In an era well before "political correctness" entered the vocabulary, DOGPATCH exceeded every stereotype of Appalachia. The hillbillies in Li'l Abner's home town were poorer than poor. The houses were hopelessly ramshackle. Most Dogpatchers were dumber than dumb. The remainder were scoundrels and thieves. Most of the menfolk were too lazy to work, yet Dogpatch women were desperate enough to chase them (see Sadie Hawkins Day). One, Moonbeam McSwine, preferred to live with hogs. Those who farmed their "tarnip" crop watched turnip termites descend every year, locust-like, to devour the crop.

In the midst of the Great Depression, the hardscrabble residents of lowly Dogpatch allowed suffering Americans to laugh at yokels even worse off than they were. In Al Capp's own words Dogpatch was "an average stone-age community nestled in a bleak valley, between two cheap and uninteresting hills, somewhere. To old friends, the denizens of Dogpatch will be old friends. To strangers, however, they will probably be strangers." Very early in the continuity Capp once referred to Dogpatch being in Kentucky, but he was careful afterwards to keep its location generic, probably to avoid cancellations from offended subscribing newspapers in Kentucky. Later Capp licensed and was part-owner of an 800-acre $35 million theme park called "Dogpatch USA" near Harrison, Arkansas.