Still Some Life in Dixie: The Case of Nate Bargatze

​Humor has always been a defining feature of the South. From Longstreet’s Georgia Scenes and Harris’s Sut Lovingood yarns to Jerry Clower, Lewis Grizzard, and Jeff Foxworthy, Southerners love to put a stitch in one another’s side from laughter.


Even though much of Southern culture has waned, it has not altogether disappeared, and the continuation of the Southern tradition of good comedy is proof enough of that. The latest to carry on that comedic lineage is Nate Bargatze. Born and raised in the city conspicuous for the Vanderbilt Agrarians (his mother actually worked at Vanderbilt University) – Nashville, Tennessee – he was raised in the not unusual Southern environment of a Christian family: ‘Stephen and Carol raised their three children—Nate, his brother, Derek, and his sister, Abigail—in a strict Christian household. . . . He attended DuPont Elementary in Nashville and transferred to Donelson Christian Academy, where his father had a day job teaching history.’


His Christian upbringing and his piety toward his parents imparted to him a desire to be a ‘clean comedian’:


‘Bargatze has said he was only allowed to watch clean comedians growing up, with Brian Regan becoming one of his primary inspirations. “I just can’t imagine cursing in front of your parents,” Bargatze said in 2023. “Still, even now… I still just couldn’t do that. So that’s how I write. I think I write my comedy to—a lot of it is to make my parents laugh.”’


He dropped out of college and sojourned in a land not his own (i.e., Yankeedom – Boston, Chicago, and the like), seeking to hone his craft and find his place in the comedy world. But he eventually found his way back to his native Dixieland, where he has aspirations to broaden his brand of comedy into other fields:


‘The comedian also has aspirations to build a “Nateland” theme park, inspired by and located at the site of the defunct Opryland USA in Nashville. He lists entertainment magnate Walt Disney as one of his primary inspirations. “I want to make some movies and continue to tour and then hopefully build a world here,” he told The Tennessean. “You see Universal Studios. I kind of would like that to be a Nateland. We can have rides and start making movies here. I think I know what is missing in entertainment, and I think this would work.”’


Some films made with a bit of Southern character would be quite welcome. But that may be a little ways off yet.


However, his style of humble stand-up comedy devoid of the usual raunch associated with most other such routines today is finding an eager and growing audience. Mr. Bargatze is now one of the highest earning entertainers in the world:


‘He is currently the #1 earning comedian in the world according to Pollstar, and #12 in overall live tour tickets sales, putting him in the company of Coldplay, Madonna and U2. Billboard recently announced Bargatze set a new record for the biggest one-year gross by a comedy performer in history.’


‘In 2023, Bargatze broke the attendance record at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The next month, he also broke the record for tickets sold at The Delta Center in Salt Lake City – the highest amount ever sold by a comedian at the venue. In 2024 he broke 20 total arena records.’


The story of Mr. Bargatze is certainly encouraging for anyone looking for signs of life from Southern culture. One of the greatest threats to that culture, however, is the desire of many Southerners to be part of ‘America’. The obsession with that abstraction we see even in what should be strongholds of exclusively Southern concerns like the Sons of Confederate Veterans, where many a prayer are offered for God’s blessing and guidance upon it.


This is most unfortunate, as to be subsumed into that beastly thing greatly weakens our ties to our ancestors, to our homes and neighborhoods, to Church, to family graves, to most everything that defines us as Southerners. For America is preeminently about throwing off any custom or restraint for the sake of making a buck. The younger folks seem to understand this; they are hungry to discover an identity rooted in ancestors, place, etc. The older generations, who were subjected to years of pro-America propaganda during WWII and the Cold War, by and large do not.


What is interesting is that Nate Bargatze, in some of the funnier sketches to air on Saturday Night Live in recent years, exposed that danger for all to see. We are speaking about his Washington’s Dream sketches, in which Mr. Bargatze plays General Washington, who waxes eloquent to his band of soldiers about all the shallow idiocies that he hopes will come to pass in the United States.


Washington’s Dream


Washington’s Dream 2


Nate Bargatze is undeniably a talented Southern comedian. What he may also be is something of a prophet – warning Southrons not to remain tightly bound to a union that threatens so many good things about Southern life. May God give Dixians ears to hear the prophetic word.

Sources

Biography: Nate Barzgate​

Nateland