18 Annoying Onscreen Stereotypes About US States, According To People Who Actually Live There
“New Jersey isn’t just one big corrupt suburb of New York. It is called ‘The Garden State’ for a reason.”
Here are 18 things people said Hollywood always gets wrong about their state:
1. “Texas. We are either oil barons, a la the show Dallas, or boots-wearing, cowboy hat-tipping, spur-clicking hicks.”
2. “Regarding Texas… It’s easy to spot a Southern accent from a mile away, as most people think that Texas natives will walk into a friendly conversation in California and start speaking like Billy Bob Thornton’s character in Sling Blade.”
3. “Floridian here — not everywhere is the beach. In fact, for most of us, it takes at least two hours to drive to a decent beach.”
4. “Everyone in Florida is either a hillbilly who sees gators all the time, an old person, or a ‘Florida man.’ I live in central Florida, and we’re all somewhat normal. I’ve never seen a gator in my neighborhood or some weird dude at a Walmart.”
5. “Terrible Boston accents. I’m looking at you, Blake Lively in The Town.”
6. “NYC — you either live in a multi-million dollar brownstone/apartment or you live in the ‘hood.’ A lot of us have regular (most are tiny, yes) modest apartments in any of the five boroughs that make up the city.”
7. “Montana — the series Yellowstone gets next to nothing right, although there are a lot of pickup trucks.”
8. “West Virginia here — born and raised. We are not toothless hillbillies. Every house does not have a car up on blocks in the front yard.”
9. “New Jersey isn’t just one big corrupt suburb of New York. It is called ‘The Garden State’ for a reason.”
10. “That people from the South — and Arkansas in particular — are all ignorant and are either amoral or Bible-thumping.”
11. “A more specific answer, but the accents in the movie Fargo were absolutely AWFUL.”
12. “Connecticut — we don’t often get mentioned in films or TV, but when we do, it’s often as some wealthy, upper-crust, snobbish character with questionable ethics. While there are definitely communities like that, there are more working-class and middle-class families that don’t often get depicted (Gilmore Girls is the only exception that comes to mind).”
13. “It doesn’t rain every day in Seattle. In fact, there are many other cities in the US that get much more rain than Seattle.”
14. “North Dakota does NOT have mountains or forests. Any movie (Logan) showing North Dakota with mountains and forests is lying to you.”
15. “Pennsylvania. They often show vehicles with a license plate on the front, e.g., This is Us. Pennsylvania has not had front license plates since the early 1960s.”
16. “Las Vegas is all wrong. First off is the order of casinos on the Strip. They aren’t lined up the way they portray it.”
17. “Tennessee is not all country!! It was more common for kids in my class to dislike country music than to like it. Nobody actually owned cowboy hats or boots. I also never met anyone aspiring to be an artist.”
18. And finally: “I live in California. Hollywood, naturally, makes it look more like Hollywood than anywhere else. The beaches that are sunny and glorious? You’re lucky if you go to the beach, and there’s sun. And if there is, then it’s packed.”
What does Hollywood always get wrong about your state? Let us know in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length/clarity.
