Only in Florida: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Don't all the nuts roll downhill to Florida?"''|'''Repeated line from several characters''', "Agua Mala", ''[[The X-Files]]''}}
[[File:Hanging chad.jpg|thumb|upright|Hanging chads are some of the ''less'' weird things to have happened in Florida.]]
When reading a "[[Lurid Tales of Doom|News of the Weird]]" site, it has been noticed that [[Florida]] has more than its fair share of weird stories. [[Fark|Some of them]] even [[Lampshade Hanging|hang a lampshade]] with a "Florida" tag, as seen below.
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* Voters pass a law making the wearing of baggy pants a criminal offense that may cost you up to $150 and 60 days in jail? Just as baggy pants were [[Old Media Playing Catch Up|starting to go out of style]], one might add, extending the fashion for at least another year. Florida.
* Japanese stripper claims judge (who looks like Bill Cosby) shared business and bank accounts but insists their relationship is "a pure business matter"? Florida.
And that's just from one day's worth of news in the Persistent Vegetative State. Quite literally one day's worth of news: All the above are summaries of [[Fark]] items from March 12, 2008. [[Berserk Button|Don't get us started on the 2000 Presidential election either]]. This may be one of the causes of Florida's current population loss- in 2008, for the first time in over a century, more people moved ''out'' than moved ''in''. Considering that development and housing construction are such a major sector that the state's entire economy has been described as a giant [[Ponzi]] scheme, that's a ''problem''.
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It is to their credit that most Floridians laugh along with this sort of "joke", mainly because they know that, on the whole, the '''Only in Florida''' "trope" is based on complete and utter nonsense created by comedians skimming a list of the most extreme events from an otherwise normal, run-of-the-mill newsday and presenting them as if this sort of stuff was the norm rather than the exception.
Thanks to the [[Twitter]] account @_FloridaMan (that started covering this sort of story in February 2013), "[[Florida Man]]" has become a shorthand for the people who make the headlines in these stories.
Also check out [[Only in Miami]], which is about the city, rather than the state. Note: there is little relation between this and the Bermuda Triangle, as the Bermuda Triangle is more about the paranormal than the weird and wacky.
----
{{examples}}
=== Comic Books ===
* In the [[Marvel Universe]], Florida plays home to the Nexus of All Realities, a multiversal intersection that leads to high weirdness.
** Which plays at the true source of Florida weirdness.
=== Film ===▼
* ''[[Big Trouble]]'' is unsurprisingly this being adapted from a [[Dave Barry]] book. It's often discussed by two out of town hitmen who constantly refer to the complete oddness around them and call it as Weirdsville, USA.▼
▲== Film ==
▲* [[Big Trouble]] is unsurprisingly this being adapted from a [[Dave Barry]] book. It's often discussed by two out of town hitmen who constantly refer to the complete oddness around them and call it as Weirdsville, USA.
** The book's [[Stealth Sequel]] ''Tricky Business'' is also set in Florida. Like ''Big Trouble'', there is just as much weirdness.
=== Literature ===▼
▲== Literature ==
* [[Carl Hiaasen]]: Apart from reporting on real Florida, he writes lurid but not really exaggerated fiction about it.
* [[Dave Barry]], the Miami-based humorist. [["Not Making This Up" Disclaimer|He says he is not making these things up.]]
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* Alex Flinn's novel ''Cloaked'' is set in Miami and centers around a high school shoemaker being hired by a princess to search the Florida Keys for her brother, who has been turned into a frog. As the story goes on, it becomes apparent that there's a good number of enchanted people-turned-animals and fairy tale creatures in general in the region. Flinn's other novel, ''A Kiss in Time'', has a modern-day teenage boy bring a fairy-tale princess he finds in Europe to live with him in Miami.
=== Live-Action TV ===▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[The Daily Show]]'': A "10 F#@king Years" segment was devoted solely to Florida stories.
{{quote|"But without tacky shit on your lawn, how does anyone know they're in Florida?"}}
* An episode of
* From ''[[Criminal Minds]]'', which sees some of the most bizarre, gruesome, inventive and just generally screwed-up serial killers not set in a [[Stephen King]] novel:
{{quote|'''JJ:''' We got a bad [case].
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* An episode of ''[[The X-Files]]'' set in Florida amidst a hurricane has "Don't all the nuts roll downhill to Florida?" as a [[Running Gag]].
=== Magazines ===
* Interestingly, back in the 1840s it was Kentucky, not Florida, which had this
===
▲* Interestingly, back in the 1840s it was Kentucky, not Florida, which had this reputation—at least accordng to ''[[Punch]]''.
* Anchorage, Alaska radio DJs Woody and Wilcox cover this daily in the "It Happened in Florida" segment; three recent news stories are presented, all real. Of the three, two are subversions, sounding like things that happened in Florida, but not actually occurring there. The calling guest who finds the straight example gets some prizes.
* When [[The Man Show|Adam Carolla]] was hosting ''[[Loveline]]'', they played a game called "Germany or Florida", where listeners would call in with weird news stories and the hosts would have to guess whether it took place in Germany or Florida.
** Germany's reputation is well-deserved; it's one of the most common locations for such stories on [[The BBC]] radio show ''It's Been A Bad Week''.
=== Web Original ===▼
* The [[Twitter]] feed (and accompanying [[Reddit|subreddit]]) [https://twitter.com/_FloridaMan @FloridaMan], who compiles news about Florida and treats it as if all was done by the same person.
▲== Web Original ==
* Another website aggregator with the same name and concept but probably not related: "[https://floridaman.com/ Florida Man | Worst Super Hero Ever]".
* Likely as a result of the above, the term "[[w:Florida Man|Florida Man]]" is recognized as [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/florida-man a meme].
** A popular game making the rounds in some [[Friending Network]]s during 2019 was "Google 'Florida Man/Woman' plus your birthday and post the first result".
* ''[[Distorted View]]'', a [[Podcast]] created to present interesting and disgusting things that happen in the news each day, has a special sound clip that plays whenever a news story occurs in Florida, "Our most fucked-up state."
* [[Fark|Fark.com]] has, along with such categories as "Interesting", "Cool", "Asinine", "Scary", and "Weird", a category named "Florida".
** Note that Drew Curtis has commented on this in his book. To paraphrase: California news gets no reaction because "Oh, it's just those crazy hippies." No one expects weird news from Florida. After reading all the examples though one has to wonder why. It's a massive tourist state with alligators. Stupid people plus giant reptiles. [[Sarcasm Mode|How bad could it be?]]
* Chuck Shepherd, writer of [http://www.newsoftheweird.com/ News of the Weird] column, simply calls it the "F State."
* The off-topic section of the NeoGAF forums frequently tags weird news stories with a guessing game - does the weird news story happen in [[Fun with Acronyms|Germany, Australia or Florida]]?
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* Cenk from ''[[The Young Turks]]'' comments on this often.
* ''[[What The Fuck Is Wrong With You?]]'' features stories about the general crazy that is Florida on a [[Once an Episode]] basis. One of the early episodes was even made up entirely of Florida stories. The title? "The Wang of America."
* ''[[Cracked.com]]'' lampshaded this in their article [https://web.archive.org/web/20131031210321/http://www.cracked.com/article/211_the-6-most-horrific-lessons-ever-taught-in-elementary-school_p2/ "The 6 Most Horrific Lessons Ever Taught in Elementary School,"] where half of the six entries came out of Florida.
{{quote|"Wait, what the fuck? That's three of our entries that are from Florida. What the hell is going on down there?}}
* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' it is generally noted (in-universe, mind you) that with the exception of Miami, Florida has the most laid-back, non-seriously-threatening, most-likely-to-step-in-and-save-innocent-bystanders-or-surrender-peacefully-without-throwing-a-punch supervillain population in the world. The primary superhero team in the state is called "Imagination East", and it's sponsored by Walt Disney World. Yes, you read that right.
** Miami, on the other hand, is home of some of the most viciously violent, bloodthirsty villains on the planet.
=== Real Life ===
* [[Take That|"Governor"]] [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Rick Scott]]: Only in Florida could the same man implicated in the biggest Medicare fraud in the nation's history be elected governor. His half-term as governor has already been marred with rampant corruption. Trying to bulldoze state parks to put up private golf courses (which was publicly opposed by golf legend Arnold Palmer); attempted to develop land that belonged to the Seminole tribe; slashed pay and benefits for teachers, the police, and firefighters<ref>[[Laser-Guided Karma|the day before massive wildfires broke out across the state]]</ref> in the name of reducing the state's deficit [[Hypocrite|while simultaneously spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to refurnish his office]]; ordered the destruction of coral reefs... really, there's a reason while he has the lowest approval rating in Florida's history, and the lowest approval rating in the country today.{{when}} [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|He also bears a striking resemblance to]] [[Harry Potter|Lord Voldemort]]. [http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljp6y33Tmr1qbbjgbo1_400.jpg See for yourself].
* There's a reason why it seems all the crazy tabloid stories come from Florida. That's because American Media, the group that publishes ''all the tabloids in the U.S.'' (they own ''National Enquirer'', ''National Examiner'', ''Sun'', ''Globe'' and ''Star''), is based in Boca Raton, Florida.
* The ''Miami Herald'' has a news category called [http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weird-news/index.html Weird News].
* Fort Lauderdale newspaper the ''Sun-Sentinel's'' weird news blog, aptly titled "[http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/specials/weirdflorida/blog/ Floriduh]''. Their slogan?
{{quote|"We've all been out in the sun too long."}}
** Also see the ''St. Petersburg Times'' "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130314075531/http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/bizarre
* ONTD has a meme of Bugs Bunny cutting off Florida from the united states.
* The page image comes from the recount of the disputed Florida ballots in the 2000 Presidential election between [[George W. Bush]] and Al Gore. The state itself recorded millions of votes, but the final margin of victory was less than '''600''', well within the margin of error. This spawned a month-plus fiasco of lawsuits, astroturfing, concession calls that were rescinded, accusations of a rigged election, and a Supreme Court case that said basically 'This situation is so damned weird that this decision shouldn't be used as precedent.'
* SWAT teams ignore duties during drug raid to play Wii Sports bowling? [https://web.archive.org/web/20101129133827/http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/21/undercover-drug-investigators-embarrass-polk-sheri/ (Hint:] ''not''
▲{{examples|Examples of particularly odd cases of this trope in action in [[Real Life]] include:}}
▲* SWAT teams ignore duties during drug raid to play Wii Sports bowling? [http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/21/undercover-drug-investigators-embarrass-polk-sheri/ (Hint: ''not'' Reno911)]
* Unstoppable Army of Snakes? [http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-march-18-2009/florida-pythons-on-the-loose A threat to all of humanity.]
** Now there is also a coyote infestation in Broward County. Prepare for a bloodbath between the species. (All three of them.)
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* [http://www.snopes.com/photos/risque/license.asp On one license plate] (not a [[Vanity License Plate]], surprisingly), the picture of an orange in the middle of Florida plates made the combination "A55 RGY" read as "ASS ORGY".
* British street lighting making an appearance in Fort Myers - namely the [http://www.wrtl.co.uk/product-range/road-and-amenity/arc WRTL Arc], as recently as November 2008, before being removed after a short period of time. Apparently these must have been imported since WRTL don't export to America currently...
* A Florida minister trolling the world by telling national news outlets that he would burn copies of the Quran on [[The War on Terror|September 11th]]; oh wait, no he won't; now he will; now he won't again. Earth just narrowly missed seeing World War III due to this event. It's not as funny as the rest of these, especially not for those who lived there - they were less worried about [[World War III]] than they were about the millions of Muslims that might be incited to kill people due to the actions of a single bigot.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcqOgnQyXp4 "The Hoodrat Kid"] lived in Palm Beach, Florida when he decide to take his grandma's car for a joyride.
▲*** The following March, he did, and they did. [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42376051/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/t/un-staff-killed-afghan-protest-over-quran-burning-us/ 11 people were killed in the ensuing riot.]
▲* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcqOgnQyXp4 "The Hoodrat Kid"] lived in Palm Beach, Florida when he decide to take his grandma's car for a joyride. (Note: The child was 7 year-old).
* A fire breakout in the kitchen while the house owner was in the bathroom. Instead of running and exiting out the front door, which was nowhere near the fire, what does he do? Make a hole through his bathroom walls to escape.
* A branch of Bank of America trying to foreclose on a mortgage that they did not have? Odd. The homeowners fighting back in court and winning? Impressive. [https://web.archive.org/web/20131004063454/http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/jun/03/tables-turned-bank-of-america-foreclosure-case/ The homeowners showing up with a sheriff and moving truck to foreclose on the bank when they wouldn't pay court-ordered damages?] Florida.
** [[The Daily Show|John Oliver]] considers this [http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-8-2011/the-forecloser the best news story of all time.]
* In 1984, the ''entire police department'' of Key West was declared an illegal enterprise under the RICO laws—which are usually used to shut down mobsters. One witness even claimed to deliver bags of coke to city hall on a regular basis.
* [http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110812/BREAKINGNEWS/110812021/Police-Attorney-faces-charges-after-naked-sword-duel Lawyer challenges his wife to a nude swordfight; when he fails to kill her before she can call 911, he absconds with the sword, still nude. Said lawyer previously worked on a case where his client robbed a credit union and hid the cash inside his prosthetic leg.]
* One guess where [[w:Jack Thompson (activist)|Jack Thompson]] hails from.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120603211911/http://articles.cnn.com/2009-07-22/justice/florida.dead.shark_1_shark-metromover-fish-markets?_s=PM:CRIME Shark on the train? Sure, why not.]
* The University of Miami football team is listed on [[The Tyson Zone]], and deservedly so.
** 1980's: Luther Campbell of ''2 Live Crew'' had a rewards program to pay players for touchdowns and other on-field achievements.
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** 2011: Convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro is caught for having lavished strippers, prostitutes, alcohol, and money on UM recruits for nearly 10 years.
* May 27, 2012: Man eating another man's face while naked on the road while being shot several times till he finally died? [http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/26/2818832/naked-man-shot-killed-on-macarthur.html If a] [[Zombie Apocalypse]] is going to start, might wanna take note that it's gonna come from Florida.
** Around that time and city,
* Summer 2019: [https://i.imgur.com/ioMrWWk.jpg Whosever pulleth this knife from this alligator...]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:Useful Notes/The United States]]
[[Category:News Tropes]]
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