There was a time when rural comedians drew most of their humour from tales of farmers' daughters, hogs, hens, and hill country high jinks. Lum and Abner and Ma and Pa Kettle might not have toured happily under the “Redneck†marquee, but they were its precursors. In Ain't That a Knee-Slapper, Tim Hollis traces the evolution of this classic American form of humour in the mass media.