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On the surface, a gun-toting, weed smoking Black matriarch like Madea and a White stand up comedian like Larry The Cable Guy  seem to have nothing in common but according to Dan Whitney, the two are more alike than you think.

“Tyler [Perry] and I started around the ‘blue collar’ thing, me with Larry The Cable and Tyler with Madea,” he told TheUrbanDaily.com at the junket for their new film, “Tyler Perry’s Madea Christmas.” “Hollywood didn’t get it, they didn’t think it was funny and we both said ‘To heck with it.’  We had fans and they thought we were funny.   We kept doing what we were doing and now we’re both huge.”

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Whitney, born in Pawnee City, Nebraska spent the first 16 years of his life raising pigs on his family farm.  His family moved to West Palm Beach, FL and soon pursued his dream of being a stand up comic.  In 1991 Whitney introduced the character of “Larry The Cable Guy” – a blue collar Southerner – on the nationally syndicated radio show “The Bob and Tom Show.”

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Now one of the top grossing comedians in America, Whitney plays Buddy, a good ‘ole country boy who supports his son’s interracial marriage to Lacy (Tika Sumpter) in “Madea’s Christmas.”

Whitney had nothing but praise for Perry, “He’s a great director, a lot of fun to work with. He’s not uptight or politically correct- he just wants to make a funny movie.”

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Whitney also had an interesting perspective on the recent controversy surrounding Kanye West appropriating the Confederate flag.  Watch to see what this son of the South has to say about the symbolism of the rebel flag and its significance in 2013.

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