florida man police

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Which ‘Florida Man’ are you?

These stories are fun, but the men of Florida may be getting a bad rap.

 

David Britton

Internet Culture

Posted on Mar 21, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 4:33 pm CDT

Sure, it’s fun to talk about how you’re vain because you were born in the year of the dragon, or how your stubborn because you’re a Taurus, but maybe you’re also clumsy because you were born on the day of “Florida man drops stolen TV from getaway scooter“.

This new meme formula helps you find your inner Florida Man. All you have to do is google “Florida Man” plus your date of birth minus the year. For instance, if you were born on April 27, your birth story is “Florida man arrested after witnesses said he practiced karate on swans“.

florida man karate swan
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The meme apparently started on Tumblr when a user going by the moniker “Gandalfsoda” posted on March 19: “New fun personality game: search up ‘Florida man’ and your birthday and see what headline you get (year not nessecary [sp]).”

https://gandalfsoda.tumblr.com/post/183571229678/new-fun-personality-game-search-up-florida-man

From there, the Florida Man meme began spreading around the internet before eventually making its way to Twitter, where it took off like a Florida man running from a state trooper.

https://twitter.com/ArcanaLegacy/status/1108586332966797313

https://twitter.com/N8theSk8/status/1108746955004403713

https://twitter.com/gpa510/status/1108560141366915074

https://twitter.com/biggmffaxxx/status/1108734933722382339

You might be wondering why all these stories are coming out of Florida, and not say Idaho, or Vermont. According to World Atlas, Florida actually ranks 18th in terms of violent crime across the nation. Not exactly an enviable position, but far from Alaska and New Mexico—the first two states on the crime list. So what’s really going on with all these stories?

It turns out the abundance of weird crime stories coming out of Florida have more to do with how the government deals with public records than with people wanting to ride jet skis down the highway (to be fair, that guy wasn’t actually doing anything illegal).

As writer and former Floridan Jessica Misener pointed out in her Twitter thread, “Florida has something called the Sunshine Law that gives the public *very* open access to public records.” (Although it’s worth mentioning that Florida legislators are actually working to restrict access to these records when they pertain to mass shooting)

This, she argues, means that journalists have easy access to juicy stories they might not have in other states. If a local paper prints something strange or amusing, it’s easy for larger national sites to pick up on it and distribute it to a wider audience.

However, she admits there are some other factors involved in these Flordia stories.

So go ahead and have fun posting your “Florida Man” stories. Just don’t start thinking you’re superior because you live in Illinois. After all, you guys rank two places higher at No. 16.

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*First Published: Mar 21, 2019, 1:06 pm CDT