Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US/Aus.) a naïve and foolish small-town or country person.

1880		Illus. Sydney News 2 Oct. 10/2: The long-legged Lord Burleigh, who strode over the ground like a giraffe [...] amidst shrieks of cheering from the local yokels.
1897		Melbourne Punch 27 May 7/4: It was Portia [...] who rode astride, along with her sister, through Gippsland recently, and drove the local yokels to hide in the mountains for fear.
1903		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Jan. 1/1: A recent pig-greasing competition at Pinjarrah disclosed the craft of the local yokel.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 Nov. 1/6: ‘It’s about three miles,’ said a local yokel.
1923		Registrar (Adelaide) 2 Mar. 13/4: Lines by a local Yokel [...] herewith find a local yokel’s lay, / Please publish it, Oh, do not say ‘Nay’.
1934		Sydney Morn. Herald 1 Dec. 22/1: The old lore and simple manifestations on which the ‘local yokel’ bases his weather prophecies.
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl. §391.3: rustic, bumpkin, local yokel.
1947		Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 12 Apr. 2s/3: At the gate the driver said to the local yokel, ‘It’s Mr Chifley’.
1955		R. Graziano Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 224: Hustle a horseshoe game between me and some local yokel.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 152: Local yokel Boy or girl (not student) from town you go to school in.
1986		Steve Earle ‘Guitar Town’ 🎵 No local yokel’s gonna shut me down.
2003		C. Stella Charlie Opera 235: The Feds are much more meticulous than us local yokels.