Source: Fortune.com
Summary
Dolly Parton’s 1973 appearance on “The Porter Wagoner Show” highlighted her growing confidence and control over her career. During a duet, she disrupted the planned performance, taking the lead and asserting her creative authority. Parton later left the show, going on to achieve significant success with hits like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You.” Scholars note her use of humor to challenge gender norms and industry expectations. Parton’s career demonstrated that country authenticity and pop stardom could coexist.
Our Reading
The numbers tell one story.
Parton challenged Wagoner’s control during a live performance.
She used humor to assert her creative authority.
Her career showed she could balance pop and country.
She turned industry expectations into her advantage.
The song was hers, and the audience knew it.
Author: Evan Null
Turning the tables
Parton, who died on Aug. 25, 2026, didn’t simply tell jokes for cheap chuckles. In my work as a scholar of country music, I’ve written about how female country artists from the mid-20th century to the 2010s deployed humor to elbow their way into an industry that has often been hostile to women. Throughout the genre’s history, female country artists could be treated as window dressing for the male main attractions. And when women did achieve success, the industry could be quick to portray them as climbers who abandoned their country roots in pursuit of pop stardom.
Women also traditionally have had a harder time getting recording contracts and radio airplay. As recently as 2015, radio consultant Keith Hill controversially said that country stations should play mostly male artists, describing men as the “lettuce” and women as the “tomatoes” in a salad. One way female artists fought back? By using humor to upend expectations about how women should behave.
In Lulu Belle’s comedic take on marriage in her 1939 song “I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again,” she plays the part of the female rube. By assuming the caricature of female hillbilly, she was able to do or say things that a conventionally respectable female character couldn’t. Similarly, June Carter often played the unruly country girl who aimed her punchlines at male hosts and duet partners, including Johnny Cash. And in the uproarious “Got My Name Changed Back,” the contemporary trio Pistol Annies use humor to turn the pain of divorce into a celebration of female empowerment.
But few have ever wielded humor as deftly as Parton. She used quick-witted retorts and self-deprecating jokes as weapons to disarm audiences and shine a spotlight on double standards and gendered biases. She often did this by making men the butt of her jokes. Take two of Parton’s first commercial hits: “Dumb Blonde,” written by Curly Putman, and her self-penned “Something Fishy.”
In “Dumb Blonde,” Parton tells the story of a cheating man who, upon being confronted, angrily accuses her of being a “dumb blonde.” After announcing that “this dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool,” the song’s narrator triumphantly declares, “If there’s one thing this blonde has learned, blondes have more fun,” before walking away from the relationship on her own terms. “Something Fishy” is another song about a cheater. Parton’s lyrics contrast the man’s thin lies about “going on fishing trips” with her suspicion of his infidelities.
Dolly’s world
In the same way that Parton took the spotlight from Wagoner during that televised duet in 1973 – and makes it clear who’s in control and who isn’t – Parton also took control of the narrative of her career. When critics questioned her commitment to country, she demonstrated that popular stardom and country authenticity were not mutually exclusive. When they condemned her ambition, she made no apologies for wanting more. When they tried to ridicule her look, she owned her Dolly image by means of her wit.
As Parton would often say, “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” There’s so much in that line. For one, it’s hilarious. But it also signals that she intentionally crafted her campy persona, and that her calculated appearance also contributed to her wild success. That was Dolly: self-deprecating, self-aware, self-assured and, yes – wickedly funny.
