Bittersweet Infamy - #95 - Florida Man

Episode Date: March 10, 2024

Josie tells Taylor about Florida Man, the memetic everyman whose chaotic antics dominate the headlines of the Sunshine State. Plus: a shambolic AI-generated Willy Wonka live experience leaves parents and kids in a world of pure infuriation.

Welcome to Bitter Sweden. I'm Taylor Basso. And I'm Josie Mitchell. On this podcast we share the stories that live on and in feed. The strange and the familiar. The tragic and the comic. The bitter and the sweet. 95 and still alive. Oh. 95 and uh. My Gerd. Little look back at pop culture, what sort of things were happening in 1995, little known president Bill Clinton. Oh, I heard of him. Uh-huh.

Uh-huh. Uh, biggest movie in 1995? I don't know, but I'm gonna guess Jurassic Park. Clueless? I don't think Clueless was the biggest movie in 1995. That feels like that can't possibly be right. We each get to make a guess. What is the number one movie of 1995? I'm gonna say Jurassic Park. That might be

94. Was there a Batman in 95? It was 95. It could have been. When was the Lion King? Oh shoot. I call Lion King. I think that might be 94 though. I don't know. I'm just gonna I'm gonna stick with Jurassic Park. I'm gonna stick with Jurassic Park. Stick the landing on Jurassic Park. Okay. Should have followed my god Batman Forever, the number one movie of 1995. Which, you know, we had that soundtrack. We used to chipmunk it and listen to Sealsing Kiss from a Rose over and over. And the tape wore out because we only listened to it. Yeah, cool.

What have you been enjoying most lately, Josie? What's been bringing you joy? Oh, we have a cardinal in the backyard that sits in front of a mirror that's in the backyard, and he... That's interesting because Vanity is a sin and you would think like a cardinal being such a high-ranking official in the church would understand that. Yeah, sin gets to us all that. Yeah. Interesting, okay. Sin gets to us all, gets under the feathers, totally. Hey, listen. But it attacks.

Thanks for listening. Not attacks, but it skirmishes with its reflection. It has body image issues. I think Mitchell looked it up and it actually thinks it's another bird and it's like mating season, so it's like, get out of here, buddy! This is my tree! He's fighting with himself in the mirror. We've done- we've all been there before. Yeah, man in the mirror. It's so true. Yeah. But it's pretty fun to watch. How about you? What's bringing you joy?

Well, I can tell you one thing that is really gonna bring me joy. Okay. And that is when you, me, and Mitchell get together to discuss the Watergate comedy dick for Bittersweet Film Club coming up. Watery dick! That's what I heard. You heard right, folks. All the dick jokes ineptly delivered that you can handle. Oh yeah, baby. Uh...

And that is yours if you join us on coffee.com, ko-fi.com, slash bittersweet.com for me and subscribe monthly to become part of the Bittersweet Film Club. Yeah, you can listen in along with our other monthly subscribers. Bada bing, bada boom. Enjoy this Kirsten Dunst classic. Yeah. I'm on the sea of Kirsten Dunst classics and really just tuck in to this documentary. I guess. Really.

It's bizarre and beloved piece of Watergate fan fiction slash documentary. Yeah. Yeah, I feel, because things are kind of revving up in the States for primaries. Boy, they, boy, fucking eat they. Yeah. Yeah. I feel, cause things are kind of revving up in the states for primaries. Boy they, boy fucking eat they. Yeah. Do you typically keep an eye on the online goings on the news of all the big things happening in the world? Do you keep an eye much on the blogosphere, you know, as they say? As they say. I get a lot of my news from the radio, so no. Try to stay afresh, try to stay abreast, try to stay up to date on the, all the various goings on in the world and sometimes it can be hard to stay on top of things but every now and

then there is something that we kind of like collectively stop and gawk at together. It's true. And I can be resistant to bringing stories like that on the show, especially when they're fresh and new. Yeah, yeah, we got deep faked pretty hard. We got deep faked and it wasn't by that mom. And in general, you never really know which way the quote unquote infamy of a story is going to break people who seemed to be culprits

end up being vindicated, people who seemed to be random bystanders end up being a lot more sinister than they seemed. hindsight is 2020 maybe. whatever the case may be. hindsight is 2020. however, and you know what, i also don't really like to chase clout. like it's not my style to jump on a big unfolding event just for the sake of capturing a discussion that's already going on and has already been, you know, had exhaustively by others. Yeah, streamlining it. However.

Oh, however. Welcome to episode 95. However. Welcome to the plateau. Baby, every now and then a going on of infamy occurs that I guess is so irresistible and so perfectly down our at Collective Alley, you and I, that it bears bringing to the show to discuss more or less as soon as it happened. Okay. Josie, have you seen anything about this Willy Wonka AI experience out of Glasgow, Scotland?

Yes. Mitchell, who is on the blogosphere in the end of that one. Yes, riding the waves of the internet super Gulfstream, I don't know. Oh, sweet nuggets of caramel. I too. Sweet nuggets of, because sweet hedgehogs and turtles. You all got hedgehogs and turtles, You got turtles. You got hedgehogs. Hedgehogs, not as familiar with. Perhaps it could be like a Northern States thing.

We have purties. So like purties, purties is a BC based, right? Right, right, right. And I think I'm actually remembering purties more than anything. Yeah. Oh, we've got a great little purple chocolate shop up here called Purties.

I love your shit. Come to Vancouver, get yourself like a dipped almond. It's ice cream, chocolate, crushed peanuts. Oh, it's good shit. Mmm, little frilly coffee filter on the thing. Oh. Catch the nuts in the air. Eat it all at the end.

Fantastic. The lollipops were not lollipoppin', however, at this, at this AI Willy Wonka thing, the hedgehogs were not hedgehoggin'. The gob stoppers were not gobb stopping the snawsberries were not snawsburying. The wallpaper was not tasting the snawsberries. Don't lick this wall paper it probably has toxic glue. A little bit of asbestos. Describe these photos to me from your recollection. Have you, I have not seen the photos. Have you seen these photos of the Hilly Walk experience? No, I have not seen the photos.

I'm OK, OK, OK, OK. I'll show you a couple. I almost didn't even put them in, because I was like, surely she'll have seen the name of the photos. But I will give you a couple of ones of them. I'm more of an auditory learner. I'm going to try to. Well, the first one I'm going to send you,

I would say this is like a scenic, idyllic cabin scene. You imagine like a gingerbread house and some lollipops, et cetera. Like a classic witches cabin scenario, probably not a witch. Well, Hansel and Gretel, they had, that was a very candied fairytale. So would you describe the beautiful landscape scene that you see before you? Oh, my God, it's some Lapland New Forest all over again.

It's very that is the so the this event is called Willys Chocolate Experience. The the Wikipedia page for Willys Chocolate Experience, the Wikipedia page for Willie's Chocolate Experience mentions very early on, like in its intro, that it drew comparisons to a bunch of events, including Lapland New Forest. Okay, okay, so we're just running the- So for those-

It's like, guys, we know. For those who don't know, back in episode four, it's our very first Christmas special. It's like the third story chronologically, I think that I ever covered for the podcast. It's about this, a very similar Christmas festival in the UK called Lapland New Forest where it was just a shit.

It was shit. It was just shit. Everything was comically horrific. Yes, the Sandas were fighting the reindeer, were starved Huskies, the gingerbread houses were toolsheds and Josie what is it about this image that evokes that feeling? Evokes or evokes? Let's just say a Vox right now. Okay. I don't think that's right. I am evoked. Let's make it happen. It's giving kind of, oh gosh, like airplane hanger vibes, that like vaulted ceiling in there. But like dirty concrete floor, cement walls painted white, but like there's just like

those rope stanchions without a rope, just kind of haphazard. Everything's a bit scuffed. And in the very, very far end of this, probably quite large room, is a cloth with like a candy land print on it of like a little gingerbread house and lollipops in a blue sky and gumdrop paths. And it's really lovely, but it's quite small. It's just tacked up on probably a plywood false wall and it's just not giving a lot of joy it's giving very like I don't even know just like not a lot of effort just

poor effort. I would agree with absolutely everything you said here's a second photo that includes a little bit more of the landscape Tell me what you think of this and this this gives you a little bit more of the various props when you look at that I think it mm-hmm You know, I was gonna say it more obviously is meant to evoke Willy Wonka But then I noticed there's a lot of candy canes that have very clearly been repurposed from like a Christmas Yeah, perhaps lapland you for New Forest. Yeah, it could be, it could be. Yeah, it's that same kind of airplane hanger vibes. And it seems like it might be kind of a cool building because it has

this like vaulted circular ceiling with like windows. Yeah, but the architecture ain't saving this one. No, it's really not because there's just like nothing covering this concrete floor and there's like a few candy canes and an astroturf. Is that meant to, is that like a pond of chocolate or something? I would assume we're going like chocolate river. We have the bridge to justify the pond and we have the pond to justify the bridge. Yes, yes, okay, yeah, but they're not. But there's no other water or bridge work anywhere else. No, and some kind of phallic lollipops and some mushrooms. But again, very.

Not phallic, apparently, in the mushrooms. Well, not really. Well, listen, you have to keep this. It takes all types. It takes all types. Yeah, so just what I'm saying. Yeah, exposed like air conditioner ducks. Yeah, yeah, this is an open concept.

Chocolate factory. But it's, it also, it looks like it probably smells like chlorine in there. That's what that's, if you're lucky it smells like chlorine. So what would you say you've seen so far in the way of activities, like tangible things to do in this decorated space? In the first image you can wait in line to look at the towel, the beach towel that's tacked up to the wall.

I would assume that's like a take a picture in front of this beach towel that has a canyon on it. And then this one, I guess, take a you could cross the bridge, take a picture in front of the all the phallic things. There is I see the Willy Wonka bar. I do see that. It doesn't specifically say Wonka just as like chocolate bar, but it's meant to look like a walk. Yeah. Yeah. But you're right. It doesn't say Wonka. Yeah. it's there's not a lot to do.

And even like taking a photo, you know, there's like places you go and you like take a cool photo in like a room that's like stripes. Museum of ice cream. Yeah, yeah. That's not really here because it's not concentrated and it's just not designed for that. You're always going to get some cheap-ass chlorine smell and vibe. So you wanted a striped room. Is that what you're saying?

Or a chocolate river? Or yeah. A striped room. That'd be nice. No, too late. Too late. You said striped room for the purposes of this site. You said striped room.

You didn't say anything about chocolate. Well, have I got a room for you? This is the, I think it's something like the Twilight Tunnel. So you know, Willy Wonka of course has this very mystical tunnel in his boat. That shit always scared me. When Gene Wilder went into that tunnel. A scary tunnel.

Always turning, always. Whatever that song is. Yeah, it was all like the fucked up like chopping heads off and fucking pissing on grains and shit. It was fucked up that tunnel. Kind of cool,. Yeah, it was all like the fucked up like chopping heads off and fucking pissing on gravy shit. It was fucked up that tunnel. Kinda cool, no? I think about it. Well, what do you think of this tunnel?

Okay. It's just like nylon black and white striped fabric and like very thin, flimsy fabric that is, you can see all the clamps holding it to the like fake partition walls. Oh yeah, the clothes pegs. Yeah. And then there's some mirrors that are in there, maybe like a fun, fun mirror vibe,

but it's really. No, no, those are, let me, let me, let me walk that back. Okay, okay. These are, these are not a fun mirror vibe. These are three floor, like, Oh, sorry. The kind of mirror you would buy at like Ikea for like $16 to fucking put on the back of your door,

your dorm room door. These are not fun house mirrors These are not whatever Josie just put in your head Yeah, it looks like I don't know like a teenager who went who goes to hot topic They attempted to do a school project on Willy Wonka and it's like four in the morning And they've got to get it to school at like 8 a.m. That's what that looks like. Oh Yeah, and how about this one? I got a couple more if I'll give you one more

So this is again in the field of activities. How about a wondrous sort of you know We think of Willy Wonka all these wondrous rooms you drink the fizzy lifting drink and you float up into the air Here's here's something to get you a little bit of that airborne feeling. Oh, so that's the same. That's that goddamn tunnel again. Let me do that again. Sorry. Also not a tunnel. There's no roof over it. It's just a hallway. No, tunnel's kind. Tunnel's kind. Tunnel's kind. Here we go. How about this? Oh, no. Okay, this... What? It's just... Oh, no. Okay, this... What? It's just... Come with me, AngelP.

It's just more of the same. In a room of pure recreation. It's just more of this large, open, airplane hanger kind of vibe. Like the air conditioning ducting, which I guess was part of that bubble room. They had that big fan, but they're not utilizing it in that way. No, that's generous. That's generous, Josie. That's real, real kind of you. That is not for the fizzy lifting drinks, and you know it, the building game that way. No, totally. And there's like big wooden card tables, like folding tables that have nothing on them. They're just plain

with some chairs scattered around in the far corner. There's a bouncy castle. Yeah. And then there's like sad families. No one is smiling. Sad families. No one. There's also like nine like six six to nine picnic tables. Oh, right. There doesn't there's no evidence that any kind of food is being served in this event. No, none whatsoever. None of the chocolate props that we've seen, we should say, have actually been chocolate or edible.

They've just been like plastic props. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All kind of like. That feels very important to stress. We have not seen a thing edible. Although, that's about to change. Oh, change that for me. And this will be the last photo that we show, although that's about to change. Change that for me.

And this will be the last photo that we show, although there's many others. Oh my god. And this is the photo that has kind of gone the most viral, I would say. This is the photo that is sort of seen as emblematic of this whole mess. It's a meth lab oompa loompa.

That's what's happening. It is a meth lab oompa loompa. It is a meth lab oompa loompa. That's what's happening. It is a meth lab oompa loompa. It is a meth lab oompa loompa. It looks like an oompa loompa cooking map. This poor gal. She did not get paid enough. Why is there so much like- She didn't get paid.

Fog? Uh, smoke? Around her. Well, I mean, it's a convincing effect if you're having like a kind of magical chemistry thing. You know how the oompa-loompas were always doing chemistry? Yes, very big on chemistry. And how would you describe this woman? This is a woman dressed as an oompa-loompas depicted

in the 1971 version of the 1964 book, you know, Charlie the Chocolate Factory. What would you describe this woman's face and demeanor to seem to be? How would you describe her attitude as seen through this photograph? High as fuck. You think she's swacking me? Fair enough. I mean, if she is really working a meth lab with all the fumes just going out

into the open like that, sort of, from her chemistry set, then yeah. She's getting through. She is really working in meth lab with all the fumes just going out into the open like that from her chemistry set, then yeah. She's getting through. She is getting through. Yeah, no. Working at the chocolate factory wasn't her first major at Lupa University was it, but she ended up here. She ended up in the fucking chemistry lab somehow. She got shuffled over there.

She's putting in the motions. Those are the photos of the Willy Wonka of Willy's chocolate experience, I should say. It's really taken the internet base form. And mind you, you will notice that Willy's chocolate experience, that name very conspicuously legally distinct from Roll the Doll's beloved novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the movies at Borough, Timothy, Shalime, and you're nothing about this as far as we know. He's the mastermind, he's must be. And as a matter of fact, an AI script that comes out is called Wonky Doodles at McDuff's

Chocolate Factory and we understand that Willie McDuff is our Willie Wonka substitute and rather than the oompa-loompas we have the wonky doodles. The wonky doodles. Not the same although all of the ads about this thing would very obviously trade on the... I mean it's a knockoff. Totally. It's not knocking off anything else. No, no, it is. There is no name brand here. No, God, no. That chocolate bar said chocolate bar. This thing, this, I mean, I hesitate to call an event. Let's just go with this thing ran from February 24th to 25th, 2024. So as of recording March 4th, that's like last week.

Yeah, yeah. Weekend affairs. Truly, truly new. Truly a breaking story. This was 44 pounds per person, I believe. Oh my God. Oh my God. Are you kidding me?

You wouldn't pay 44 pounds for that? That 45 minutes showing. So you get 45 minutes in that little curated space. So, according to our depressed Oompa Loompa, Kirstie Patterson, and we'll get back to her. She says, quote, I'm telling you, this would have taken about two minutes. So that's what we've gotten here. We've got a bouncy castle. We've got a depressed Oompa Loompa doing chemistry, and we'll talk about what her whole

deal is in a minute. And you've got some empty tables and you can take a picture in front of that beach towel. 45 minutes! How would you... how could you? Well, I mean... You could go through the tunnel. The tunnel? We're still gonna call it a tunnel. The hallway. You could move some of the stanchions around. No one would notice. No one would notice. That beach towel that you noticed, tacked up on the wall, what did you notice anything in particular about the image? We might have been too far away.

Okay, it's a highly stylized, like AI-vibed Candyland situation. And what makes you think that it is AI? It is AI. What made, what gave you the tell that it was AI? What makes you look at an AI image, an artificial, an image generated by an artificial intelligence and gives you the tell that it might be AI generated?

Well, it's obviously computer generated image. Like it's not hand drawn. There's that. But there's also things that don't quite make sensefully. Like jelly beans, which are floating in the river. They, they're not. They're floating above the river. Yeah, they're floating on the river.

Yeah, they're not really even floating. They're just like sitting on top of the water. Like they're not even like depressed a little bit in there. That jelly beans are not really a candyland vibe. That's Easter. Like you keep jelly beans separate and there's like these creepy little images. Wait, no stop it, stop it, stop it. I can't answer, I can't tell your story for you. No, no, no, no, no, you can't tell my story for me. But I can stop you in probe when you give me a completely bat shit answer And I'm going to did you just say that jelly beans don't count as candy? Don't count as candy land, Andy.

They don't count as Willy Wonka candy. What are you talking about? Jelly beans? What are you fucking? Heard it here first. What are you talking about? What the fuck are you talking about? They're the only Eastergames? Jesus rose on the third day for jelly beans. That's Jesus. What? I heard we were having jelly bellies, guys. Let me push this rock out of the way of this game. What's going on out here? Ah, bright. But I'll bear it out. I'll bear it out. I love, I love some, he's. Reagan. Reagan loves jelly beans, too. Another thing that was done. That's true.

Yeah. Damn, Josie. That's a spicy hot take. And I'm really, really grateful that you debuted in the podcast. That's how I feel. See, what I was going for is if you look at, like, let's look at this little area here. By, you see how there's those steps coming up out of the water

fall, and then immediately to the right of those steps, there's a little lollipop with some little creatures around it It's like a lollipop flower But the the stem doesn't really connect to the lollipop right the little creatures have like weird extra eyes And their faces don't quite make sense Right next to this flower you see there's a floppy thing that looks like it could be a stem or a pole The way that AI generated art works is that it takes from other similar images and it does things that kind of seem like they make sense aesthetically

but they don't really make any particular kind of logical sense. Jelly beans? I'm sorry I will stand for this! Not like jelly beans. Not like, you, I'm trying to teach them something really important about them. I'm trying to teach these people something really important about AI. And you are giving the worst takes about candy I've ever heard. You're sounding a lot like AI right now.

I don't know. How dare you? How dare you? How dare you? How dare you? The point being that AI will draw you like, my fucking Facebook has overflowed with these things. They're like tiny houses and they show AI generated

tiny houses purportedly, but you look and the where the lights are placed doesn't really make any kind of logical sense. The way the banisters look doesn't make any real kind of logical sense. And so everything about this event, as part of why this event, this Willy's chocolate experience

is sort of gaining infamy, is that everything about this event, from the error-riddled website to the bizarre scripts to all of these advertisements, is AI generated. Okay. There's this argument that AI, when it becomes sophisticated enough, can replace kind of human creatives, and this is I think think, an example of at least what happens when today's sophisticated compared to the past but still under development, artificial intelligences fall into the hands of someone

who's really just kind of lazy and doesn't understand how to edit them. Right. Or that details matter? That what is really exciting about a place like that is that it's like, oh my god, they really made this cool mushroom thing. Or like, oh my god, this riffle flows. How thoughtful and attentive.

Like, and it's... Look at these practical effects. Oh, and it smells like, and there's also candy I can eat here. Yeah. But certainly not this. Jelly beans? No. Again.

Disgusting. Josie, there's, this story is going to take some twists and turns that are going to be very displeasing to you. So, this was the production of a group called Hosts of Illuminati, which seems to be the brainchild of one, Billy Cool. I hope that's not his pronoun. C-O-U-L-L. He wants you to say cool.

So. He released a bunch of prior to this AI generated books, including at least at least one vaccine conspiracy. No. He didn't do the AI. I did. It's fine. So that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Gizmodo got a hold of what is purported to be the script for this event called wonky doodles at Macbuff's chocolate factory. script for this event called Wonky Doodles at McDuff's Chocolate Factory. It sort of got that AI thing where at first you're like, okay, some of these scenarios kind of hold and you know this is creative and you're making a little joke and that joke kind of makes sense but the longer you read it, it literally it rambles, it never really goes anywhere. It has nothing in common with the movie in the

book, which is odd to do because that is what would presumably attract people to an event like this. Yeah. It's not some like weird made up AI scenario Willy Wonka, but like something that at least somewhat hues to what has been established visually and story wise even if you don't actually call them Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka, you know? Or even if you don't actually like touch the copyright, you know, you just skirt it in certain ways and people, they get it. People will forgive that because they like fucking chocolate but you haven't given them any.

Yeah. It's also really the script, it's really complicated in terms of its stage directions and its sets. At one point, Willie McDuff pops a bubble and the light comes out of it and floats into the air. I don't know how. That's some industrial light magic shit. I don't know how you would simulate that in this fucking

airplane hanger, right? But, mm. Yeah. Would you be interested in doing a little very brief reading of a scene from the script with me? Sure. Let's go. So would you rather be Willy McDuff or would you rather be the stage directions? They get about equal time, I would say.

Oh shit, that's not a good time. No. Maybe even slightly weighted toward the stage direction, so I would say. Okay, I'll be Willy McDuff then. Alright, I'll be on stage directions, you're Willy McDuff. Okay? Okay. As the tasting continues, Willy McDuff gestures towards an old-fashioned camera with a sign McDuffTV on it.

And now for a fun bit. Let's capture your expressions for McDuffTV, the only channel where every reaction is a flavour sensation. The camera lights up and Willie directs the guests to react to the flavours they're experiencing. Their expressions of delight, surprise and bemusement are broadcast on a vintage television set in the corner, providing a hilarious and heartwarming spectacle. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Every flavor tells a tale. Scene ends with the guests gathered around the television, watching themselves and laughing together,

united in a shared experience of wonder and discovery. Willie McDuff watches over them, a satisfied smile on his face, knowing that the spirit of adventure and imagination has been kindled in their hearts. And so mind you, these are all stage directions for an audience. Like these are paying customers.

There is no telling how they will react to this scene. Oh my god. This AI has done a lot of, and there's a lot of these audience going like, ha, ha, ha. Like the audience is loving it in this. In real life, it went slightly different. The audience didn't love it as much. I can see why.

Audiences don't really like being told how to react. No, that's definitely true. Please like, rate, and subscribe. And how did you find this piece to stack up to the original? If you weren't primed to know that this was a Willy Wonka ripoff, would you see that in this? Very distant, distant cousin. That's who Willy McDuff is.

He's Willy Wonka's like, uh, fame hungry cousin. He doesn't have the budget. No, but he has chat GPT chat GPT in a dream, baby chat That's kind of the vibe of the of the script It would be noted that like as the event went on this script did not last long It got thrown out pretty quick as we kind of adapted to the situation. But in its original form the script introduced all kinds of new characters and scenarios. There's the anti-graffiti gob stopper which is I don't know because

some sort of cleanliness candy and it gets stolen by along with the oompa-loompa there has been one other kind of breakout star, if you like, from this whole Willy Wonka experience. Have you received any videos from your coworker or seen any memes of the unknown? No. Oh, I love the unknown. The unknown's my fave. The unknown is this weird, like, twitchy, wearing like a black cloak and a silver mask.

Willy Wonka's like, there is a chocolate maker who lives in the walls and we don't know his name, so we call him the unknown. And then the unknown like, puts us out from behind a mirror and all the kids are like, ah, my God, I hate it. Oh my God. So funny. That's horrifying.

This character was supposed to get sucked up by a vacuum, but the organizers provided no way, no prop of this actually to make this big scene of someone getting sucked into a vacuum, but the organizers provided no way, no prop of this actually, to make this big scene of someone getting sucked into a vacuum occur. So apparently one of the Wonkas was able to be like, because there was a couple of Wonkas, McDuff's. One of the McDuff's was able to be like,

make it go away by pulling a silly face. And that was good, but apparently some of the other Wonkas weren't able to play it off as well. And the scene would just kind of end with the unknown, kind of like awkwardly trudging back into the mirror, behind the mirror. And then standing there, probably quite visible. Just like, okay, we're done.

Yeah. She's a teenage actor. Her name is Felicia. Apparently this was like her first big part. Felicia, I hope. And what a part. I hope this is a breakout part for you. I hope this is just the beginning.

Paulo Connell, he's one of the actors hired to play William McDuff. He says in some ways, it was a world of imagination. Like imagine that there is a whole chocolate factory here. Imagine really hard that you're having a good time. He spoke to the independent, he said he had concerns after the first rehearsal but he assumed that they would be doing care of by the time that the production actually took place. Yeah this was just the dress rehearsal. Yeah, no big deal. The props will be delivered tomorrow.

I spoke to the people running it and thought, surely by morning it won't look like this. And then I turned up in the morning and it absolutely did. But I stayed up all night learning it, thinking that this would make sense in the dress rehearsal when I see all the tech. All the actors were lovely people. We gathered together in the morning and said,

we're probably not gonna get paid for this, but the kids are still gonna come up. Let's make this as magic as possible for them. Oh, that's sweet. And unlike Lapland New Forest, I think that the general vibe in this is that the parents were very kind to the actors and vice versa. The actors were very kind to the parents and kids.

So this isn't like last time where people were fucking throwing fists at the fucking talent. In general, the angst in this situation seems to have correctly been directed to the event organizers. Good, good as it should be. Same Wonka, same Paul Connell. Yeah. I was told I would get a 15 minute break every 45 minutes after each group went through but I ended up playing Willy Wonka for three and a half hours straight. I didn't know where I ended and Wonka began. I was losing my mind by that point. The organizer came up to me saying you're spending too much time with the kids. We need to get them

through as quickly as possible. By this point I was invisibly angry. I was like now there's going to be a lot of disappointed kids. Yeah. He ends up getting his lunch break and he spends it sitting in his car staring at the floor because that way he can't see the crying children getting turned away by security. He says, when I came back, that's when everything kicked off. There was an angry mob at the door not being let in. I had to wedge my way through. I was wonka and it's my face everywhere, but I'm just a last minute actor really. I didn't organize anything.

People were shouting, people who put on the event were crying, there were arguments, people running around everywhere. The sat had been trashed. Oh, shit! Those phallic lollipops, phallic mushrooms, they're just ripe for just like smashing into that cement ground. People love to break a big dick when they're angry. It's true. It's really cathartic. We'll cover in a whole movie about it over on the Film Club. It's true. Yeah, the biggest dick. The biggest dick there was. The biggest dick yet.

Meanwhile, over at the Oompa Loompa MF Lab, our girl, Kirstie, she's roughening out the chemistry set, giving the lone edibles that seem to be at this event to each kid a half glass of Tesco's own store brand lemonade and one to two jelly beans per child. You got jelly beans! I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Not even j- like scant jelly beans. Passo.

Like, like I didn't know. You did this. I came in completely ignorant. This wasn't a fix. This wasn't a fix. I had no knowledge of your jelly bean aversion, your phobia, your disdain. Just out of season jelly beans. I can eat all the jelly beans I want on Easter, but never before, never after.

What the fuck? And lemonade? Jesus Christ. Half a cup. Half a cup. Oh my God. I'm probably like all the sediment is at the bottom of that little Dixie cup anyway. Fuck it.

That'll add like two minutes on to your, that's not two minutes worth of food is it? That'll add like 17 seconds on to your, yeah. Yeah. I'm kind of knock that back in one go. Yeah. It's, you know what it probably looks like too? Cause you're getting like these little pill shaped candies

and then this little cup. Oh my god. It looks like pill time. Yeah, pill time at the Kukis Nests. Wash them down, Gettles! Oh no, dear, that's so depressing. So bad. Oompa Loompa doopity doop. Real. Says Christie, I was just going around and feeling really embarrassed. After we did it the first time, the organizers were like, just abandon the script and let the guests walk through.

Which, fair enough. Yeah, thank you. In the exact moment of the photo, they told us to abandon the script. They had this jelly bean room, but eventually they ran out of jelly beans. I was already rationing the jelly beans to three per kid, and that was me being generous.

I wanted to give all the kids all the candy. So we had no jelly beans, and people were coming up to me. It was just humiliating. I was starting to get angry. The other oompa loompa came over at this point and I went, where is everyone? Why am I left here on my own? Where is everyone else?

You know how they talk about me contemplating my life? This is me contemplating my life. Oh. That's her describing the moment that photo was taken. OK. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair.

That is fair. So if she looks like she's thinking, how did I get into this oompa-loompa meth lab? That is what she's thinking. That is exactly what she's thinking. She's a wonderful actress. Apparently it was an in. Wonderful actress.

You can see. Yeah. Oh, god. Great good kids. Yeah. Yeah. Apparently this was an Indeed gig, by the way. So this wasn't like a, this was just like a. Yeah. Random this was an indeed gig, by the way, so this wasn't like a, this was just like

a random job poster. Halfway through opening day, the police had been called, rising tension caused the event to be cancelled, after which the actors seemed to have just knocked off to the pub for a boozy debrief. As we said, this is still very much an unfolding story. Everyone is kind of getting their word, their two cents in via the viral airwaves. It's appeared on Good Morning Britain, it's appeared on all these shows. House of Illuminati said it would issue refunds. AI Lover Billy Cole, offering an apology in an interview with STV News, said,

my vision of the artistic rendition of a well-known book didn't come to fruition for that I am absolutely, truly, and utterly sorry. Utterly sorry. Utterly sorry. So many adverbs. Utterly sorry. If we must take a lesson from this immoral as we were so fond of doing, and I feel like that's appropriate to the subject matter, Willy Wonka, right?

Yeah, true, true, true. So I would say like, look for the key signs of AI and learn about the ways in which it can be used deceptively. Yeah. And to create subpar art and subpar experiences for your family. Not to say that like I'm sure that eventually ironically I'll get to a place of enjoying the art with its weird thumbs and bizarre sheen. But in the meantime I would sum up the lesson of this story. Leslie, oompa loompa, doopity doo, don't let the robot start lying to you. And you know how you can tell?

Jelly beans. Jelly beans. Yeah, I figured. These are jelly beans. So your take is that we should have known that the whole enterprise was rotten from the ground up the second it started recommending jelly beans. In a Willy Wonka off-brand situation? Amen, yes. But have this been Ash Wonka Wednesday? We're fine or what? We're in one. We're good to go.

Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. Interesting. You know, coming in I was like, I wonder what piece of the story Josie will glom onto and I really couldn't have predicted that it would be that. I'm pretty... You surprised me. You that it would be that. I'm pretty... You surprised me. You keep me on my toes. I'm pretty unpredictable. Quite like AI. Quite like AI. I have a story. I need you to get your passport and you just go south, south of the border. Okay. And then I need you to go a little further south. And then a little even further south from there because Boyo, you've landed in- Costa Rica? Florida. Oh, I went to Florida. Come back up north.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. So in Florida, what's the what? Kip, kip, asa, and florida? I have no doubt that you have heard of this internet zeitgeist phenomenon. It's been years in the making and this internet folklore can only, only be produced, only grow, only flourish in the deep swamps of Florida pocked with alligators and boa constrictors. Taylor, I'm gonna tell you the story of Florida Man. Interesting. I was wondering if that was maybe where you were going. Cool. Okay, that's a fun.

That's fun. So what do you know about Florida Man? So I know that it has been observed by many that inevitably any headline, any new story that starts with the phrase Florida man verb object, etc, will be like the most bat shit thing you've ever fucking heard in your life. There's a common meme to like search for what Florida man did on your birthday and one of the ones I think mine is like Florida man burns house down making cookies. Right okay yeah yeah. Florida man gets arrested doing meth naked on front lawn. Yeah. Florida man blows off foot trying to paint toenails with gum. These are the kind of things that Florida man headlines tend to be about. That last one yeah. Damn. Wow. Script from the headlines.

That goes in like a scene. Menace to toes everywhere. Interesting, you should say, uh, googling Florida Man in addition to your birth date because Right. There's an August 24th Florida Man. Let's see, Florida Man defecates on church. Cool. Louis Byron Larson, 68. He defecated on the steps of the church located at 1738 West University Ave. This is in Gainesville, Florida.

Yeehaw. 5 AM. 5 AM. 5 AM. You don't want the parishioners to be there, do you? No, no. Well, maybe you do. Well, privacy is important, though.

Depends on what kind of Florida man you are. Byron Duncan, an employee at a parking garage that was across the street. Notice this and approached the Florida man and said, you don't have to do that here. I can let you in to the parking garage bathroom. Quote, we have toilet paper to wipe your butt. That's nice. It's quite nice. And to every one. Yeah. Real one. And you know what? I really respect how compassionately that man approached that situation. Yeah. Like, listen, you don't have to be out here shitting on the steps. Yeah, we have toilet paper to wipe your butt.

You could be inside. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's respectful. Florida man replied with some racial slurs and continued to ship on the church steps. Oh, Florida man, no. Yeah. It turns out that Louis Byron Larson, who also goes by the name Macaroni Larson. Stuck a feather in his cow? He was found guilty of 30 previous counts of trespassing and one count of indecent exposure. He was determined to be trespassing and he has held on bond until the time of press when this article was released. So there we go. There's your Florida man, August 24th.

Cool. That's my birthday one. Yeah. Cool. cool, oh yeah, interesting. Well, you know what? Better out than in, right? Yeah, that's what I think. It's important to be regular. I'm sure you looked into your own. December 1st, Florida man Michael Jackson exposes himself locking Jim Goers. Woohoo.

Oh, Michael, not a very smooth criminal. No. Ha ha ha. Florida man by the name of Michael Jackson approached a gym in Palm Beach Gardens. The gym was named Busybody Gym. And he banged on the windows, he was screaming obscenities. He exposed himself and he challenged those gym goers

to fight him with their quote, fake muscles according to the arrest report. Yeah, no, that's tough. You can't do that. Yeah, it's illegal. It is illegal. So when the police arrived, the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department, Michael Jackson got a little more argumentative. And in order to defend himself, begin

citing US constitutional statutes. I'd never trust anyone who's read the Constitution. That's what I think. So at that point, when the police were there, Michael Jackson pulled down his pants and exposed himself. And then with that disorderly conduct compounded by indecent exposure, he was arrested and released on bail. But he was ordered to not have any more contact with Busy Body Jim. You know, he had to turn his membership back and he had to get his friend to bring it in.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Invericing. They didn't like that fake muscles crack. No, no, no, no. It's not fair. But I think maybe the best birthday Florida Man goes to Bittersweet Infamy. We'll say November 16th, the air date of our episode one. Was that our first episode, okay? Yeah, yeah.

Now this one, it's not quite in the headline. You don't get the nice juicy Florida Man headline, but I'll unpack a little bit of this here. So, yeah, yeah, I mean, what is bittersweet infamy deserve but a deep dive, you know, for its birthday Florida Man. That's good way to spend that. Thank you. Florida Man mugshot ridiculed. Okay, so here we go. I should wait until I see the photo before I comment on his debates. Go on. Yes, I think you should.

This Florida man, 31, he was arrested on drug charges including fleeing the police and possession of meth and cocaine. So he's, you know, there's a lot going on there. Yes. His mugshot was available to the public and then it was posted on a Facebook page. Are you seeing this image? Yes, I am. This isn't what I expected. Okay, can you describe? It's just it's maybe My man is all neck. It's all neck. Nothing but neck Yeah, I would say he's he's a pretty handsome dude with just the thickest neck you've ever seen

He's he's a pretty handsome dude with just the thickest neck you've ever seen He's got a big tattoo across his neck that says blast But if you wanted it to say like I am very blessed that would also fit it would it would definitely fit Yeah, just a dude booking in with a big old thick thick thick wide no breaking that no just a regular Chew and then it just like yeah regular, regular size head, regular size head. Thick ass neck, thick neck. When it got posted to Facebook, all of these comments were coming through. And I should say this is 2018.

Oh God, I can only imagine. Yeah, so I just, I picked out a few of my faves. Oh dear. Someone should contact his neck of kin. I'm afraid of what he might do next. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Leave this man alone, okay? It was right to defend him. What is he in there for again? Sorry, wait. Evading the police possession of meth and cocaine.

Who among us? Yeah, he's leave this man alone. Leave this man in his neck alone, okay? Wait, I have more. Awww! Let's see. My guy looked like a whole street shark. He does look like a bit of a... like we are on record on a fucking street shark. That's true. That's who that was, by the way. That's true. Yeah.

I bet when he talks you can hear a necko. Oh dear. Oh dear. I like this one because it's not as maybe cruel as some of the other ones. Sure, sure. Does he have any distinguishing features that would help us notice him if he was on the loose? That's me. See that I like. That I like. That is a classy joke about this man's neck. And this one I'll finish with, I'm not sure which comment I like best. It's neck and neck. Neck and neck, yes, I suppose.

Yeah. But it gained all this popularity because people would come to that specific Facebook page just to read the comments. And in fact, the most like current comments was like yesterday. It's like people come back to it. People are having a dark day. Come back to the guy with the neck, yeah. Come back to the comments. It's a remarkable neck.

It's a remarkable neck. He's got skills. They don't just hand necks like that at. No, uh-uh, uh-uh. You are blessed. You are truly blessed. It's true. God gave you this. This is your purpose. It's this neck. Yes. So this is just a little taste of what exactly Florida Man can comprise. And I think you did a beautiful job of defining it earlier. Okay. So where I thought you were going originally when you said it was a mugshot of some note was there was another Florida Man who got a mugshot who kind of had like clown, like

Joker-esque face tattoos, I guess I would say, like he's, he's like the Florida Joker or something. He's going by, and they're doing the new Grand Theft Auto is in Vice City, which is there, Florida, they're Miami knockoff, and they have a character like that in there, and I think this guy was suing GTA,

accusing them of profiting off his likeness or something. Oh, interesting. I like that because part of Florida Man is that it is kind of anonymous, right? It's kind of this... We are all Florida Man. Every man. If you're committing a bat shit crime in Florida,

you are Florida Man, right? Yeah, or Florida Woman. What are you doing in Florida if not committing a bat shit crime? It's true. According to Craig Pittman, a Tampa Bay Times journalist, and he's author of a book called Oh, Florida. So he must be an expert. He explains Florida man quote could be anyone from the 21 million people in Florida, male or female. Important to note. It is, you

know, Florida man, but it can be Florida woman. There's been many great Florida women I'm sure. It's become this all-encompassing stereotype of a bungling, often inebriated person doing something ridiculous or clearly insane and at the very least incongruous. You kind of nailed that with your definition but we'll just have some other voices to round things out. Uh, yeah, that that about does it. It's it's a it's an interesting mutation. I guess I hadn't really thought of this of Florida men as having this cultural identity, but every time we mention Florida on the podcast, yeah, we make some smart ass remark that's along this anytime we do Fort Lauderdale city of options. Fort Lauderdale, you can build your shell company here. Anytime

we do one of those jokes, it's basically this, right? Yeah. Even playing Hitman in the games that the PS5 game I'm playing, Hitman, you can like kill and disguise yourself as Florida Man, and he's sort of this like yahoo in a tank drop. Yeah. Florida Man is a thing, and I'm interested to hear the lens that you've brought to it, because I guess I hadn't thought about how much of a thing it is

So scholars of the internet and of the social zeitgeist they typically The consensus is that this traces back to the 2000 election It's specifically the recount so it was the incumbent governor of Texas George W. Bush, so the son of versus the incumbent vice president Al Gore. And what happened is there was issues with the count of what were called hanging chads, which is like hanging chads. If you were ever watching a late night comic in 2000, you knew about them hanging chads. Let me tell you. Love the hanging chads. If you were ever watching a late night comic in 2000, you knew about

them hanging chads. Let me tell you. Love the hanging chads. It's like where the paper doesn't fully perforate and so it's just like, is it punched out? No, it's hanging. Does it count? Does it not? And so they had to do a complete recount of the state of Florida, and it took them a very long time. And according to Craig Pittman, this Tampa Bay Times journalist, he says, until then, the 2000 election recount, we didn't have that kind of reputation as being kind of crazy and wacky. Then the three weeks we spent trying to figure out who the president was going to be based on people squinting at little hanging chads in Palm Beach County convinced people that maybe the folks in Florida are not as bright as we thought.

So interesting. It starts this like public discourse that all the dumb of America shifts down and sinks to Florida. That was a late night show. It's interesting. You're right. I don't remember there being as much of a reputation of Florida being this lawless shithole as there would come to be. That is true. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you had the late night comedians and everything about the hanging chads. But then it was kind of late night comedians about everything about the hanging chads, but then it was kind of like late night comedians about Florida being dumb

and Florida being like kind of backwater. So that construction, which you saw like Pinpoint got right away where every one of these phrases or headlines, they start with Florida man doing something just being a yahoo who's who's violent, irresponsible and stupid. Yes. So this syntax is just exactly what the media and especially print media used to do. I guess they still do. There's not a lot of print media around. So it's this practice of using a geographical descriptor to signify a person in a headline or a title who is not well known. If it's actually somebody who's a celebrity or who is a household

name like Michael Jackson, Willy Wonka, those names get plopped into the headline because there's a reference point for it. This is to be distinct by the way from Florida Man Michael Jackson a different non-famous Michael Jackson. Exactly. Yes, yes. But that's actually a really good example is that it would always be Florida Man Michael Jackson because if it were just Michael Jackson Michael Jackson. So it's just a very practical kind of old-school newspaper syntax. And I think the other thing to kind of pull from that syntax too is that because they're not a celebrity or a household name they are just a typical Florida resident. Right they're just all you know about them is their gender in the state. They are just a typical Florida resident.

Right, they're just, all you know about them is their gender in the state. They are the every man, the Florida every man or every woman. So that's part of like, I mean, when you explain the joke, the joke's not funny, but just to, you know, define things. I don't see a way around it.

That's kind of the position you're stuck in with the subject. I said, you're going to be explaining a joke for 90 minutes. But it builds within itself the sense that like this is the typical and this is the norm of Florida, which may or may not be true, but in terms of the zeitgeist, it's fulfilling or creating or this kind of oraborous feedback loop of fulfilling and creating, fulfilling and creating this idea that Florida's filled yahoo's. So Florida Man, I mentioned the print media syntax, but and these some of these stories are published in print. They are in more traditional newspapers, but certainly the Florida Man phenomenon is tied to the internet. There is no way that these could proliferate so quickly without the speed of the internet and proliferate

so widely beyond Florida itself. So see that's what I wonder. Yeah. Is it is it really that we were so all so upset about the hanging chads that we turned our surly gaze on Florida? Or have they just always been like that? And now we have the internet so we can compare notes. That's what I'm asking.

Interesting. That's what I'm asking. That's good, I like that. I like that, yeah. Yeah, do we just have the tools now to see the entire equation? Now we have better archival and pattern spotting and I get more news.

We weren't getting the Florida news before. Now I can be like, wow, you guys really keep putting pregnancy tests in your ass or whatever it is, right? Totally dude, totally. Exactly, okay. So in 2001, the news aggregation site, Fark.com, that's F-A-R-K.com.

So they gave the state its own like tagline its own like space on the website. So things were kind of gaining momentum there people were clicking through sharing on whatever old style 2001 social medias we had to share with. Right. The blogs. It was all over the blogs. The blogosphere. The blogosphere. The blogosphere. And then in 2013, a Twitter handle was launched at underscore Florida man because the headline syntax, the headline construction

is so short, it fit really well with early Twitter and it's very tweetable very tweetable yeah it's low character count and it said everything that you wanted to know Florida man shits on church you know yeah Florida man yells it Jim goers you know all these other ones Florida man puts dick in panini breath yeah I knew that you're gonna have good ones. They're just getting better. Oh, they fall out of me. They fall out of me. What else? Oh, God. Okay, now that I've said it, I'm constipated. Come back to me. Okay, okay. They'll come organically. Yeah, that's true. Florida Man comes organically. Shortly after the at underscore Florida man Twitter handle was created there was a subreddit on yeah reddit website it takes off on reddit

obviously so that's 2013 and then the thing does not die which is kind of rare because a lot of internet phenomena, especially early internet, this started in 2001 and now we're looking at 2019 where it was like a trend to Google your birth date and Florida Man, which we just did and yields a great fun time. Oh, it works across the board. Yeah. This thing is still alive and well, obviously. It's very easy to Google and find whatever you want on Florida Man. But there was even a short-lived off-Broadway musical about Florida Man.

In 2023, there was a Florida Man TV series on Netflix. It's a scripted show. It's like it's taking the premise and like it has this, you know, X cop returns to Florida, that kind of thing. And even this year, this year, we are not that far into this beautiful new year of 2024. There has been a Florida Man Games, an event spectacle. What? Okay.

So the Florida Man Games is a series of Florida Man inspired events. There are games and there are entertainment and they're all inspired by real life headlines, Florida Man headlines. Okay, that's fine. And they all in some way, shape or form encompass the essence of Florida Man.

So there is the eat the butt challenge. Competitors must finish their- I know what challenge I'm winning. Pork butt platter in the fastest time. Oh, I'm not, I tell a lie, I've not won in that. It might be hard. I thought it was competitive ass eating, not competitive ass eating.

I'm telling you. Understood, understood. I think it's meant to be a little misleading. No, no. Weaponized pool noodle mud duel? Yeah. Evading arrest? Obstacle course?

Fantastic. Jump over fences through backyards and away from actual police officers to earn your freedom. Dude, that's what Luanne did. Countess Luanne did that in Florida too. She slipped the cuffs. Wow. So even the Countess becomes Florida. Oh She was she got drunk. She went into the wrong hotel room to fuck They tried to get her out. She locked herself in the bathroom then when the cops came She like threw the door open it hit the cop. Oh, they cuffed her She slipped the cuffs and ran down the lawn and they had to tackle it little wrists

Slipping the cuffs dude. Nobody knows how the countess slipped the cuffs She's been in a few jams and she's she's played Gerald's game. She knows what's up in little wrists, slipping the cuffs. Dude, nobody knows how the count has slipped the cuffs. She's been in a few jams and she's played Gerald's game. She knows what's up. There's category five cash grab, bonus points for any hurricane related themes in addition to alligators. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, hurricanes, swamps, Everglades, a fan boat, any kind of like fan boat

amputation. Feels very, very app. This one's quite nice. I like this competition, a catalytic converter, two bikes and a handful of copper pipes, race against time, compete head to head in a race that lets you live a day in the life of a Florida man headline. Jesus. Um, and then there's the entertainment. There's a mullet contest to see who has the best. day in the life of a Florida man headline. Jesus.

And then there's the entertainment. There's a mullet contest to see who has the best mullet. There's the Florida ma'am pinup. Uh, and then a classic, uh, chicken coop bingo. That's, uh, that's pretty textbook. So Florida man is a phenomenon that is certainly alive and well and has outlasted a lot of internet fads. It feels like more culturally significant than an internet. Oh, interesting. Okay. It feels like the recognition of an archetype that had been here to for undiagnosed.

E.G. the same way that a fuckboy. We might come up with different names for it as time goes on, but that's a type of man, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Much in the way that Florida man is kind of a type of a type of man. Yeah. Or like a nepo baby is a type of person as well as being like a very culturally slash internet distinct and pinnable to a certain time in discussion. Yes, but I think there's something about the, even the phrase Florida man, where it harkens back to an earlier media,

like the newspaper media vibes of it all. Like, I don't know, it feels like it might be- It's a news headline. Yeah, it feels like a little bit more long lived because it has roots. In addition to it being this cultural phenomenon that is like very rooted deep in that Florida water. Yeah. I think one caveat as we move forward, it is important to remember. Florida men, Florida women, they are real people. Florida people are people too.

they are real people. Florida people are people too. They are not out here just for the headlines. Nope. According to that journalist Craig Pittman out of Orlando he says quote often in Florida tragedy wears the mask of comedy. You're not just reading the police log you're seeing the result of Florida consistently being ranked 49th in the nation and spending on mental health. The stories involve homeless people, domestic violence. Is that funny? A guy assaulting his wife? No, not even when someone's using an odd weapon as in Man of Salt's wife with taco or something like that. I know, but Kay. I know. So soft. So he undermined himself right at the end there because that was a laugh. And you know what? That phrase from, it's an article from The Guardian. It's linked.

It's hyperlinked and you press it and Florida Man accused. It's hyperlinked and you press it and four to man accused. It's salting right with taco. That's the thing. I mean some mugshot and then a taco. Those are the two images. Yes, and may I, yes, and. You may. Yes, point taken that, point well taken actually,

that yes, the things these folks do reflect the adverse circumstances to which they are subjected, both by being a human on this earth and also being in this particular state that's governed in this particular way. Point taken that the things they do have consequences. Point taken that these people are not just Florida man, they have their own names, their own identities, their own nuances and lives. For many, I'm imagining that's quite embarrassing to be, you know, getting assaulted by a taco in the press or getting caught whipping a taco at someone in the whatever it is, right? And I think that like, well, it takes me back to La Plata New Forrest, it takes me back to old John Wabare, who murdered 12 kids in an absolute laugh riot of a story.

Truly, I think that we as humans, both as a coping mechanism and as a, I don't know, like a natural feature, have this ability to scope out these pieces of absurdity in otherwise depressing or upsetting or disorienting or disturbing stories, right? Yeah. Yeah. I do think it just goes that way, but I do take the broader point like, both that it's

unfair to paint this wide group of people with the same brush and that if one state seems to have a higher rate of people doing weird shit to each other with gators, maybe we should look into the root causes rather than laughing about other with gators. Maybe we should look into the root causes rather than laughing about all the gators. Yeah. It is funny that they're doing that with the gators. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and the thing is, is like,

well, let me just read a few more Florida Mans. Sure, sure. Florida Man arrested trying to cross Atlantic Ocean in giant hamster wheel. Hmm. Florida Man charged with stealing woman's driveway. That intriguing. How?

That's very Carmen Sandiego type drive. Florida Man arrested for allegedly fixing cars with Play-Doh. Okay. Florida Man arrested for calling 911 after his cat was denied entry into strip club. Yeah. See, that is funny. That's not not funny. That's a terrible use of like public services.

You need one of those don't call 911 campaigns that we have, you need one of those down there. But also why wouldn't they let that cat into the strip club? He had money. He worked the same eight hours as everybody else he deserves at the end of a long weekend to come and you know throw some Benjamins around. Actually the only strip club that I've ever been to, first and only as of yet, was in Florida. It was in Tampa. What'd you think? What was your yelp rating? How many stars? You know, because my friend and I walked in, we were with a big group, and we walked in and we like went along the edge of this large room and it was like a bar, like elevated booths and stuff.

And we immediately returned to the front and said, can we get our money back? Cause we would like to leave and they're like, no. Can we get our money back? We would like to leave. It was terrifying, Taylor. It was all these like really sad lap dances. These men who were just like, everyone was just so sad.

The lighting was just like, musky. So you said, no, we thought this was a happy strip club. We thought this is a hopeful strip club. We really did. And then when we were back at the front, then our other friends arrived, who our friend who invited us there, she grew up in this town, she grew up in Tampa and she was like, oh, don't mess over there.

That's weird. Yeah, that's bad. Just go to the stage. No, right, Lisa. Yeah, yeah. If a local who knows their way around the Tampa strip clubs, he was like, don't, that's the weird part. Don't the ground is like squishy over there. Yeah.

Don't go over there. Yeah, OK. And so then we went to the stage and watched these amazing athletes, like do the craziest shit on polls. Oh yeah, good court, good court, good court. My glasses got complimented by all the strippers on stage. Were they all fogged up? Woo-hoo! Put on the little wipers. by all the strippers on stage. Were they all fogged up? Woo hoo!

Put on the little wipers? But it was really, really fun. And I think too, because we were in a group of mainly women, but some other men. And so we kind of like, I don't know, I felt kind of buoyed by like folks who I knew were being respectful. And it's because like that back corner was like, there's not a lot of respect happening here.

And I'm the side corner, the weird side. A corner so dreary that you demanded a refund. Fintles with Florida men. A refund I was denied. You got regrets, so does everyone here, sit down. Sit down, find a way to enjoy it. Yeah, exactly. Cause let's go up front.

They'll say something nice about your glasses sweetheart, but we're keeping that money. I, uh, Florida, Florida delivered in the end. Thank you for that recap of that. But you never did give it a Yelp star review. Well, it was kind of a shifting changing. So I'm getting like three stars with a written comment about like, watch out for the weird corner.

3.5. OK. OK. Well. Yeah. That's not bad. That leads us to ask, why Florida? We have been doing this bittersweet infamy 95 years.

95 years. We're centenarians, practically. We know that the world is filled with weird people in every nook and cranny. They're weird in Texas, they're weird in Vancouver, they're weird in Montreal, they're weird in Paris, and they're weird in South Africa, and they're weird in Australia, they're weird all the way. We even talked about they were real weird non one time. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. And yet there is no phenomena of you know, Johannesburg man or Vancouver man or Perth man. Right. Like it is a Florida man entity. Florida man entity. Yes. Why Florida? It's the third most populous state of the 50 states. California, New York. Yep. Then Florida. It has a culturally diverse population. Yep. As of 2018, one in five residents was also an immigrant. So it's not just ethnically diverse,

but like culturally quite diverse as well. There is an incredible abundance of biodiversity in the state. You think of the Everglades, you think of all the beautiful beaches, all the beautiful beaches, alligators, as we have mentioned, there's 1.3 million alligators out of the five million alligators in the United States. So they take a little over a fifth. They would have the most representation in the alligator electoral college. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Cool. To feed into the diversity of the state, it is also a huge draw point for tourists and tourism. There is about 126.1 million visitors to the state every year. Well, Disney, baby. Universal, whatever. You know, all these different theme parks all these

like gnarly golf courses which we know from Mar-a-Lago. These beautiful beautiful beaches the weather is warm and gorgeous well it's probably kind of hot and gross in some spots let's be honest but yeah depends where you are I would imagine. And speaking of that, it's home to some extreme weather events, hurricanes in particular. Again, we noted anything that has like alligator or hurricane themed has a particular Florida man vibe. It must be difficult for serious people who live in Florida because everyone I've ever met from Florida is actually pretty well adjusted and smart. Oh yeah. No, yeah. I happen to know a lot of like kind and reasonable people from Florida.

So that must kind of sting a little bit. I have talked to my friend, Alana, about this a lot. Hey, Alana, shout out. And she's from Florida. She moved to Boston to go to college. And then now she lives in Houston. But she's, you know, her mom lives in Florida, like Florida's hometown. And she's just like everybody shits on it.

But it's just as I mean, she lives in Texas. It's not that dissimilar. Oh, yeah. No, nor it's not that dissimilar from Louisiana, nor Alabama, nor South Carolina. There's a bunch of states in the surrounding environment that I would imagine have their own obviously distinct, in some ways like overlapping cultures I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean Florida is kind of interesting because it has like Miami. It has a very very

rich Cuban history and like a link to Cuba. It borders the Caribbean, so it's got that influence. Yeah, which is a very like a lot of different cultures, a lot of different languages, a lot of different identities floating around. There's a lot going on there. And not only that, but it has predicted the winning candidate in all but two presidential elections between 1928 and 2016. Okay, so let's stop there.

Did they predict the winner of 2000 or did they fucking decide it? You'll have to talk to Chad who's hanging out. I was gonna say, my buddy Chad who's hanging out over there? Okay, I'll get right on that. So it is certainly conservative bent. I don't know if you've been hearing Ron DeSantis news. Oh yeah, I can't, I can't a baron. There's a phrase in Spanish. No puede ver ni en pintura. I can't even look at a painting of that guy. Fair enough. Fair enough. The lifted boots. You're going for another one of these fancy Marco flip-flopping

boots attacks. Yes. These footwear attacks they speak to. Yeah, they really do, though. No man would wear a lift. I guess it is funny that he'd. That's very classic politicians. Oh, god, it's exhausting.

Florida has the highest population of residents over the age of 65. That is not surprising to me. I think that's like a common trope of like the starts maybe as a snowbird and then eventually you retire down to Florida and kind of enjoy the nice weather. Exactly. Yeah. But that also skews it so that Florida has a particularly high population of people who

are not working. Not to say that they are unemployed because if you're retired, you're not quite unemployed, but you are not working. Not to say that they are unemployed because if you're retired you're not quite unemployed but you're not working. I understand the distinction yeah. No for sure that's a good point that's interesting. Which gives you a lot of extra time. You have to take up bath salts and get your dick pierced with a home sewing kit and then they have to call the cops and they write in news news article about it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So all of these things might kind of mix, right? Like, there's no downtime in the winter in Florida.

Like the crazy can just happen around the clock. Year round. There's this huge diversity within the population, so maybe there's like tensions there or maybe that just kind of encourages people to like be themselves more You know the older population The non-working population that's high the mental health Care that is not super great that can certainly help this also because it's a huge port destination within the US, linking the US to the Caribbean, like any port area, there's issues with drug trafficking.

CSI Miami. Part of its diversity, even in a conservative climate, creates this bellwether of politics, which I don't know, that might be changing now. I think Florida is more and more rooted in a conservative identity than it is in kind of a swing state situation. You also look at like the conservatism of another type of population that we've discussed as really prevalent in Florida is like people who left communist Cuba and are now immigrants in the United States who don't want to go back to communism ergo, they vote Republicans, right?

And yeah, and so it creates this, yeah, this kind of unique political climate. So all of those things might contribute to why Florida man is such a phenomenon. One other thing that we haven't discussed is, and this might contribute in a big way to Florida man, is that the open records laws in Florida are- I was wondering, I was wondering.

Yes, are some of the most open in the country, in the US. I was actually going to ask about this. Open record laws specifically, and this is from an article written by a legal scholar, open record laws quote, empower the public to gain access to government information, specify the processes for obtaining access, enumerate exceptions to public access, and establish requirements for agencies' compliance with the laws. So in short, it's access to the functions of government. The records of the government are open, and this includes police logs, arrest statements,

many of the Florida mans that we read from included an arrest or included some type of altercation interaction with police. Something that there would be a report on. And Ergo, a piece of paper that you could audit and in an open record state that would be very easy to get. So it's not to say that people aren't taking shits on church steps in other states It's just easiest to get and publish that information in Florida exactly and in particular

Mugshots mugshots are also very easy to get in Florida like our friend Thicky Martin Yeah, Nicky Martin. Yeah, I did a gesture with my fingers there to approximate the shape of neck. Oh, baby. That is a, that is a, that's just a triangle. That's just a triangle of a trapezoid. Yeah. What a man. In 1992, there was an amendment made to the Florida Constitution that provides every person the right to inspect or copy any public record made or received in connection with the official business of any public body officer or employee of the state. And that's a quote from the Florida Constitution itself.

If you can't trust anyone who's read the Constitution, you certainly can't trust anyone who's read the Florida Constitution. Although, you know what, having said that, I think there's probably some lawmakers these days who could very much use a closer read of their state's constitution as well as the constitution more generally. So I take that I Renega on that point as a matter of fact. Readings fundamental, baby. Yeah, fair enough.

Reading is always a good thing. Another interesting element of this open records laws within Florida is not only that the records are open and available for anybody who is requesting, but they are very requestor-friendly, which means that, and I'm quoting this legal scholar Ira P. Robbins. Florida's process for obtaining government records is requester friendly, requiring little information from requesters, as well as thorough follow-through from records custodians in their responses. If a custodian denies a request,

Florida allows the requester more flexibility in the pursuit of remedies, and imposes harsher punishments on custodians who violate the law than any other states impose. How interesting. Do you have any idea of why it is that way? Um, ooh, this is a good question. I think it might be a small government tactic. It's sort of libertarian in its thought. It's a bit like low bureaucracy.

You can get whatever you want by asking kind of thing. I guess that like it allows for the reporting of very salacious journalism like the Florida Man thing, but I don't know if that's good or bad. Like is it worth a story if someone, you know, shoves a whole alligator up their ass? Yeah, kind of, I would be interested to read that, right? So, I don't know, it's interesting. You give me much to chew on, Josie Mitchell, as always, you give me much to chew on today. I mean, Florida Man is super click-baity, right? Yes. It's like, you definitely want to know more. It tittleates and excites and you want to know more you want to see what's under the

under the fold and usually there's not a lot more than what is written no it's you're like yep that guy sure did shit on those church steps yeah the end there's no moral happening here it is just the facts man there was one nice man who tried to step in and offer him toilet paper, and he got called racial slurs, and he was probably just like, I don't need this today. It's certainly not from you and left. So this is definitely a potential factor in Florida Man, in its proliferation, in its longevity, this access to the open records. However, this same legal scholar who I just quoted

from Ira P. Robbins, who wrote this very specific 50-page article called Explaining Florida Man, even though Florida has these very unique laws, he still is not convinced as a legal scholar that this is the reason for Florida man. So he says, and I quote, even if Florida's public records law is, emphasis on is, is a driver of Florida man, no in-depth analysis of the law itself or comprehensive comparison of the law with other states' open records laws exists to confirm that relationship. Okay, so we don't like, that feels like it must be doable, though. That feels like you make 49 phone calls. Do you want to get Guam and Puerto Rico and shit

in there? They're probably more than 49. But you know what I mean? That's not that hard to do, is it? You just figure out what are the independent, although I guess it's probably not as simple as that or somebody would have done it. Right. Well, and I think the hard thing to measure might be like, because what he's saying is not just that these things hit headlines, he's saying that they create a phenomenon, right? That this is the open records laws is the sole reason why Florida Man is- It's not the sole reason. Why do you say it's not? Because nothing is just one thing.

That's not how things are. Nothing is just one thing. Even Florida Man. Even Florida Man. Florida Man is legion as we've discussed. Florida Man is in the laugh of every child in the heart of every daffodil. And I totally agree with you. I think it's like Flordomand is this perfect storm of these open record laws, more open

than other states in the Union. This like warm weather, so there's craziness all the time. And I think that warm weather, we didn't talk about this, but it kind of attracts like, well certainly retirees But it attracts folks parrotheads Jimmy Buffett fans Jimmy so this is this is this is again Lay it on me the parents are doing this the pair. It's all about the pair heads. Yeah, yeah I'm Ernie Deville baby. That's Margueriteville, Florida

Florida is home to the people who Haven't yet realized that the party is over juggalos yes yes i love juggalos whoop whoop i'm down with the hatchet man i'm down with my isp but i'm not so down that i moved to florida maybe that's the difference i'm really i don't need to i don't need to be in talahassee to get down with the clown whoop whoop. No, with the internet, my dude. The internet takes you anywhere. It's real around, real around, real around, even in Florida.

And I think that is a main ingredient in the Florida Man perfect storm. Is that the internet has been able to proliferate these stories beyond Florida's borders. Florida's. Thank you. The Florida Man headlines are these like little sound bite easy to digest and have a little giggle and move on. Like which is in the internet culture is like that's perfect, that's peak, that's gonna get

shared again and again and again. It's sort of like the idea of a Karen feels like it came about in a pretty similar way, this idea of that like, it sort of existed as this. I mean, I don't know where Karen comes from originally. I'm gonna assume that it starts proliferating on Black Twitter, because that's where everything kind of starts, but. Well, all language, all music.

Yes, all the good stuff. But like that really quickly became like an archetype with like, through I think internet packaging, internet lingo, the Karen became a very recognizable cultural figure in a way that maybe gave name to something that already existed. Like, for example, the idea of like, a white woman weaponizing their privilege against a person from a marginalized community or whatever, that feels like a very old idea, but this kind of gave name to it in a certain way. You know what I mean?

Yeah, totally. And packaged it in an easily digestible way such that you can go and search YouTube for like Karen's freaking out compilations, you know? Right, yeah. And it comes with a haircut. It comes with a whole plot. Yeah, it comes with like a whole outfit and a whole like cultural baggage.

You can do, you can do like Karen the horror movie starring Taryn Manning, like terrorizing these poor black folks who move next door to her and understand immediately what it means, right? A cultural touch point. And Florida Man sort of the same way. You say Florida Man and it instantly of like I could just rattle off like 18 different headlines involving penises and alligators. Done, done, done.

Yeah. Florida Man tries to fuck ice machine, you know? There we go. Oh, good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll also share this quote from this legal scholar, Ira P. Robbins. The, the Ira P. He explains as a legal scholar, he like goes full out with what these open records laws mean, but then he kind of pulls back and was like, but I, it's not just this. So he says, quote,

pulls back and is like, but it's not just this. So he says, quote, Florida man has outlasted the short lifespan of the average meme and shows no signs of slowing down, suggesting it's unique humor and audience appeal. Random and odd news stories exist in other states and other places. But as long as the Florida man craze continues to build upon itself, which as we've seen Florida man games last weekend Yeah, the internet will not naturally create space for any other man End quote interesting. I'm really compelled by your choice of subject this time. I hadn't ever thought about this This Florida man this kind of like fictional Florida every man that we just have come to know as being an infamous figure. But of course, it's absolutely true.

Yeah, and it's within the last 24 years too. You're right, you're right, you're right. There wasn't, that's completely true. But these things just sneak up on you. They really do. These Florida men. Sort of in the realm of mi bebito fufu, right? There's a making cuddly that happens with the packaging of this character into something

of a meme. We slowly become endeared by Florida men, right? The best of us anyway. Yeah. Like I had that caveat earlier of like we have to remember these are people. Like these are people in the world. Real circumstances. Real circumstances. In real life if your husband like whipped a taco at your face point blank that would be really really upsetting. Out the door. Like right rightfully so that actually

would be a really fucked up thing to do. Getting on a plane and flying out of Florida for sure. out of Florida for sure. Hadn't nobody old Alpasa. Yeah. But I do think there is a way that like as Florida man becomes more of this recognizable mean there is something really lovable about it. And like the Florida man games

like the mullet competition. That's fun. Everyone loves it. Yeah, fantastic. There's something like very joyous and very like, I don't know. Yeah, there's something happy about it. But probably, again, like we say, or like I say at least,

probably quite annoying in the context of if you're like a serious minded Floridian with like a sense of civic pride. Who wants to like, Who wants your commute? How do we get people back to St. Pete Beach or whatever? Florida man doesn't really help, right? How do we save the turtles as they lay their eggs? Yeah, true, true, because Florida man comes in.

And then you get Florida woman caught stealing turtle egg using vagina as as pouch right yeah and it doesn't help no it doesn't help it doesn't help yeah I would imagine that be hard that would be hard I'll I have a few Florida bands for you some of my favorites I saved last a Florida man enters wrong home tries to kick everyone out yeah because he's wasted or he's not like the mind, you can, your mind fills in the blanks, right? It creates a very colorful picture.

It's a great format. It's a really good format. Florida man threatened to kill with kindness, his machete. Where is his movie? I mean, machete, right? Daddy Trejo. Okay, and this one kind of takes the cake for me, takes the alligator-shaped cake for me.

Florida man on drugs kills imaginary friend and turns himself in. Aw. Cruelty-free chew crime. And melt your heart. Yeah. Oh, bless you. I mean, he shouldn't have done that to his imaginary friend. We don't condone that.

No. Uh-uh. No. No. But- But set your boundaries. But set your boundaries. But yeah, my dude, Florida and the internet together in this hurricane of cultural zeitgeist has created this perfect, lush, swampy-ass incubator for Florida Man. That's true. It can only grow in damp conditions. It's growing these gorgeous orchids that have lasted longer than anything else the internet

has created. And these meaty vines that you can't hack back. Because they just keep growing. No dog. Jumanji. Totally. Very Jumanji-coded behavior. Thanks for listening. If you want more infamy, we've got plenty more episodes at bittersweetinfamy.com. Or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the podcast, shoot us a few bucks via our coffee account.

K-O-F-I-dot-com forward slash bittersweetinfamy. But no pressure. Bittersweetinfamy is free, baby. You can always support us by liking, rating, subscribing, leaving a review, following us on Instagram at Bitter Sweet Anthem. Or just pass the podcast along to a friend who you think would dig in. Stay sweet. The sources I used for my meaningfulness included here's the full AI generated script from the Willy Wonka disaster by Thomas Jermaine Gizmodo, February 29th, 2024, The Less Than Magical Willy Wonka Event, briefly explained by Li Zhao for

Vox, February 28th, 2024, Willy Wonka Experience Actor, Break Silence on Disaster's Tour by Barney Davis for The Independent, March 1st, 2024, Glasgow's Sad Oompa Loompa isn't going to sugarcoat this by David Mack for Vulture, February 28th, 2024. And Huxter, behind Willy Wonka Event, also sells AI-written vaccine conspiracy books by Miles Clee for Rolling Stone, February 27th, 2024. The sources that are used for this week's episode include an article from NPR, National Public Radio, The best Florida man stories recorded by Lila Garcia Navarro March 3rd 2019.

I read an article in The Guardian, Florida Man, what lies behind the Sunshine State's crazy stereotype. Written by Richard Lescombe, May 21st, 2019. I read an article from the Independent Florida Gator. Police colon gains the man, decades on church. Written by Giuseppe Cibbella, August 24th, 2015. The article, Florida Man, named Michael Jackson, accused of exposing himself, Locking Jim Goers by Troy Myers, published on CBS12.com December 1st, 2023. The article, Florida Man's Mugshot, ridiculed on social media, posted on ActionNewsJax.com November 16th, 2018. I looked at the website for Florida Man Games, theflordamangames.com. And lastly, I read the article

Explaining Florida Man by Ira P. Robbins, available through the Digital Commons at American University Washington College of Law. This was published fall 2021. Special thanks goes to our monthly subscribers, Jonathan Mountain, Eric Ujo-Brown, and our newest subscriber, Lizzie D. Hey Lizzie, welcome! If you too want to become a monthly subscriber and get access to bittersweet exclusives like the Bittersweet Film Club, go to coffee.com slash bittersweet.com. That's K-O-F-I dot com slashcom-slash-bitter-sweet-infamy. Bitter-sweet-infamy is a member of the 604 podcast network. The interstitial music you heard earlier

is by Mitchell Collins, and the song you are listening to now is Tea Street by Brian Steele. you