What Did George Clooney Say in O Brother Where Art Thou When He Wanted Dapper Dan Not Fop

♫ I am a man of constant sorrow,
I've seen trouble all my days...♫

"You seek a great fortune, yous three who are now in bondage. Yous will find a fortune, though information technology will non be the i you seek. But first... beginning y'all must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. Mm-hmm. You shall come across thangs, wonderful to tell..."

—The Blind Railman

O Brother, Where Art Yard? is a 2000 comedy film written and directed past The Coen Brothers, (very) loosely based on Homer's The Odyssey.

The story follows three escaped prisoners in Low-era Mississippi — Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), Delmar O'Donnell (Tim Blake Nelson), and Pete Hogwallop (John Turturro). Subsequently fleeing the chain gang, they embark on a rollicking risk in an attempt to reach a huge stash of money that Ulysses buried in his lawn. They have simply a short fourth dimension to exercise this, though, every bit the lawn in question is in an area slated to be flooded by the Tennessee Valley Authorization to build a reservoir.

On their journey they meet, among others, a blind prophet, sirens, a Cyclops, and a gifted blackness guitarist who "sold his soul to the devil". In their attempts to evade the government and reach the money, they wind up recording a hit song, robbing a bank with George "Baby Confront" Nelson, encountering the KKK, and inadvertently getting mixed upwards in the state gubernatorial ballot. And on top of all that, Ulysses must grapple with the prospect of reuniting with his lover and their children...

It was noted for the tremendous success of its soundtrack, nearly of which was recorded by Alison Krauss & Wedlock Station and other country-bluegrass acts (Dan Tyminski provided Everett's singing voice).

Bonus points if you recognize the title from Preston Sturges' 1941 moving picture Sullivan's Travels.

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O Blood brother, Where Art K? provides examples of:

• Added Alliterative Entreatment: "Songs of salvation to salve the soul."
• Agent Scully: Everett, who despite being pursued by Satan, meeting a prophet, beingness seduced by sirens, and being apparently saved from execution past divine intervention, still insists that there is a reasonable explanation for everything. At least information technology'south Lampshaded. And by the stop, he doesn't really seem sure of himself any more after seeing the cow on the roof of a shed, which the prophet told them that they would encounter dorsum at the start.
• Ambiguous Disorder: George Nelson shows symptoms of bipolar disorder. He'south in an extreme manic episode when the protagonists meet him, and lapses into a deep low after someone calls him "Babyface." So when he's captured and facing the electric chair, as Delmar puts it, "Looks like George is back on height!"
• Anachronism Stew: The Confederate flag did not get associated with the KKK and racists in general until the civil rights movement in the 1960s. In the 1920s and 30s, they still used the American flag.
• And Your Fiddling Canis familiaris, Too!: George Nelson takes a break from shooting at the cops during his getaway bulldoze to shoot some cows.

  George: Cows. I hate cows more than coppers!

• Arrow Catch: Information technology looks similar Large Dan Teague is going to go skewered past the pole of a falling Confederate flag... merely then he stops the pointy tip inches from his face up by catching it with both hands. However, a flaming cantankerous does him over just later on.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • Some of Homer Stokes' accusations nigh the heroes most the finish of the movie: "These boys is not white! Hell, they ain't fifty-fifty old-timey."
  • One of the people attention George Nelson'due south march toward the electric chair is most upset about his having shot a cow with a tommy-gun.
• At the Crossroads: The 3 come across Tommy here afterwards he sold his soul to the devil ("I wasn't usin' it for nothin'") to become a famous musician; this is based on the real life Tommy Johnson who was the originator of the story. Yeah, he did it before Robert Johnson.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Pappy's son offers one of his brighter options to crush Stokes in that they could go a dwarf even stumpier than his. Pappy angrily shoots information technology down, pointing out that Follow the Leader at this point would just make them look like even bigger laughingstocks and pathetically desperate for any points, bold that they could even notice a stumpier dwarf.
• Belief Makes You lot Stupid: Everett repeatedly chides people for their religious faith. Examples:
  • When Everett witnesses a riverside baptism service, he comments: "Well, I judge hard times flush out the chumps; everybody'south lookin' for answers."
  • After Everett'southward travel companions go baptized themselves, Everett remarks; "Baptism! You two are dumber than a bag of hammers."
  • Toward the end of the film, when facing his own expiry, Everett falls on his knees and repents of his sins earlier God. Later on he is delivered from death (cheers to a sudden and massive flood of water), Everett discounts his conversion past noting that "any homo being will cast about in a moment of stress." When his companions proclaim that the inundation was an human activity of God, Everett comments, "Again, y'all hayseeds are showin' your desire for intellect." (Annotation: Everett's watery salvation functions every bit a clever twist on Decease by Irony. Deliverance by Irony, perchance? Miraculous Baptism?)
• Berserk Push button:
  • Don't call George Nelson "Babyface" ("He'due south a live wire, ain't he?"). Truth in Boob tube with the real George Nelson.
    • Mayhap an inverted trope, every bit he's already an established madman, and calling him "Babyface" actually shatters his ego, lowering his cocky-esteem.
  • Also, Pete doesn't take kindly to people stealing from his kin.
  • Don't carp offering Everett Fop. He's a Dapper Dan man!
• Bewitched Amphibians: Delmar is at 1 betoken convinced that Pete was transformed into a frog.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Homer Stokes seems like a squeamish plenty guy and perhaps a better governor than Pappy O'Daniel. And and then we run into him leading a Ku Klux Klan rally...
• Black-and-Gray Morality:
  • The protagonists exist on the greyness side. Iii escaped convicts and a musician who sold his soul to the Devil ("I wasn't using information technology"). Everett is a consummate liar who tricked the others into thinking that in that location was treasure so they would help him escape prison house in time to end his wife from remarrying. Pete is loyal to his friends and family, though he is a fleck vehement. Delmar and Tommy are genuinely squeamish fellows, simply Delmar did in fact rob a Piggly Wiggly and lie about information technology, while Tommy ran off on his own when there was trouble.
  • Pappy O'Daniel and Penny are slightly further down, but still gray. Pappy is rude, selfish, and opportunistic. However, according to him, he tried everything he could to help the people that at present support Homer Stokes. He also has no trouble with the Soggy Bottom Boys including a blackness guitarist, even smiling when he notes "folks don't seem to listen they's integrated." Penny told her daughters that their father was hit by a train. But, given that Everett is a conman and a captive, she is right that remarrying the wealthy and "bona fide" Waldrip is probably all-time for her daughters.
  • The antagonists are firmly on the black side of things. The Sheriff does a great deal of damage in his pursuit of the protagonists, threatening to hang Pete if he doesn't give up his friends' destination. He also tries to hang them fifty-fifty after they were pardoned, and includes Tommy in the hanging simply for associating with them. Also, he might exist Satan. Big Dan Teague is a conman worse than Everett: he assaults Everett and Delmar for their money, and later participates in a lynch mob. Homer Stokes presents himself as the "servant of the little man", but information technology turns out that he's a M Dragon of the KKK, leading the lynch mob to impale Tommy. And, finally, how on earth did Waldrip know that Tommy had sold his soul to the devil?
• Blatant Lies: "That ain't your daddy. Your daddy was hit by a railroad train."
• Bullheaded Seer: Lampshaded past Everett, who insists that the human has a Disability Superpower.
• Bookends: The motion-picture show opens with a chain gang together working near a railroad track and singing. Shortly after escaping the chain gang, the protagonists meet the bullheaded prophet on a push-car. The movie closes with Everett and Penny's daughters tied together by twine walking over a railroad track and singing. And the bullheaded prophet can be seen passing past on the tracks.
• Interruption Away Pop Hit:
  • The soundtrack had its ain sequels.
  • In-movie also, since the Soggy Lesser Boys' singing is so good that it helps resolve the plot.
• Brick Joke:
  • Later mocking Delmar and Pete for being baptized early in the moving-picture show, skeptic Everett admits his failings and begs for mercy in a Not-So-Last Confession at the gallows. He is then forcibly immersed by the floodwaters, and everyone is saved. Literally.
  • Early in the movie Everett, Delmar and Pete meet a blind prophet who claims, "You will meet thangs, wonderful to tell. Y'all shall see a moo-cow on the roof of a cotton firm." At the cease of the movie, they practice indeed see a moo-cow on a cotton business firm roof.
• Censorship by Spelling: Sort of. One character wants to prevent his son from knowing that his female parent left the family, and so he just says "Mrs. Hogwallop upward and R-U-N-N-O-F-T." Subverted afterward on, in that the child knew exactly what he was talking about, anyway.
• Chained Heat: The iii convicts are chained together for awhile at the kickoff.
• Chekhov's Gun: Everett's pomade, specially its distinctive smell, which lets the Sheriff runway them down.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Delmar "Nosotros Idea Yous Was a Toad" O'Donnell.
• Color Wash: The hue and saturation of the moving picture was messed with until everything was an intensely colorful brown, imitating the await of sepia-toned photos. Without this, the Mississippi (and South Carolina, for some scenes) summertime mural would take been a brilliant green, which the creators said was too vivid for the Depression era Grit Bowl-type feel they were going for.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • After they get escape and don't quite go far onto the railroad train, Everett and Pete both think they should be the one in charge.

  Pete: Well, I think it should be yours truly!
  Everett: Well, I think it should exist yours truly, too!
  Beat They plow and wait at Delmar.
  Delmar: Okay, I'g with you fellers.

  • When Everett admits he made the treasure upwards to convince his chainmates — i.east., Pete and Delmar — to aid him escape, Pete realizes that fifty years will exist added to each of their sentences for fleeing the concatenation gang, and that he won't go out of prison house until he's 84 years old. Delmar happily chimes in, "Well, I'll merely be 82!"
  • Also, when Pete responds to Delmar's whispered "Nosotros thought you was a toad" line with a confused Flat "What", Delmar repeats the whisper more than slowly and emphatically.
• Comic Trio: Everett is The Leader, Delmar is The Fool, and Pete is the But Sane Man (compared to the other two, at least).
• Community-Threatening Structure: Ulysses Everett McGill needs to retrieve a treasure buried in the lawn of his old firm. Nevertheless, the surface area is scheduled to exist flooded by Tennessee Valley Authorization's damming activity. In this example, Ulysses doesn't ever try to prevent the construction (in fact, he sees it equally the Dawn of an Era) — it just serves as an inexorable deadline for Ulysses and his partners to accomplish the homestead.
• Contrived Coincidence: Of course the guy the KKK decides to lynch is the i our heroes know and are on friendly terms with. Not likewise contrived, though, if you know your history. Existence an unemployed blackness human being was a offense just slightly worse than being an employed black man in the South.
• Corrupt Hick: The insanely corrupt Large Dan Teague. Who is channeling the cyclops Polyphemus.
• Crush the Keepsake: Large Dan attacks Ulysses and Delmar to meet what it is they're carrying. When he sees it's but a toad (they thought Pete had been turned into ane), he crushes it in front of them.
• Cult Soundtrack: The soundtrack anthology is regarded as 1 of the most important Land and Bluegrass albums of the decade and sold over 7 million copies. It also won the Grammy Award for Album of the Twelvemonth in 2002, making it one of only three soundtracks to always win that laurels.
• Dawn of an Era: Everett'due south view of the building of a hydroelectric dam, which saves his and his friend'due south lives:

  Everett: No, the fact is, they're flooding this valley so they can hydroelectric up the whole durn state. Aye, sir, the South is gonna change. Everything's gonna be put on electricity and run on a paying footing. Out with the former spiritual mumbo jumbo, the superstitions, and the astern ways. We're gonna meet a brave new world where they run everybody a wire and hook us all up to a filigree. Aye, sir, a veritable age of reason. Similar the one they had in France." *He sees the cow that the blind soothsayer prophesized* "Not a moment besides before long..."

• Deal with the Devil: Tommy Johnson traded his soul to the devil at the crossroads for his guitar skills.
• Expiry past Childbirth: Pappy mentions that Inferior's mother died giving birth to him.
• Deep S: Much of the picture show takes place in Dust Bowl-era Mississippi.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Of the sepia variety, see Existent Is Brownish below.
• Deliberate Values Racket: The almost notable being the scene where Pappy is considering using the Soggy Bottom Boys to assistance his entrada and snub Homer Stokes, his son points out that the band's integrated and they're a Deep South state. After a moment to picket the auspicious crowd, Pappy decides to go ahead with it by noting it seems the public doesn't care nearly the integration.
• Deus ex Machina: The flooding happens at exactly the correct fourth dimension to save them all from being hanged. Maybe a literal instance, only it's foreshadowed enough that it doesn't break the plot even if the viewer doesn't interpret it as spiritual.
• Did Not Die That Way: He didn't die at all, Everett finds out his wife has told his daughters that he got hit by a train, rather than tell them he was sent to jail.
• Disney Death: Pete was believed to have transformed into a Toad by the launderer sirens, and then they take him in a box. The toad was then killed by Large Dan Teague by being crushed, and his friends were physically incapable of stopping his death because they were beaten to encarmine pulps. It was subsequently revealed that the toad was actually not Pete, nor was he fifty-fifty transformed into a toad. Turns out those "launderer sirens" actually delivered him to Sheriff Cooley'south men for the reward, and is at present a prisoner back at the farm.
• The Ditz: Delmar.
• Empty Piles of Clothing: This (and a toad) causes Delmar to assume Pete's been turned into a toad.
• Eyepatch of Power: Big Dan Teague.
• Expy: A number of characters serve as references to characters out of the Odyssey or Greek mythology more generally: Ulysses Everett McGill is of grade Odysseus (Ulysses existence the Roman version of the name Odysseus) who is trying to get abode to his married woman Penelope (Penny), Pete and Delmar are the notoriously fractious and uncontrollable crew of Odysseus, the three women bathing and singing in the river are the Sirens, Large Dan Teague is the cyclops Polyphemous, and the blind man in the start is the blind prophet Tiresias. At that place's even a man named Menelaus! But he'south not an expy (encounter Historical Domain Character beneath).
• False Band: The Soggy Bottom Boys.
• Fan Disservice: The Sirens, in addition to being by and large beautiful, all wear wet dresses and then you lot can see their lingerie. Yet, combined with the creepy song they keep singing, and the fact that i of them is forcing a drug down Everett's pharynx, you can't help but feel there's something off about the whole matter. That's because they're seducing them to beguile them to the Sheriff.
• Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: Several. Near notably, Governor Pappy O'Daniel (for the mildly corrupt version) and Big Dan Teague (for the insanely corrupt version).
• Simulated Affably Evil: Big Dan Teague, who engages the boys in friendly conversation before beating them upward and robbing them. He's likewise a member of the KKK.
• Commencement Father Wins: Everett's ex-wife has told his daughters he's dead due to his lack of steady employment and criminal beliefs, and Everett must discover his way and win them back earlier she marries a successful just stodgy political advisor.
• Apartment "What": A silent i from Pete when Delmar tells him he thought he turned into a toad.
• Friend to All Living Things: Delmar, or butterflies at the to the lowest degree.
• Freudian Trio: Everett (Superego, uses logic and reason); Pete (Id, relies generally on instinct and opposes Everett); Delmar (Ego, acts every bit a peacekeeper between the 2).
• Funny Background Upshot:
  • Everett, Delmar, and Pete are all chained together, and try to escape by boarding a moving train. In the foreground we see Everett (on the train) introducing himself to some hobos. In the groundwork, Pete trips earlier he tin climb in...
  • As well, Pete's gloriously goofy dancing during Delmar's rendition of "In the Jailhouse At present."
  • Groundwork singing — in Human being of Constant Sorrow, Everett finishes singing a depressing stanza that ends in the line "possibly I'll die upon this train..." and Delmar and Pete chime in with a cheery "Perchance he'll die upon this train!"
• Genre-Busting: It's a musical/comedy/social commentary/retelling of The Odyssey... that's set up in The Groovy Low.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Vernon gives Ulysses a proficient old-timey donkey-whoopin' in the Woolworth'southward. Vernon apparently has some grooming in the pugilistic arts, whereas Ulysses... not then much.
• Historical Domain Character: Several appear in the motion-picture show, though the details of their lives are skewed for the sake of the story. They include bank robber George "Babyface" Nelson, Dejection musician Tommy Johnson, and politician W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel. The latter arguably undergoes the most changes, having his showtime name changed to Menelaus every bit a nod to The Odyssey and being governor of Mississippi rather than Texas, while the onetime died three years before the film'south setting and was The Napoleon in existent life ("George Nelson" was likewise an alias, for what it'south worth).
• Historical In-Joke: A great deal of the humor in this motion picture is derived from these.
• Hobos: "Whatever of you fellas smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?"
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Everett, clearly touched past his encounter with the blind seer, goes on at length most how the bullheaded are peradventure attuned to the future and concord the souvenir of prophecy, to account for their lack of vision. When Pete points out that the hereafter he foretold was one where they wouldn't get the treasure they sought, Everett shoots dorsum in frustration, "Well, what the hell does he know?! He'south an ignorant old human being!"
  • Only every bit he is about to be executed, Everett prays to God to allow him see his daughters at least i more than time. When the dam breaks and saves him, he starts going on virtually reason. The other two immediately call him out on it.
• Implacable Man: The Sheriff. Zero will terminate him from bringing down the main trio. Not fifty-fifty a pardon from the governor himself.
• Inspector Javert: The Sheriff characterizes himself this way at the very terminate, claiming that the boys accept simply been pardoned past the law of human being.
• Informed Aspect: This applies to the Governor, while Homer Stokes runs on a reform platform, calling O'Daniel a tool of the interests. The audience, who doesn't see that much of the Governor, never sees him practise much beside swear at and assault his aides with his chapeau.
• Insane Troll Logic: Committed by Everett, called out past Pete.

  Pete: You stole from my kin!
  Everett: Who was fixin' to betray the states.
  Pete: You didn't know that at the time!
  Everett: So I borrowed information technology 'til I did know!
  Pete: That don't make no sense!
  Everett: Pete, it's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart.

• Ironic Plant nursery Tune: The siren-seduction scene, to "Didn't Get out Nobody But The Infant" Likewise a rare case of erotic horror.
• Jerkass: Pappy O'Daniel, oh so much. Fifty-fifty though he's the i who pardons our main characters, meaning they no longer have to exist outlaws, it's solely for his ain reelection campaign.
• Wiggle with a Centre of Gold: Everett. He'due south greedy, deceitful, sneaky, and big-headed just truly does care for his friends and loves his daughters dearly. When all hope seems lost and he starts praying; Everett prays for anybody else's rubber and happiness, only request that his own life be spared then that his daughters tin can have a father to look after them.
• Kick the Dog: Big Dan beats upward Everett and Delmar, steals their money, and crushes their frog whom Delmar thinks is Pete in front of them.
• Kids Driving Cars: Everett, Pete, and Delmar manage to escape from a burning barn when Male child Hogwallop bursts through the befouled door in his dad'south car and offers them a lift. Since Male child is quite small, he uses a brick to weigh downward the accelerator. Later, Everett steals the automobile, leaving Male child to curse him, Pete and Delmar as he walks dorsum to his dad'southward subcontract.
• The Klan: Appears as enemies near the terminate of the movie, as Everett, Pete, and Delmar must rescue their friend Tommy from the Klan.
• The Lancer: Pete.
• Big and in Charge: Governor Pappy O'Daniel. "We're mass communicatin'!"
• Large Ham:
  • Homer Stokes. It's specially noticeable in the scene where he leads a KKK rally. Of course, it makes sense, given that he's running for governor and a talent for public oratory would help him a lot.
  • George "Babyface" Nelson. "I'M FEELING TEN Anxiety TALL!"
• Louis Nil: The Sheriff who is chasing after them is implied, and fifty-fifty theorized to be by the characters, to be this. His Scary Shiny Glasses reflect burn a lot.
• Lyrical Dissonance: The Soggy Lesser Boys' extremely cheerful, upbeat rendition of "Man of Constant Sorrow".
• Magic Realism: There are more than a few downright mystical occurrences in the film, such as the prophet, the sirens, the strong implication that the Warden is Satan, and God saving the protagonists at the climax.
• Meaningful Name: In a story based off The Odyssey, the main character'due south proper name is Ulysses.
  • Likewise the Governor, whose name is Menalaus, although that's a little more The Iliad.
• Misspelling Out Loud: "Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-Northward-O-F-T."
• Mistaken for Transformed: Played for Laughs when the escaped convicts wake upwardly later on drinking with some foreign women by the river, find Pete gone and a toad in his abased clothes, and jump to the determination that he was Baleful Polymorphed. They go along the toad for a while earlier finding out that the women actually sold Pete to the police.

  Delmar: Them si-reens did this to Pete! They loved him up and turned him into a h-horny toad!

• Musical World Hypotheses: Diegetic all the way through, making its classification as a musical to begin with dubious to some.
• Mythical Motifs: While the film doesn't follow The Odyssey to the letter, it does borrow some notable plot elements from it, such as the Cyclops, the sirens, and 1 of the main characters trying to get domicile to his married woman so she won't marry someone else.
• Mythology Gag: Big Dan the cyclops looks like he's going to lose his eye to a flung Confederate flag spear, much like Polyphemus, but he manages to catch it between his hands at the last moment. And then the gang cuts downwards the fiery cantankerous, which falls on top of him, almost certainly burning his eye out and preserving a piece of the narrative.
• Never Trust a Title: No, the three main characters are not brothers, nor are they trying to notice their long-lost brother. The title is actually a reference to an one-time movie.
• No Animals Were Harmed: The moo-cow that was run over by the cops in pursuit of Baby Face Nelson was CGI, which resulted in the rare annex to the warning, "No animals were harmed in the making of this moving picture. Any scenes showing animals in jeopardy were simulated."
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: There really was a Depression-era Governor named Pappy O'Daniel, but his given name was Wilbert Lee O'Daniel; in the film the governor'south real outset name is Menelaus (another Homer reference). As well the real O'Daniel was governor of Texas, not Mississippi.
• Not His Sled: The expected fate of John Goodman's "cyclops" is deliberately referenced and so avoided. Then happens slightly differently anyway.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Teague'due south reaction when he realizes that the fiery cantankerous was coming downward directly at him.
  • Homer Stokes' reaction when he realizes that the town, after his try at getting the Soggy Bottom Boys arrested failed, is now going to run him out of town on a rail as revenge for interrupting the operation.
  • Finally, the dull, dawning realization in the climax that the Warden fully intends to lynch them on the spot, despite the fact that they were given a pardon, and, likewise, murder Tommy, just for beingness there.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Toward the end of the picture show, the fugitive "Soggy Bottom Boys" perform "In the Jailhouse Now" and "Human of Constant Sorrow" while disguised with faux beards. Lampshaded afterward, when their performance wins over the oversupply and Everett deliberately yanks his bristles off for a moment to show Penny who he is.
• The Pardon: Granted but ignored.
• Pedal-to-the-Metal Shot: Parodied. The boy who helps our heroes escape a called-for barn in a Ford Model A has fruit crates strapped to his shoes. What's more, the car can't become very fast anyhow, and and so breaks down before long after their escape.
• Politically Right History: Zig-zagged. The white heroes refer to Tommy as a "boy," but otherwise treat him as an equal. The radio station director insists that he won't play "colored songs," only once the "Soggy Bottom Boys" become popular he's ecstatic about them and signs them. Pappy O'Daniel doesn't seem to intendance that "they's integrated" subsequently seeing how a oversupply adores them and boots out his gubernatorial opponent for interrupting them. The KKK is shown in all its theatrically racist celebrity, but is too portrayed as a fringe organization that is non looked upon favorably by the mutual townsfolk. This portrayal has some basis in reality, equally past the 1930s the second Klan's membership had dwindled compared to its heyday in the mid-1920s ^note Specifically, the murder of Madge Oberholtzer in 1925 caused members to leave in droves; membership continued to refuse until the Ceremonious Rights Movement started gaining momentum in the 1950s, but they accept never come up close to the level seen in the twenties. Information technology should exist noted, nonetheless, that Homer Stokes feels perfectly comfortable announcing to a roomful of people that he belongs to an organization, wink-wink-nudge-nudge, that engages in cross-burning and lynching, and expects the audition to sympathize with him when he attacks people for stopping a lynching. It's not hard to estimate that the but reason he'south booed is because the people he's accusing happen to be a very popular music band, not considering of full general principle.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Homer Stokes, candidate for governor by day, Klansman by night.
• Popculture Osmosis: The Coens take claimed that they've never actually read The Odyssey, just know the story through its various adaptations.
• Produce Pelting: What the audience does when Homer Stokes ends up interrupting the Soggy Bottom Boys performance to get them arrested, that likewise as ride him out of town on a rail.
• Real Is Chocolate-brown: Pursued with a vengeance, given that a substantial portion of the moving-picture show's postal service-production budget went into extensive color-correction. The Coens wanted every frame of the film to reflect the muddied, withered dustbowl look, and in some cases took entire fields of greenish flora and turned them xanthous.
• Reduced to Ratburgers: Pete and Delmar cook a gopher and offering it to Everett. He doesn't seem very enticed by the notion — non because of their choice of nutrient, just because splitting such a small animate being 3 ways wouldn't be much of a meal. Delmar heads him off with news that they actually caught and cooked quite a few gophers, and so Everett tin accept the whole thing.
• Retirony: Of a sort. Pete was two weeks from being released from prison anyway. Now that he's escaped, he'll have to serve another 50 years and won't get out until 1987.
• Route Trip Plot: The convicts are trying to become from their escape from the chain gang to Everett's secret stash, encountering many obstacles and interesting characters along the way.
• Rock Me, Asmodeus!: "And I have it from the highest 'thority, that that negra... sold his soul to the Devil!!!" ^note The townsfolk don't buy into it, though.
• Running Gag:

  "Damn, we're in a tight spot!"

  • Everett'south obsession with his Dapper Dan pomade as well counts, likewise as his reflexive worrying well-nigh his hair whenever something wakes him in the middle of his sleep.
  • The constant reference to Everett supposedly existence hit past a train once he reunited with some of his daughters.
• Satanic Archetype: Sheriff Cooley fits Tommy Johnson'due south description of the Devil exactly: "He's white, as white every bit you folks, with empty eyes and a big hollow vocalization. He likes to travel effectually with a mean old hound." Notwithstanding, upon seeing him at the end of the moving picture, Tommy doesn't seem to notice.
• Saved by the Coffin: After the valley floods, the protagonists cling to one of the coffins the sheriff was planning to bury them in.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: The Sheriff/Warden/Devil wears these.
• Seinfeldian Conversation:
  • This charming example:

    "He'southward gonna paddle our little behind."
    "Own't gonna paddle it — gonna boot it. Existent hard."
    "No, I believe he'south gonna paddle it."
    "I don't believe that's a proper description."
    "Well, that's how I'd characterize it."
    "I believe it'southward more of a kickin' sitchiation."

  • The word of a "grease spot on the L&Northward" and a "bona-fide" suitor ranks right up there besides.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness:
  • Everett. For case, from the Funny Background Event described above:

    Everett: Say, any of you lot fellas happen to exist smithies? If not smithies per se, perhaps you trained in the metallurgical arts before straitened circumstances led y'all to a life of aimless wandering?

  • Also Big Dan Teague:

    Big Dan Teague: And thank y'all for that conversational hiatus. I generally refrain from spoken language while engaged in gustatory modality. There are those who attempt both at the same time; I find it fibroid and vulgar.

• Shout-Out:
  • The film's title is itself a Shout-Out to Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels.
  • The unabridged plot contains diverse shout outs to the Greek epic verse form The Odyssey past Homer. The main protagonist is named Ulysses in both stories, has to get dwelling house to foreclose his wife from marrying someone else, and they run across singing women who seduce them (the Sirens) and a one-eyed giant human being (the cyclops). The reform candidate is named Homer Stokes, referencing the author Homer. The blind railroad human predicting events references Tiresias, while the blind radio station director references Homer again, who was also said to exist blind.
  • Tommy's Deal with the Devil is a reference to a similar deal supposedly made past real-life bluesman Robert Johnson. (Or perhaps Tommy Johnson, depending on whom you ask.) And the song that Chris Thomas King performs during the campfire scene is "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues," originally by Johnson's contemporary Skip James.
  • Not to mention that a man named Ulysses meets a guitarist at a Crossroads.
  • The KKK scene is based off of the scene in The Wizard of Oz where the Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man try to sneak into the witch'southward castle. The guards are chanting the way the KKK does and even doing a like dance, and the 3 heroes steal disguises from the guards/KKK.
  • The Soggy Bottom Boys are a reference to the Calorie-free Chaff Doughboys, who were featured on the real-life Pappy O'Daniel'due south radio show, and/or the Foggy Mountain Boys (founded past Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs).
  • At that place'southward a coffin floating on a flooded river at the cease, which is virtually certainly a Shout-Out to William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. And they employ it as a raft.
  • Sheriff Cooley looks and dresses very similarly to Dominate Godfrey in Cool Hand Luke, right down to his Scary Shiny Spectacles.
  • George Clooney's functioning equally Everett owes more than a little to Clark Gable.
  • A throwaway gag may be a shout-out to Porky Pig:

    Everett: Well, we are negroes, sir. All except for our ac-c-c-c... our ac-c-c-c... uh, the human who plays the guitar.

  • "Is y'all is, or is you ain't, my constituency?" ^note ...my baby
• Sold His Soul for a Donut: The main characters encounter a young musician who claims to take sold his soul to be able to play the guitar really well. Delmar, who recently had a religious experience, is disappointed past the thought of selling a soul for so little.
• Something We Forgot: The trio make it at the cabin in the valley to retrieve Penny's band, forgetting that Sheriff Cooley had before learned of the location by torturing Pete and is at present lying in wait for them.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Many of the characters in a patchily educated way, only mostly Everett. "I'm the goddamn paterfamilias!"
• Source Music: All the music in the movie is diegetic.
• Stout Force: Big Dan Teague.
• Stern Chase: The Warden'due south search for the iii convicts.
• The Stool Dove: Pete ends up becoming a Lacerated Larry after the "Sireens" basically turned him over to the sheriff's men for a bounty (which initially led them to believe that Pete was actually turned into a frog due to information technology being in his clothes).
• Surrounded past Idiots: Pappy O'Daniel's cronies and son are sycophantic yes-men who are a bit tiresome on the uptake, and Pappy is painfully aware of this. This is well-nigh likely the reason he tries to convince Vernon T. Waldrip to exit Stokes' entrada and join his.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: "Who is that human?" "Not my husband." Too doubles as a Shout-Out to the source fabric.
• Symbolic Baptism: Played for Laughs when the escaped convicts Pete and Delmar stumble onto a group baptism in a river and jump at the risk to showtime over with a clean slate... which mostly means doing exactly what they were earlier. They're also a bit confused to hear that it doesn't actually do anything for their criminal records.

  Delmar: But they was witnesses that seen us redeemed.
  Everett: Even if it did put y'all square with the Lord, the state of Mississippi's a little more hard-nosed.

  • Everett is then fifty-fifty more symbolically baptized when he gives his Not-So-Final Confession, on his knees praying for salvation... when the damming of the river floods the valley and sweeps abroad non simply sins, but sinners, and houses.
• Those Two Guys: Pappy's 2 advisors, run into the Seinfeldian Chat higher up.
• Trail of Bread Crumbs: How the sheriff keeps finding Everett. Everett's a Dapper Dan man, going through obscene amounts of the stuff whenever he can get a hold of it. The sheriff's bloodhound can rails him easily.
• Travel Montage: We become a series of scenes showing the trio making their way across Mississippi, stealing a automobile, stealing a pie (Delmar pays for it), telling scary stories around the campfire (hook-handed man)...
• True Companions: Everett, Pete, Delmar, and Tommy.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • The bank customers at the robbery seem to be rather non-plussed by all the shooting.
  • Everett himself is rather non-plussed past Big Dan beating the hell out of Delmar with a tree branch until Big Dan starts attacking him.
• Upper-Class Twit: Pappy O'Daniel's son.
• The Vamp: The three sirens.
• Villainous Glutton: Big Dan Teague, as befits his correspondence with the cyclops Polyphemus.
• Villainous Breakdown: "Babyface" Nelson and Homer Stokes.
  • Nelson gets better...sort of.
  • "MY Name IS GEORGE NELSON, AND I'M FEELIN' TEN FEET Tall!"
• Villain with Expert Publicity: Homer Stokes, oh so much.
• Wardens Are Evil: The Sheriff. While at the get-go he is in the correct to hunt downward Everett, Pete, and Delmar (because of them being fugitives), he goes for overkill tactics like burning down a befouled with them inside. He insists that he answers to a college police than man'south (and so he will just go on coming no matter what), and the moment he makes it clear that he will see them all hang fifty-fifty if they are now pardoned (and he will kill Tommy for no reason other than him beingness there with the fugitives), he crosses the Moral Event Horizon hard. That he is a Satanic Archetype doesn't help any.
• Warm Place, Warm Lighting: The film uses an extreme yellow filter throughout that makes what were green fields look yellowish. While it gives the moving picture a nostalgic sepia experience, information technology also accentuates the fact that the story takes place in sweltering rural Mississippi in the centre of summertime.
• Wedding Ring Removal: Equally the guys encounter the singing sirens, Everett, in the groundwork, pulls his nuptials band off right earlier the girls come up over and get-go getting cozy with them.
• Whole Plot Reference: Loosely, to The Odyssey.
• Working on the Chain Gang: The story begins with Everett, Pete, and Delmar escaping from this while chained to each other. Pete, at 1 point, is recaptured and put back to work on the concatenation gang and has to be broken out of prison again.

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