Who is “Florida Man”? Desi Lydic Investigates | The Daily Show

“To be a Florida man you first have to be a Florida boy” poetic

Florida man should be a Netflix series

Everyone always asks ‘who is Florida Man’ , no one ever asks ‘how is Florida Man’

If they sent a male reporter for covering the news, he would've turned into a Florida man.

"anything... well not anything... but basically anything." 😂 😂 😂

"To become a Florida Man, you must first be a Florida Boy." Aw, crap. I'm out of luck.

“As a future Pulitzer Prize winning journalist” that’s the spirit😂😂😂

"Anything?" "Anything!" "Anything???" "Anything! but not anything, but basically anything!"

I’m so glad you pointed out about the Sunshine Act. There really are crazy people all over the country, and a lot of people who do crazy stuff under the influence. But Florida is still crazy.

"Mental health issues?" Sprayed milk through my nose.

"Imma pirate... most of the day. When I'm not I'm a landscaper."

I know this is a joke but there are several reasons for all the whackadoo stories originating from Florida; besides 1)*being the third most populated state* 2) being almost dead last in mental health care 3) being a home to many unscrupulous rehabs who participate in human trafficking (seriously), along with doctors who hand out opiates like Pez, 4) our open-records laws, AKA the Government in the Sunshine Act, means our batshittery is easy to find and exploit by national media/press. (Since 1909, Florida has had a proud tradition that all government business is public business and therefore should be available to the public. That means all records, including photos and videos, produced by a public agency are easily accessible with a few narrow and obvious exceptions. Public officials are also required to open all of their meetings — even unofficial ones — to the public.) But that's not all! Here are a few other reasons Florida seems like a non-stop shitshow: Our weather: The Sunshine State’s subtropical climate has attracted everyone from voodoo priests to circus freaks to retired CIA agents looking for a warm place to chill out. With no snow to keep them cooped up indoors, Floridians are out creating mischief all year long. In the heat, tempers flare quickly and fights erupt over everything from cups of soup (jail riot) to missing shrimp (samurai sword attack and knife throwing). Our judgment is clouded by the humidity and we tend to reach for any weapon handy—machetes, lawn gnomes, even a 3-foot alligator. There is also a huge amount of cultures mingling about, all with different ideas about manners and behaviors Our geography: Florida has long been the end of the line for people fleeing their past. We are the state of second, third and fourth chances. But once they’re here, most folks discover you can’t really get away from your past. In the 1920s, after Carlo Ponzi was busted in Boston for running the original Ponzi scheme, he fled to Florida —where he was caught running a real-estate scam. Our history: Floridians have been stubborn and strange right from the start. In 1845, when Florida joined the United States, the first flag that flew over our capital bore the slogan, “Let Us Alone.” Florida’s cattle-herding settlers didn’t cut the same romantic figure as the cowboys of the Old West. Artist Frederic Remington described them as “low-browed cow-folks” who would “shoot and stab each other for the possession of scrawny creatures not fit for a pointer-dog to mess on.” Our people: Since World War II, keeping Florida’s economy afloat has depended on maintaining a constant influx of new residents, prompting The New Yorker magazine to dub us “The Ponzi State.” We went from being the least-populated Southern state in 1940, with 1.8 million residents, to nearly 20 million now — and 95 percent are crammed in within 35 miles of the state’s long coastline. This human tsunami rapidly altered the state, bringing in the young, the old, whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics and a host of other census classifications, all bumping up against each other, ramming into each other’s cars, loudly objecting when their neighbors’ dogs pooped on the lawns. Our guns: Floridians hold more concealed weapons permits than people in any other state — more than 1 million. We also lead the nation in the rate of accidental shootings, in part because Floridians tend to regard guns not as weapons but as magic wands you can wave around to make problems go away. The most powerful lobbyist in our state capital is the great-grandmother who represents the National Rifle Association. She’s responsible for writing the “Stand Your Ground” law that’s now been copied by many other states. So yeah, basically we are a bit odd, but not that much worse than other states, but because of our open records laws, our crazy is exported in the form of funny headlines on the daily.

"why not" the Florida man's life philosophy

I'm just happy that Steve the Pirate found purpose in life.

"She gone" - The Alligator Man, 2018

"She gone."

"If there's a lake, there is a gator" - That shit had me dying laughing

Lmao I died when she said "This nerd knew a lot about Florida."

I was a Florida boy, born and raised. I left when i was about 24, and never looked back. I feel as if I dodged a bullet.

"What makes a man Florida man?" That's easy, it's meth.