Teague, Big Dan (O Brother Where Art Thou?). Daniel “Big Dan” Teague, played by John Goodman, is a slick-talking bible salesman that has in inane ability to smell the money, clearly an over exaggerated ability, located in the front overall pocket of Ulysses Everett McGill, as played by George Clooney. Still bereaved by their friends’ astonishing transformation into a toad, Big Dan convinces both Ulysses and Delmar O’Donnell, as played by Tim Blake Nelson, into packing their lunch for a picnic out in an isolated field to talk the overwhelming income that selling the word of God brings.[1][1]

After thanking the two for the “fricassee” Big Dan stands to deliver an impactful lesson of business and economics. After breaking a rather large branch from the lone tree they presided under he strikes both Delmar and Ulysses quite forcefully and relieves them of the money that they had come across not too long ago. Exiting back to his vehicle Teague leaves the two semi-conscious protagonists with the quip “So long boys. See you in the funny papers”.[1][2]

The trio comes across Big Dan yet again when trying to rescue their African-American friend Tommy Johnson, as played by Chris Thomas King, from the Ku Klux Klan in the middle of a lynching ceremony. Disguised as the color guard, the three heroes move in until Teague, with his heightened sense of smell, recognizes the hair product that Ulysses uses and quickly de-hoods the protagonists. After scurrying from over a hundred members, one of the trio hurls the Dixie flag into the air “like a missile” to which Big Dan catches within inches from his own working eye. After a smirk emphasizing his skill, cable cutters release the burning cross, the visual epitome of the lynch ceremony, it comes crashing down becoming the ultimate end to Big Dan’s fable. –Benjamin Shriver