Dueling Banjos

Billy Redden as "Lonny"- the "banjo kid."

Dueling Banjos is a famous scene from the 1972 movie Deliverance. The scene depicts Billy Redden playing the instrumental "Dueling Banjos" opposite actor Ronny Cox on guitar. Redden plays "Lonny"- a mentally retarded, inbred, extremely gifted banjo player.

The piece was arranged and performed for the movie by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel and was featured on the movie's soundtrack album. The piece was originally composed by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith and Don Reno as Feuding Banjos in 1955.[1]

References in popular culture

The song is a mainstay of the band Hayseed Dixie. It features on their fifth album, A Hot Piece of Grass, and is performed as the closing song at the majority of their live performance. The band's main banjo player is Don Wayne Reno, son of one of the song's co-composers Don Reno.
In The King of Queens episode Whine Country, it is used when Arthur and Spence are camped in a forest. Two people are watching them, and one observes that Spence has 'a pretty mouth'.
In The Simpsons episode Boy Scoutz N' The Hood, where Bart becomes a Junior Camper after drinking a squishy-induced sugar high beverage from Apu, they reference Deliverence (Dueling Banjos playing while a shadowy figure giggles and watches the raft NOT carrying Bart, Homer, Rod and Ned Flanders on it float downstream).
The Irish sitcom Father Ted episode Good Luck, Father Ted where two of Craggy Island's locals parody the "Duelling Banjos" sequence from the movie Deliverance.
In the Family Guy episode The Perfect Castaway, Peter Griffin engages Michael Moore in a flatulence contest in the style of Dueling Banjos.
"Dueling Xylophones" by the comedian Bill Bailey
"Dueling Tubas" by Martin Mull
"Dueling Brandos" performed by John Belushi and Peter Boyle on Saturday Night Live.
In the computer game The Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood challenges a pirate barber into a banjo duel at Plunder Island.
Robin Williams does a short called "Dueling Planets" on his Reality, What a Concept album.
A skit called Dueling Carsons/Foxworthys is used on ESPN Classic's Cheap Seats.
Radio-host Ed Schultz uses the dueling banjos as part of a recording involving Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell over Iraq.
In Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, Babs and Buster Bunny meet a small colony of country Opossum. Buster has a Banjo duel with one of them using his tongue, shortly before the Opossum try and eat him and Babs.
In the Married with Children episode The Camping Show, Al Bundy and Steve Rhoades are replaying the banjo scene ("Dueling Banjos") of that film, in which Ed O'Neill had a small cameo.
In the opening scene of the Home Improvement episode Back In The Saddle Shoes Again, Tim and Al have a contest on Tool Time to determine whose drywall banjo has the better compound in it. As Dueling Banjos plays in the background, they each start to ue their banjos on a sheet of drywall (at first alternating between the parts, but later turning into a frenzy before fading to the opening credits).
In The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. 2 part episode High Treason, Pete Hutter and Sheriff Aaron Viva pass the time in their cell acting out the famous "Dueling Banjos" song from the film Deliverance.
In the Futurama episode The Deep South, The gang finds the old city of Atlanta. After the Colonel introduces them, Bender sings the first line of the tune.
In the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode Harvey's Civvy, Judge Mentok the Mindtaker and newfound rival Shado the Brain Thief begin an impromptu challenge of mind powers to a tune similar to Dueling Banjos, before retiring to a bar in the middle of a trial.
In the The Beverly Hillbillies film, the extended members of the Clampett family play Dueling Banjos in an airplane.
In the NCIS episode Suspicion, Tony and McGee sing the opening part of Dueling Banjos to explain to Ziva what Boondocks are.
In the anime Cowboy Bebop there is a in-show program called Big Shot that the bounty hunters of the Bebop use as reference to catch all their bounties. In the start of the openning tune of Big Shot, the tune sounds very familiar to the ending banjo segment of the Dueling Banjos song. And if one has a close enough listenning ear, it seems as if the entire banjo part of the song is playing in the background.
On The Amazing Adventures of DJ Yoda, the DJ uses the banjo part from the song as a counterpoint to his scratching, using vinyll sounds to reproduce a melody similar to the original. The track is called "Duelling Banjos" and retains much of the original's structure, with stereotypical hillbilly catcalls spliced in for effect.
In a 2007 MINI commercial, two MINI Cooper owners attempt to outdo one another with upgrades and modifications to their respective vehicles. The background music for this commercial is "Dueling Banjos".[2]

Link title