Yahoo Lifestyle 18 Annoying Onscreen Stereotypes About US States, According To People Who Actually Live There
Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community what annoying stereotypes Hollywood has about where they live.
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."
"Texas!!! God, the worst of Hollywood — it's not all orange-tinted, tumbleweeds, gunslinging, horses, and cowboy hats. I'm almost 25, living in the heart of Houston, Texas, and have never seen a single cowboy hat or a pair of boots that wasn't from a tourist or an older farm worker.
Most of our cities [feel] just as big as places like Los Angeles or New York. Busy traffic, skyscrapers, nightclubs, etc.
And no, most of us do NOT have thick accents — that's usually the older generation, like 60-90-year-olds who moved here from Oklahoma, Arkansas, or Louisiana."
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."
"It may be a surprise when a Texan is heard speaking with a different accent or no accent at all, but upon visiting Texas, one will notice the diversity across the state in almost every way, including the accents."
Here's a clip of Billy Bob Thornton as Karl Childers 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."
"Also, it is rarely sunny, and it rains about every day or so (especially in the summer).
I think the most accurate description of Florida/Floridians was Jason Mendoza from The Good Place lol — everyone in Florida is a Jason Mendoza."
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."
"I think that’s more south Florida, maybe? 🤷🏻♀️"
5."Terrible Boston accents. I'm looking at you, Blake Lively in The Town."
"The 'New England accent!' There are several subtle accents, from Down Mainer, to Boston’s famous 'we don’t know where r’s go,' to the Kennedy/Boston Brahmin. And most Southies sound as if they're from New Jersey.
Massachusetts has wonderful dialect coaches. Employ one for your next northeast project.
Oh…and not everyone over the age of 50 lives in flannel shirts!"
Here's a clip of Blake Lively as Kris Coughlin 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."
"Also that New Yorkers are rude/mean — we are just in a hurry. I've never known of a New Yorker who hasn't stopped to give someone directions or help them in a time of need."
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."
"We are so much more than we have been portrayed in cinema. But you just go on and believe what you want."
"Not everyone that lives in West Virginia is a hillbilly inbred with a low IQ. Every movie, television show, or book seems to believe this falsehood."
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."
"And don't get me started on the pathetic and exaggerated 'southern accents.'"
11."A more specific answer, but the accents in the movie Fargo were absolutely AWFUL."
"As someone who lives in Minnesota, it was incredibly inaccurate and a little bit funny."
Listen for yourself in the trailer below:
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)."
"My father was born and raised in Connecticut his whole life, grew up in a working-class family, was the first in his immediate family to go to college, and worked from the bottom up in the same company for his entire career until his retirement. When he was promoted to a VP position, he started to rub shoulders with more 'old money' types. He was in a meeting or event, and someone made an off-hand comment that the part of the state we lived in (not knowing that my father lived there) was 'the armpit of CT.' My father politely (yet pointedly) said, 'That's where I live,' and that person quickly walked back their comment."
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."
"We do have a lot of cloudy days, but it isn't as wet as it is depicted in movies and on TV."
14."North Dakota does NOT have mountains or forests. Any movie (Logan) showing North Dakota with mountains and forests is lying to you."
"This place is flat or, if you're in the Badlands, it’s sparse and filled with gorges and canyons."
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."
"And it's a lot more congested with cars and people, and you should NEVER walk alone on the Strip."
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."
"There's so much more, but I'll stick to that for now. It's such a joke."
What does Hollywood always get wrong about your state? Let us know in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length/clarity.
