"Florida Man wouldn't even do this stuff," Obama said...

[Buns_of_Fire]

Former President Barack Obama implored Floridians to vote, passionately extolled Democratic positions and fired off a series of sharp zingers at President Donald Trump during a speech Saturday in Miami.

Obama's trolling of Trump took place several hours and about 70 miles south of the early voting site in West Palm Beach where Trump cast his ballot on Saturday morning.

...

"With Joe and Kamala at the helm, you may not have to think about them every single day," Obama said.

...

"Florida Man wouldn't even do this stuff," Obama said. "Why are we accepting this from a president of the United States? It's not normal behavior."

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/24/obama-miami-contrasts-trump-florida-man-miami-speech/6024736002/

Here, hold my covfefe...

[DonaldsRump]

1. Trump is the quintessential Florida Man n/t

[Buns_of_Fire]

3. It's apparently more of a "thing" than I thought it was.

Still runner-up to the legendary Moran Guy, though.

[exboyfil]

2. I would have used the term hold my beer man

I can't think Floridians are happy with the stereotype.

Of course beer drinkers might then get offended.

[Buns_of_Fire]

4. I think every state gets its turn in the barrel, eventually.

I say that as an ex-Florida Man myself (raised in Ft. Lauderdale).

[DemInBuckhead]

9. Having lived in Florida for a couple years...

...it's been accepted for a long time that there are a lot of nuts who live there. Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry are much loved there for basically describing "Florida Man" in their books before the Florida Man meme came to be.

[jayschool2013]

10. Exactly

I escaped Florida in 1990. I remember hearing Terry Gross interviewing Carl Hiaasen, asking him where he came up with the crazy characters in his mystery novels.

He said "I live in South Florida. I work at a newspaper. I don't have to make up anything."

#floriduh

[SheltieLover]

5. Key take away

"You may not have to think about them every day."

I recall quite clearly when 😍bama was president. I did not anxiously search the news to see how he and his admin were attacking our country!

[Luciferous]

6. Yes! I am tired of waking up and coming on here to see what crazy stuff Trump is doing.

It's exhausting and I miss having a competent president.

[SheltieLover]

7. Same here!

[Delmette2.0]

12. I look forward to coming here every day to see

What our Democrats in the House and Senate have passed and what President Biden has signed to undo all the damage of the last four years.

[Luciferous]

13. That would be a refreshing change, wouldn't it?

[BComplex]

8. I thought trump was bragging about MAILING his ballot back when.

Is he voting twice in Florida?

[George II]

11. I heard that and didn't know what he meant, so I looked it up. This is a good explanation....

Florida Man:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Man

Origin

The meme was originated in February 2013 by the Twitter feed @_FloridaMan, which quoted news headlines containing the words Florida man, such as "Florida man run over by van after dog pushes accelerator" or "Police arrest Florida man for drunken joy ride on motorized scooter at Wal-Mart." The feed refers to Florida Man as the "World's Worst Superhero."

Spread

Florida already had a colorful reputation on the Internet, with the social aggregation site Fark having had a Florida tag for years before the Florida Man Twitter feed appeared.[4] After the creation of the Twitter feed in January 2013, and its simultaneous popularization on social media sites such as Reddit and Tumblr (initially through the subreddit r/FloridaMan and the Tumblr blog StuckInABucket), the meme was featured in numerous news articles and stories throughout February 2013.

Florida Man was also referred to in the opening episode of Season 2 of the FX show Atlanta as a sinister entity, referred to by Darius as an “Alt-right Johnny Appleseed,” who commits a variety of strange crimes in Florida as part of a plot to keep black voters out, portrayed by Kevin Waterman.

On November 1, 2018, Desi Lydic of The Daily Show filed a report comedically investigating the phenomenon of "Florida Man".

A play titled "Florida Man" by Michael Presley Bobbitt premiered July 31, 2019, at New York's Theatre Row Studios.

In 2019, a variation developed on social media in which people were encouraged to look up "Florida Man" and the date of their birthday, typically finding some bizarre occurrence involving a Florida Man on that date.

On October 31, 2019, president Donald Trump according to sources, was changing his residence from New York City to Palm Beach, Florida, which is the location of the Mar-a-Lago resort he owns and frequently visits. Sources joked about the POTUS becoming Florida Man, including The Daily Show, which released an extension for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox that changes all instances of Trump's name to "Florida Man." On October 24, 2020, during his rally for presidential candidate Joe Biden in Florida, Barack Obama mocked Trump, saying, "'Florida Man' wouldn't even do this stuff." referring to his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic and foreign affairs.

American classic rock band Blue Öyster Cult referenced the phenomenon in the song "Florida Man" on their 2020 album The Symbol Remains.

Reception

The meme has widely been seen as a confirmation of the association between Florida and bizarre or humorous activity, and it has been compared to the Darwin Awards. There has been backlash to the meme, with the Columbia Journalism Review calling it "one of journalism’s darkest and most lucrative cottage industries" where "stories tend to stand as exemplars of the mythical hyper-weirdness of the Sunshine State, but more often simply document the travails of the drug-addicted, mentally ill, and homeless."