One of my favorite jokes goes a little something like this: What did the Kentucky girl say to her boyfriend? Answer: “Ouch, Daddy, you’re a crushin’ my cigarettes!” (Ha ha ha, funny ’cause it’s true…)

So it would seem, then, that the fine folks at Premier Indoor Sport Shooting and Paintball, with some help from the LEO Weekly’s own amoral advertising staff, have elevated this joke to the place of high/low art; by taking the basic elements of the countrified stereotypes we Kentuckians know (and despise) well — unplanned pregnancies, shotgun weddings, and well, actual shotguns and the barefoot moms who love them — the surreal image they’ve concocted has taken the internet by storm. (Note: You can find the ad [pictured at left] on the Other Cover of the current print edition of the LEO Weekly)

And why not? Just looking at this thing makes me ill and aroused and confused all at once. In turn, the ad has attracted the attention of myriad digital carpetbaggers and self-loathing Kentuckians who see the above image as some sort of harbinger of the Southern Apocalypse (we already had it, BTW; it was called ‘Reconstruction’). But doesn’t it conversely point out the inherent awesomeness of a state/publication like ours, stereotypes be damned? Sure, it’s done in extremely poor taste, it “crosses the streams” of several psycho-sexual themes you don’t normally find even in a Mapplethorpe photo (much less a weekly newspaper), is beyond degrading to women and motherhood, and is generally unsettling to most of our middle-class sensibilities… but so what? This is Kentucky. There are people like this here. Why all the shame, folks?

In an increasingly homogenized and global world like ours, the properties that make Kentucky Kentucky become all the more precious when faced with McDondaldization and its white-washed discontents. Granted this ad alone isn’t a Bluegrass zeitgeist or anything, and shouldn’t be read into that much, but it manages to be successful by playing with our nativist tropes and pushing the boundary of good taste. So in a way, this ad is the end result of complex social processes occurring over time that are generally beyond the control of any one person and which are distinctly Kentuckian; we didn’t choose to have bourbon, horsies, and basketball as our chief calling-cards, but we don’t whine about that, do we?

So instead of decrying (as some have) an image of a scantily-clad, pregnant bride-to-be with a penchant for firearms as a bad thing, we should regard it as an opportunity to rise above the stereotype by making fun of how others see us. A sense of humor, after all, is required — and with it comes a form of empowerment. Besides, preggo-gun nuts are just one more thing we’ve got over, say, Austin. Or Portland. Or Brooklyn. Or Cool Place #725.

Goes to show you, though, that if you advertise with the LEO your balls (and your audience) will get much, much bigger. And we think that’s a good thing, crushed cigarettes and all.