

He will almost certainly wear a [[HatOfAuthority hat]], probably carry a gun, will probably chew tobacco and/or smoke cigars, is almost always white, and is virtually AlwaysMale. Will typically have [[HayseedName a uniquely Southern given name akin to Rufus or Clement]]. Good odds of being a FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit and/or a HalfWittedHillbilly, and if he's the mayor of the town, he will most likely be an evil MayorPain.

-->-- '''Stroker''', ''WesternAnimation/StrokerAndHoop''*[[note]]It was in fact the corrupt sheriff.[[/note]]

-->-- '''Stroker''', ''WesternAnimation/StrokerAndHoop''

* Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg of ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'', of the FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit. A HarmlessVillain variant of the type, he basically runs Hazzard County as his own little fiefdom to run scams and get rich quick schemes out of. What he doesn't own in the county, he taxes as much as His minions in the Sherrif's department are corrupt (Sheriff Roscoe), clueless (Deputy Enos) or both (Deputy Cletus, Boss Hogg's nephew)

One of the most obvious hallmarks of a town run by a Tyrant is the apparent lack of a judicial system, oftentimes because they’re TheSheriff and take this role to mean JudgeJuryAndExecutioner. It seems the Tyrant can just go around arresting whomever he wants for no reason without them ever getting a trial. If there's a courthouse in town, it's certainly not being used. (On the rare occasion there is a trial, it ''will'' have a HangingJudge who ''will'' be on the [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney payroll]].) In all these respects, this trope is effectively a modern-day version of the FeudalOverlord of yore. The fact that he was probably elected due to his popularity will usually be ignored, though expect him to be a CorruptPolitician who buys his elections if this comes up.

One of the most obvious hallmarks of a town run by a Tyrant is the apparent lack of a judicial system, oftentimes because they’re TheSheriff and take this role to mean JudgeJuryAndExecutioner. It seems the Tyrant can just go around arresting whomever he wants for no reason without them ever getting a trial. If there's a courthouse in town, it's certainly not being used. (On the rare occasion there is a trial, it ''will'' have a HangingJudge who ''will'' be on the [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney payroll]].) In all these respects, this trope is effectively a modern-day version of the FeudalOverlord of yore. The fact that he was probably elected due to his popularity will usually be ignored, though expect him to be a CorruptPolitician who buys his elections if this comes up.

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Storybrooke, Maine is controlled by two: Regina Mills, its UltimateAuthorityMayor, and Mr. Gold, who [[IOwnThisTown owns the town (literally)]]. It's not quite accurate to refer to either of these as "hicks", however, as they aren't uneducated or a bumpkins; both are depicted as extremely intelligent, cultured characters (although Gold's original Rumpelstiltskin personality is depicted as a "country hick" to a degree in the recent origin episode).

* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': Sheriff Hugo Root is A racist, alcoholic hick who regularly and brutally beat his son, and who was feared and loathed by his town. The first thing he says to his son after the latter's failed suicide attempt? "Shoulda put it in your mouth, you dumb little fuck."

* Mayor Jim Bob Buchanon of the Maggody mysteries is a low-grade version, as he's a piggish petty tyrant of sorts, at least to the meager extent possible in a skint-broke town with less than 800 people. He falls short where genuine evil is concerned, due to incompetence and a tendency to fall prey when ''real'' villains KickTheSonOfABitch.
* In the first ''Literature/JoePickett'' novel, Bud Barnum has been Sheriff of Twelve Sleeps County for 20 years. He gets involved in a scheme with a CorruptCorporateExecutive which Joe brings crashing down around his ears. This causes Barnum to lose the election and his position as sheriff in the next novel. Reduced from a man of influence to a nobody, he spends several books brooding and plotting revenge on Joe. His schemes eventually get him killed.

His underlings will be either corrupt themselves or [[CluelessDeputy clueless]] -- areas that tolerate these folks generally don't get reformed from inside. If it's a horror story, he may be keeping a MadwomanInTheAttic, as well as hiding much worse things from the public eye.

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1655300287020936400 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Parodied in ''Anime/GalaxyAngel'', where Forte meets a Corrupt Hick owning a hospital full of completely incompetent staff and blaming his bad patient turnout on the existence of a kindly town doctor across the street.
[[/folder]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' :
** Odin Quincannon, the Meat King, is corrupt hick who operates an inhumane meat plant, orders the death of a local sheriff, allies himself with TheKlan, tries to blow up a nearby village with napalm, employs a Hitler fetishist as his PA and repeatedly has sex with a giant female figure made out of sides of ham. Seriously. He was so corrupt his fellow Klansmen started wondering if he was taking the whole racism thing a bit too far.
** The L'Angelles are as nasty as they come.
** Sheriff Hugo Root. A racist, alcoholic hick who regularly and brutally beat his son, and who was feared and loathed by his town. The first thing he says to his son after the latter's failed suicide attempt? "Shoulda put it in your mouth, you dumb little fuck."
* One of ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'''s worst foes was a Corrupt Hick given [[SuperpowerLottery 2012 different superpowers]] and set on them by the G7 leaders. When he's finally defeated, they punish him by [[ForcedTransformation turning him into seven chickens]] and then [[BlackComedyRape bringing him home to his seven brothers]].
* The Hulk Gang from ''Comicbook/OldManLogan'' counts as this very much, even though they are located in California. The Hulk himself is the corrupt hick leading them and in charge of a territory called Hulkland. They are violent [[spoiler:and quite murderous, considering how they murdered Logan's family and left the bodies unburied while he was busy trying to pay off a debt he owed them. Why? Because they got bored.]] They are a family of cannibals. Oh, and they are also inbred, because Hulk raped his own cousin [[ComicBook/SheHulk Jennifer]] more than once to form the Hulk Gang!
* Frank Castle runs into a clan of these in "Welcome to the Bayou" story arc of ''Comicbook/ThePunisherMAX''. Highlights include the family raising alligators, [[CannibalClan kidnapping tourists and BBQing them]], and a massive ManChild who lives in a swamp and wears a paper bag over his head.
* [[ComicBook/{{Carnage}} Cletus Kasady]] is often written with a Southern accent and derided as a hillbilly, even by other villains.
* Benjamin Hickory of ''ComicBook/{{Copperhead}}'' is a textbook example: as owner of the town's primary industry he's accustomed to getting whatever he asks for from law enforcement and local government. He pays well both for doing what he asks and for doing things to those who don't do what he asks.

* ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'': The Sheriff of Nottingham is an obese wolf with a thick Texas accent, who acts as Prince John's enforcer.

* Reno Smith from ''Film/BadDayAtBlackRock''.

* ''Film/{{Deliverance}}''. The film takes place somewhere in Georgia. The four "city boys" are unable to form much of a connection with the locals. The locals fit the stereotypical hillbilly image of being crude, rude, and inbred for some of them. There is also one point when the four "city boys" encounter two hillbillies on their trip down the river. They assume that the two guys are operating a moonshine still and offer to buy some. In response, the two hillbillies have one of them strip himself naked, chase him, and sodomize him, apparently ForTheEvulz. It should also be pointed out that the four "city boys" were rather condescending toward the locals, and the one who got sodomized openly mocked the locals out loud for seeming to display genetic defects.
** The film would seem to be both played straight and subverted. On the one hand, the rapists themselves play this deadly straight. On the other, [[spoiler: we never see the rapists again]], and while the rest of the hillbilly town is set up to be creepy and/or evil, they never really do anything, good or bad. Especially subverted in the case of the mentally challenged banjo player (probably the most famous character in the film), whose banjo playing provides a creepy soundtrack but who is otherwise benevolent.
** For particularly creepy hillbillies, expect to hear [[Film/{{Deliverance}} "Dueling Banjos"]]. (This is a conflation of the two things people generally know about the film- that song and rapist hillbillies. In the actual film, they had nothing to do with one another.)
* ''Film/DesertHeat'' has a family of these, the Hogans, who are one of two gangs in the film.
* ''Film/EasyRider:''
** After George gets Billy and Wyatt out of the small-town jail, he thanks the police, and something passes from his hands to theirs.
** Billy, Wyatt and George go into a diner in the DeepSouth. The group of men openly talking about beating up the Yankee hippies include local law enforcement.

* ''Film/{{Footloose}}'': Nicely subverted with the preacher [[note]]played by John Lithgow[[/note]]. He finally figures out how to let go when his flock starts burning books.
* ''Film/FoxyBrown'' has two grime-covered drug dealers who operate a front operation out on a farm.

* In ''Film/GunsGirlsAndGambling'', The Chief is a Native American crime boss who runs TheCasino on TheRez. His arch-rival is The Rancher, a FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit who [[IOwnThisTown controls everything not on the reservation]].
* There's racist Sheriff J.W. Pepper who gets the ButtMonkey treatment in at least two ''Film/JamesBond'' movies.

* ''Film/NationalLampoonsVacation'' features a scene where Chevy Chase is taken advantage of by a couple of hicks at a gas station, who barely fix his car, then take all of his money. Chevy asks them what their local sheriff thinks of their shady "business" dealings, leading the men to laugh, and one of them to pull out and display a sheriff's badge.
* ''Film/NothingButTrouble'': Judge Alvin Valkenheiser -- and how! Valkenvania is basically his personal fiefdom (his mansion is even built like a castle, complete with moat). Plus his whole operation consists of having his [[DirtyCop deputized family members]] arrest criminals (both [[AssholeVictim real]] and [[DisproportionateRetribution imagined]]) who journey through the town before [[HangingJudge executing them]] so they can loot their cars and other belongings.
* ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou''.
** Pappy O'Daniel is suggested to be one, fighting accusations of corruption in his re-election bid. That said, it's not clear how much is legitimate corruption and how much is just incompetence [[SurroundedByIdiots thanks to his inept help]]. At bare minimum, he's self-centered and a {{Jerkass}}, but he still comes across as the LesserOfTwoEvils given his competition.
** The insanely corrupt Big Dan Teague, who is also a Klansman in his spare time. Who is channeling the cyclops Polyphemus.
** Homer Stokes, who [[VillainWithGoodPublicity presents himself]] as Pappy's opposite and "friend of the little man" looking forward to reform, but he's actually the head of the local Ku Klux Klan.
* In ''Film/PetesDragon1977'', the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nmV_QZxbuU Gogan family]].
* The antagonists of ''Film/PrimeCut'' are a psychopathic slaughterhouse owner and his inbred hillbilly mooks.
* In ''Film/PumpkinheadIIBloodWings'', Mayor Bubba wants to keep the deadly monster alive so its existence could attract tourists. The sheriff doesn't react well.
* Herod of ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead.'' Also an example of AsskickingEqualsAuthority, since Herod is nigh unbeatable in a straight up fight [[spoiler: and is only blindsided and killed by someone who he thought was already dead]].

* The Cajun hunters in the 1981 film ''Film/SouthernComfort''.
* ''Film/SwampShark'': Sheriff Watson is involved in an animal smuggling ring, the same one that lost the titular shark in the swamp.

* Leatherface and his family from ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'' series. They are a BigScrewedUpFamily who are inbred murderous cannibals. At least one source implies that other people in the community know about the family's business, and will cover for them if an outsider tries to turn to them for help. Even though Texas is outside of Appalachia and the Ozarks, the community is supposed to be made up of hillbillies.
** Although it's probably less a matter of the locals wanting to cover up the depredations of the Hewitts because "they're one of us" or anything like that, and more a matter of grim survival. The locals turn a blind eye to the Hewitts slaughtering travelers and outsiders who won't be missed, and in return, they don't need to worry about their own loved ones (or themselves) being hacked up, brained, chainsawed or ground into chili.
* Appears in ''Film/{{Troll 2}}'', with the added kicker that the evil townsfolk are also goblins in disguise.

* ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'': Bob Ewell has this trope down to a ''science'', what with accusing Tom Robinson of rape, probably [[spoiler: responsible for the rape and abuse of his daughter]], [[spoiler:attempting to kill Scout and Jem]] and being an all-around not-nice person. This is nicely averted by the town sheriff Heck Tate, however, who is quite a kind man. It should be noted that Bob Ewell and his brood were considered the lowest of the low, the townsfolk only took his word instead of Tom Robinson's because Bob is white.
* Geryon from ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' qualifies. He makes omelettes out of the eggs of endangered species, slaughters the sacred cattle of the sun, sells to the titan army, and tries to sell Nico to Luke.
* Creator/WilliamFaulkner's Snopes trilogy (and many works set in Yonknawhatever County[[note]]Yoknapawtapha County[[/note]]) has these in abundance. Flem Snopes steals from everyone, gets his own relatives arrested (intentionally), and also basically controls the entire county - everyone owes him money.
* ''Literature/BurmeseDays'' is set in British-colonial Burma—i.e., in Southeast Asia—but U Po Kyin, the novel's BigBad, serves as the local equivalent, as a hugely fat, ambitious, and manipulative indigenous magistrate ruling the backwater town of Kyauktada.

* Several characters in the book ''Literature/DivineEvil'' by Creator/NoraRoberts. A sculptor named Clare Kimball goes back to her small hometown in Maryland, because she is suffering from depression and nightmares that stem from there and she hopes to deal with them. [[spoiler: It turns out that there is a coven/cult of Satanists in the town. The members of this coven/cult include Clare's father (who left out of guilt and the other members murdered him to ensure his silence), her love interest's Cameron Rafferty's hated stepfather (who ended up murdered), and Ernie (who is a teenaged city boy who the Satanists recruited and they attempted to corrupt him).]]
* Most of the characters identified as hillbillies avert this in ''Literature/NerdInShiningArmor'' by Vicki Lewis Thompson. Three characters that can be called hillbillies are Genevive Terrence, Annabelle, and Lincoln (well, Lincoln apparently doesn't count, because he wasn't born or raised as one). They hail from a small community in Tennessee. Annabelle and Lincoln are apparently psychic. Genevive as a kid had sex with a boy named Clyde Loudermilk back in Tennessee. Why? Because he promised to take her out to a movie in exchange for sex. Too bad she found out after losing her virginity that he didn't even have enough money to go to the movies. Ouch.
* The trope is also used in the Creator/HPLovecraft story ''Beyond The Wall Of Sleep''.
* More generally, not just hillbillies in the strictest sense of the term but "southern rural". The novels ''God's Little Acre'' and ''Tobacco Road'' established this trope by the early 1930s.

* This trope is averted in ''Literature/SomeGirlsDo'' by Creator/LeanneBanks. Katie/Priscilla hails from a small town in Texas, and the town is given no name and is reported to have been blown off the map by a tornado. People assumed that she would end up as this trope, because she was the daughter of a woman who ReallyGetsAround. She did manage to form her own life and tried to distance herself from her roots. She also has conversations with her mother, who died years ago. Her employer Ivan wants to see his daughter Wilhemina married and states early on that he can't have a redneck for a son-in-law. This leads to problems when Wilhemina forms a relationship and gets pregnant with Douglas, a hog farmer in Texas and Ivan finds out. Douglas averts this trope, but it took Ivan some time before he could accept Douglas as a son-in-law. Even though Texas is not really part of Appalachia or The Ozarks, some of the characters are clearly categorized as hillbillies.
* A Russian version is shown in Valentin Pikul's novel ''Wealth''. The corrupt frontier hicks from Kamchatka trade furs illegally, sell vodka to aborigines and try to boot the idealistic new governor. On the other hand, the local lawman, a Cossack sergeant, is decent and [[TheLancer becomes the governor's right hand]].

* A Canadian variant is found in ''Literature/{{Pact}}'' in the form of Laird Behaim, the police chief of the small town of Jacob's Bell, who orchestrates the murder of a local [[TheLegionsOfHell diabolist]] and then informs her cousin to his face that as far as he is concerned, the death will go on the books as tragically unsolved, and that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will have no evidence to say otherwise.

* Hap and Leonard inevitably run into a lot of these, often a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain with some rather [[TheKlan questionable affiliations.]]
* ''Literature/TheSecretOfSantaVittoria'': The local Facist officials provide a European version of this, stealing all of the local treasury, and using their influence to set up monopolies on the local trades.

* TV shows composed of traveling 'Heros For Hire', such as ''Series/TheATeam'', ''Series/KnightRider'', or ''Series/MacGyver1985'', often have the heroes run across corrupt hicks. (It's related to the WalkingTheEarth thing.) See, for example, the short-lived '80s show ''Series/TheMaster'', starring Lee Van Cleef, about an American ninja and his student. Four of the episodes were turned into the ''Series/MasterNinja'' movies -- two of which were shown on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.
* ''Series/MagicCity'': Florida State Senator Ned Sloat.Ike is supposed to give him $65,000 to support legalized gambling in the state of Florida. Sloat tells Ike "I cannot be bought, but I can be rented." Ike offers Sloat $10,000 to vote against legalized gambling.

* In ''Back to the 50s'', Music/SClub7 encounters one of these in [[TheFifties Fifties]] California.
* ''Series/BJAndTheBear'': Sheriff Lobo who later reformed and got his own series.
* The ''Series/BostonLegal'' episode "Happy Trails". There is a trial, but that's to be expected considering the main characters are lawyers. And it was just a big excuse for Alan to make an AuthorFilibuster.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' had Grissom drive out to a podunk Nevadan town and deal with one of these. [[spoiler:Actually subverted; the sheriff's merely hiding a BigSecret, and one that bucks his stereotype to boot]].
* ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' had a double set of classic Corrupt Hicks, with Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. (They are, however, the family-friendly version of "corrupt", steering clear of drugs and violence, and anything more evil than plain ol' greed.) It's also hinted that neighboring Sheriffs (shown as honest) hold them in low opinion, on account of their crookedness.

* Possibly played with in ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'', in which Officer Don is repeatedly shown to be a corrupt small-town cop, but is still portrayed sympathetically (because he's also a spineless idiot).
* ''Series/TheXFiles'': Many MonsterOfTheWeek episodes are set in the aforementioned insular places, handicapped by superstition, small gene pools or GreenRocks.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': Played with a bit more subtlety than usual (still not much) in "The Bank Shot Job".

* Superintendent Fuller from ''Series/WildBoys'' is a cross between this and a KnightTemplar.
* The citizens of the village in ''Series/OnceUponATimeInSaengchori''.

* ''Series/TheWire'': Subverted. City cop [=McNulty=] drives to a rural precinct and refers to the local chief of police as "[[Film/WalkingTall1973 Buford Pusser]]." When he meets the fat, white chief, [=McNulty=] immediately starts making racist comments in hopes of ingratiating himself. The rural cop, however, is actually married to a black cop who also works in the same office, forcing [=McNulty=] to awkwardly backpedal on his previous statements. The chief is very helpful to [=McNulty=]'s investigation, but he takes Kima (a black woman) aside to tell her that her partner is an asshole.
* In ''Series/{{Brass}}'', Bradley Hardacre epitomises the occasional northern English version of the trope, parodied to the extreme and successful enough to run a moderately substantial town.
* On ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', Pennsatucky lived in a trailer park with her mother, who would make her drink Mountain Dew so she'd appear to be hyperactive or "special-needs," for DCF, so that her mother would get more welfare money. Her mom also, when giving her TheTalk (''after'' she got her first period), essentially taught her that being raped is normal and inevitable. Pennsatucky also got mixed up with methamphetmines, like many people of her community, and became a nihilist who used abortions as birth control. Later, in prison, she became TheFundamentalist until her HeelFaceTurn. The protesters outside the abortion clinic (who assume she shot the nurse to support their cause, rather than that being the result of a petty argument) would also qualify.
* The villain of the ''Series/KraftSuspenseTheatre'' episode "The Hunt" is a rural sheriff who sometimes plays HuntingTheMostDangerousGame with his inmates.

* ''Series/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents2017'' has Sir.
* Hardy Collier was this in the made for TV movie Murder in Coweta County. From the first moments he's on screen, he tells a pair of bootleggers what road the revenuers are watching and what road to take to avoid them. He also was shown to be in the pocketbook of the county's richest man, John Wallace, to the point that if John Wallace had killed the victim in Collier's county, he wasn't going to arrest Wallace.
* ''Series/{{Narcos}}: Mexico'': In some ways, unhinged drug lord Félix Gallardo is a Mexican version of this. His home state of Sinaloa is a rural, mountainous region whose culture and accent are what some might consider Mexico's cultural equivalent to UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}}. Urban-born Creator/DiegoLuna also uses the region's accent and dialect for his portrayal, a detail that is unfortunately lost on viewers who aren't fluent in Spanish or familiar with Spanish-language accents.

* Owen Musser from ''Theatre/TheForeigner'' is all over this. As is [[spoiler: David]].

* Most of the cast in ''Theatre/BuriedChild'' have shades of this, even the preacher.

* The Hicks [[TheClan clan]] in ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2'' routinely harasses the town of Cambria, will steal any weapon that's not nailed down, and will proposition any female you send to talk to them. To make things worse, the hillbillies all have shotguns and Mini-14s, meaning that early fights with them tend not to end well. (Later on, with body armor, assault rifles, and/or exploitation of ArtificialStupidity involving chokepoints, they become rather easier to take down.) Even if you don't, there's a field of cows that they keep, and conversations with random Hicks involving CowTipping tend to be...[[{{Squick}} revealing]].

* ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage'' loves to have fun with this trope. The player plays as a hillbilly named Leonard, who has to whack his buddy Bubba in the face with a crowbar from time to time. They fight against aliens, who have made clones of their neighbours. The neighbours consist of a skinny old man and a fat bearded man with a shotgun. There is also the town Sheriff, who will not hesitate to shoot you on sight, for unexplained reasons, while shouting "I'm the law in these parts!".
* ''VideoGame/{{Harvester}}'' has Sheriff Dwayne: Big on pie eating, light on crime fighting. [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin Unless it’s the main character Steve that’s breaking the law]].
* A large number of characters in the {{VideoGame/Hitman}} series are either this or [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Corrupt Corporate Executive]]. Special mention goes to Sheriff Skurky and Blake Dexter from ''[[VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution Absolution]]''.
* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'': The first Act is an introduction for newcomers to the sheer Grim Dark of the Witcher universe, involving an entire town of corrupt hicks from the most pious of leaders to the most mysterious of cultists. The local miser murdered his brother and took his hard-earned coin instead of fighting for himself, the merchant sold medicine (that doubles as poison when used incorrectly) to terrorists, the local priest disowned his daughter when she got pregnant (and you find out later that she lost the baby, who probably would have survived if she was able to stay home), and Abigail is a relatively decent person but fixated on worshipping an eldritch abomination, which includes retaliating in spades. The sad thing is that the product of their cowardice, greed, wrath, and revenge (three assholes who pushed a cultist too far) is a curse that goes horribly wrong and ends up targeting the innocent travelers, which indirectly starts the main plot. This ends badly.
* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher2AssassinsOfKings'' features Loredo, the "commandante" of a river port town called Flotsam. You have the option of killing him, which can only mean good things for the town.
** His mother is literally insane, and it was thanks to greedy men that she ended up rich enough to buy the town after the local therapists were murdered. She concocts a plan to have a half-elf as her grandchild, through enslaved rape; regardless of whether or not Loredo survives, she succeeds.
* Countryside "redneck" criminals are a reoccurring but minor threat across ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto''. They don't seem to hold much power in the communities they inhabit, unlike most examples of this trope.
** A gang of rednecks lead by an ElvisImpersonator appear in the second area of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2'', inhabiting a trailer park. They are opposed to the Scientists due to their lack of literacy.
** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' features one mission where CJ must steal a combine harvester from a group of {{Right Wing Militia Fanatic}}s who dress and behave in a typical southern manner.
** A gang known as the Trailer Park Mafia is featured in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories'', serving as an early-game employer and later an antagonist group for Victor Vance. They are absorbed into Vance's criminal empire after he kills their leader, Marty Jay Williams.
** Various redneck gangs inhabit the countryside areas of Blaine County in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' and ''Grand Theft Auto Online'', usually as generic enemies. The most prominent gang among them is the O'Neil Brothers, who are constant victims of Trevor in both the storyline missions and in the ''Heists'' update.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The unnamed sheriff described in the Cracked article [[http://www.cracked.com/article_22208_6-things-i-learned-broke-police-force-in-lawless-town.html Six Things I Did As A Cop In A Shockingly Corrupt Small Town]].
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StrokerAndHoop'': Parodied when they investigate a murder in the DeepSouth. At the very beginning of the investigation, Stroker predicts, "It was either the corrupt mayor, the corrupt sheriff, or some crazy hick." It turned out to be the sheriff. ("So, Stroker was right! You cliché, evil bastard!")
* Seen on ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'' when Fillmore visits his former Safety Patrol partner down South.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' pitted Bruce Wayne against a gluttonous sadist, who kidnapped the homeless and forced them to work in a dangerous mine.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "Even I'm offended by this, and I'm a fat Southern sheriff!"
** [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep Rich Texan]] has frequently been shown as a doing anything for money, yet does have a good side (he does love his gay son).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Doug Dimmadome (owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome). [[DependingOnTheWriter Sometimes]].
* ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'': The Sheriff of Nottingham, who has a Southern accent despite the film taking place in England. Presumably the script team heard the word "sheriff"[[note]]which means something somewhat different in Britain, by the way[[/note]] and decided to stick to what they knew. Averted with Friar Tuck (voiced by Andy Devine), who sounds like a Deep South PreacherMan stereotype, albeit the heroic GoodShepherd variety.
* Mayor Coleman in the ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' episode "Fool's Gold". He kidnaps one of the aliens who comes to Walton every year, and feeds it popcorn, which makes it poop gold. He intends to have the alien poop enough gold to pay off his debts. It gets worse when he grows impatient with the little guy and feeds him meat instead...
* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Cool Hand Peter" was ''built'' around this trope.
* Gideon Gleeful from ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' certainly plays the part, and he's [[EnfanteTerrible about Dipper and Mabel's age]].
** Mabel has apparently internalized this trope, as later on her subconscious conjures Judge Kitty Kitty Meow Meow Face-Schwartzstein, a KangarooCourt judge, who manages to fit the trope even despite being AmbiguouslyJewish.
* Mr. Moss of ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'' is a chubby [[TheEmpire Cyclonian]] [[WardensAreEvil prison warden]] built around stereotypes of the American South. He has a heavy Southern drawl, wears a cowboy hat and peppers his speech with Southernisms. He even calls his hovercraft Bessie.

He will almost certainly wear a [[HatOfAuthority hat]], probably carry a gun, will probably chew tobacco and/or smoke cigars, is almost always white, and is virtually AlwaysMale. Will typically have [[HayseedName a uniquely Southern given name akin to Rufus or Clement]]. Good odds of being a FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit, and if he's the mayor of the town, he will most likely be an evil MayorPain.

The [[DeepSouth rural southern U.S.]], and indeed, the [[OopNorth rural north]], [[UsefulNotes/EastAnglia east]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry west of England]], are apparently full of [[IOwnThisTown small towns run by evil hicks of some sort]]. His control over the town may be political, economic, religious, or purely criminal, but in most cases it gradually expands to "all of the above".