Basic Trope: A person from the countryside (usually the Deep South) who is noticeably stupid/backwards/ignorant.
- Straight: Elmer is from a rural village. He's also not really bright and is rather ignorant of the world around him.
- Exaggerated:
- Elmer is Lethally Stupid and/or Too Dumb to Live.
- All people from the countryside are incredibly dumb.
- Downplayed:
- Elmer is Book Dumb but is not completely lacking in common sense.
- Elmer is a Genius Ditz.
- Justified:
- Elmer's rural environment is rather racked with poverty, among which is a lack of education.
- Elmer is suffering from a mental disability.
- Inverted:
- Elmer is a City Mouse and is the idiot.
- Elmer is the Only Sane Man in a cast that came from either the suburbs or the inner city.
- Southern-Fried Genius
- Subverted: Elmer is actually Smarter Than They Look and has been playing the dumb hick charade to fool people the whole time.
- Double Subverted: Then his dumb hick charade becomes ingrained into his personality.
- Parodied:
- Elmer literally has exactly half a brain, or half the normal mass in each part of his brain.
- Elmer's IQ drops by fifty points as soon as he leaves the city, or rises by the same amount when he goes into the city.
- Averted: Elmer is not stupid.
- Lampshaded: "No, I ain't a smart man, but I git by."
- Played for Horror: Elmer is a Half-Witted Hellbilly.
Back to Half-Witted Hillbilly, y'all!
