Many Floridians leaned into the state’s growing national reputation and its distinct brand of frontier life. They told stories of Floridians behaving badly, much like today’s “Florida Man.” These included a story from 1883 about a Gainesville man who “accidentally” shot his wife three times after she told him she could no longer be with him, and the 1895 story about a knife fight at a butcher shop when someone cut the line in a small town east of Tallahassee.
Despite such sensational headlines, the state carried a magical luster for growth, transformation and prosperity. Incorporated in 1896, for example, Miami became the “Magic City” that, as if touched by a fairy’s magic wand, had blossomed overnight. Urban boosters attracted investors by touting the city as a “fairyland” where anything was possible. To give the illusion of old-world charm in an unfettered land, designers and architects ordered tiles stripped from villas in Cuba to place on their new roofs in Florida. They also imported exotic flora and fauna, such as flamingos, from the Caribbean to further brighten the city’s landscapes.
Considering some of Florida’s cities were established more like stage sets to appeal to outsiders, it should come as no surprise that the state became known worldwide as the home to kitschy sites, especially theme parks, which further strengthened its reputation for pleasure-seeking and the whimsical. Dozens of theme parks also popped up throughout Florida over the coming decades — from Cypress Gardens (1936) to Disney’s Magic Kingdom (1971) to the Holy Land Experience (2001). Today, Walt Disney is one of the state’s largest employers, pumping millions of dollars into its economy.
Changes in state law, however, helped make Florida synonymous with bad decision-making, allowing the historical tradition of anti-Florida media narratives to reemerge once again. Following the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s and the public push for transparency and accountability, most states opened their records with what became known as “Sunshine Laws” to provide public access to government records. But unlike other states that also balanced this accessibility with privacy measures, Florida made many arrest records and similar documents available almost immediately after they occurred. And so, its broad presumption of openness in public record laws paved the way for journalists, bloggers and anyone else to access public documents. Those reports have often turned into clickbait headlines.
The 2000 presidential election helped with this, too. With stories of hanging chads and recounts, a “because Florida” punchline became low-hanging fruit for comedians and internet commenters. In the mid-2000s, Fark.com began to track only-in-Florida news and contributed to the Florida Man meme.