Red State Update (Overview)

Red State Update is an online satirical political series of short films and podcasts produced in the United States by performers Jonathan Shockley and Travis Harmon. The two have also produced three music albums

Jackie Broyles (played by Travis Harmon), who formerly owned a store, Jackie's Market, that sold barbecue, is the older and more levelheaded of the two main characters. He espouses traditional conservatism, especially a belief in following the Bible and attending church, though he rarely goes himself. Jackie grew up on a farm and loves horses, especially Shetland Ponies. Jackie once held the record for the deepest ride into a cave on horseback with his favorite horse, Mr. Horsepants. This event occurred on the same day as John F. Kennedy's assassination. He enjoys whiskey on occasion, hates curse words, and holds to a consistent work ethic. Jackie's teeth have been reported to be in terrible condition. Dunlap described Jackie's teeth as "varnished corn nibblets" and compared the color of Jackie's teeth to that of a household cabinet. Jackie is also in bad standing with the local Catholic community (concentrated in the Catholictown section of Murfreesboro) due to him mumbling under his breath about how he felt that Catholic funerals were stupid. Jackie's wife had a stroke many years back, and he helps provide care for her. Jackie is, in general, suspicious of modern technology; while he has occasionally expressed an interest in subscribing to some digital radio service, if only so he can listen to Willie's Roadhouse, he is content to keep around and old Billy Joel tape and listen to Uptown Girl. Jackie has been known to fly into fits of rage due to some of Dunlap's sponsors, particularly Farmboy, and Dunlap's exceptionally poor behavior.

Dunlap (played by Jonathan Shockley) By contrast, the younger regularly espouses blatant hedonism. He has rarely held a job and lives in his grandmother's basement. Dunlap, whose full name remains a mystery, is consistently focused upon getting high and having sex, and his lack of traditional values, combined with his propensity to swear, regularly makes Jackie mad. Dunlap has successfully swallowed a twinkie whole, much like how a duck would consume a twinkie. He sees himself as someone people of high school age might consider cool and regularly attends coverless comic book conventions. Dunlap also collects Mork and Mindy trading cards. Dunlap routinely pretends he is much younger than he is, in one podcast, Dunlap claimed to be only sixteen years old. His father occasionally works as a preacher, when he has not been drinking, while his mother has been through a number of husbands. Dunlap has an uncontrollable urge to throw things in fires, although he never starts the fires himself. Items so far thrown into fires by Dunlap include, but not limited to, a tire, a broom, a T-shirt, a shoe, a box of nails, three cans of paint, deep fried chicken, and an accountant's hat.

Both characters hail from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. According to a March 7, 2016, interview Harmon and Shockley did with The Tennessean, the two met around 1995 while doing theatrical productions in Murfreesboro, including at Middle Tennessee State University and based their Red State Update characters on "a combination of family, friends and the kind of people you run into at Kroger." Despite relocating to Los Angeles around 2001, they decided to set Red State Update firmly in Middle Tennessee.

Red State Update came to national prominence during the primary season for the 2008 presidential election. RSU's first appearance on national television was during the CNN-YouTube Democratic primary debate on July 23, 2007, which posed prerecorded, viewer-submitted questions to the candidates. Of Democrats who were entertaining the idea of former Vice-President Al Gore joining the race, Red State Update asked, "does that hurt y'all's feelings?" Joe Biden made a tongue-in-cheek observation that "I think the people of Tennessee (the home state of both Gore and the RSU pair) had their feelings hurt," prompting a video response entitled "Fightin' Joe Biden". The subsequent publicity generated led to a number of appearances on different news stations and a semi-regular spot on CNN's short-lived program Out in the Open. They gained prominence again in December 2007 when former Senator and long-shot presidential candidate Mike Gravel appeared in one of their clips as Santa Claus.

Red State Update was one of the most widely viewed political satire series on the internet; its channel was, at one time, the 20th "most viewed" and 26th "most subscribed" comedy channel on YouTube. It was also syndicated weekly through the popular online magazine Salon.com and, later, through Huffington Post.

The duo released How Freedom Sounds, an album of comedy and novelty songs, on July 22, 2008. Two years later, the pair released a Christmas album, Santa Is Real, featuring such songs as "Christmas in a Beer Joint" and "I Don't Feel Like Fucking This Christmas." The album title and cover art reference the 1959 gospel album Satan Is Real. The podcast series has also featured the occasional song, most notably the Halloween-themed "I Fingered a Skeleton." In late 2015, they released another Christmas album, Merry Twismas Part Twoo... and other holiday gooduns, a collection of various melodies produced for the podcast. The title is in reference to Conway Twitty's Christmas album, Merry Twismas, which the pair previously explicated in Episode 57. Many of these songs have music video counterparts on YouTube.

On November 21, 2012, the duo released the first episode of The Ole Timey Country Down Home Red State Update Podcast 'n' 'Em. Episodes are released on a weekly basis, with few exceptions, and tend to last approximately an hour in length. The episodes continue on the themes of the video series, featuring discussions of the major political issues in the news, or notable cultural events, such as the death of George Jones. All episodes are recorded in the bunker underneath Jackie's Market, save when the duo engages in talks elsewhere, as with their appearance at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). At the beginning of the series, the podcast would open with the tune "Tasty Sorghum Biscuit" by the band Holtzclaw, of which Harmon and Shockley are members, but the placement of the ostensible opening tune has shifted through the series, sometimes coming after the sponsor segment and sometimes being forgotten completely. After complaining for a while about their lack of closing song, the two invited listeners to contribute tunes of their own making, but listeners failed to respond, and so Jackie and Dunlap debuted their own official closing song, "Goodbye Friend," in Episode 174.

On June 29, 2015, Jackie and Dunlap launched a kickstarter project to raise money for the necessary equipment and booze needed for them to provide YouTube video commentaries relating to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Through the election, the simultaneously produced podcasts and YouTube videos.

On March 8, 2018, the pair announced the creation of a Patreon account to support the podcast.