Real Florida Man or Not?

The best real Florida Man headlines, verified

Every headline below is real: it was published by the outlet named next to it, the article is still online (or archived), and it passed the same review that every headline in the library goes through. We picked them from the most-upvoted stories in our collection, then removed anything that involved a victim. What is left is the genre at its best - and, for the game, the hardest kind of headline to tell from a fake, because each one sounds like it was written to be funny and was not.

How the list was chosen

The library scores each real headline by how many people upvoted it on r/FloridaMan when it was first shared, which is a decent proxy for "this is a good one". We took the top of that ranking and kept only headlines where nobody was hurt, nothing sexual happened and no child was involved - the same exclusions the game applies. The year shown is the year the story was published; the link goes to the original report.

The headlines

  1. After failing to capture alligator on its own, Chicago hires Florida Man, who catches it in less than 24 hours. WGN-TV, 2019. The alligator, nicknamed Chance the Snapper, spent a week in a Chicago park lagoon while the city tried traps; a trapper from Florida arrived and had it the next morning.
  2. Florida man goes to airport with nearly $200,000 in cash, has it seized by the government, which refuses to give it back. Tampa Bay Times, 2020. A civil forfeiture story, which is why it reads as a crime headline without a crime.
  3. Florida Man leaves $10,000 tip at restaurant, says "I want each person in this restaurant to get 500 dollars". WFLA, 2020. The quote is the tell: real headlines quote the person, fakes tend to summarise.
  4. Florida Man kept rambling on to friends about dead palm trees. Turns out, he'd spotted a new disease killing thousands of Florida's signature trees. Tampa Bay Times, 2019. Lethal bronzing, a bacterial disease spread by insects, was confirmed in the Tampa area after a resident kept pointing at the trees.
  5. New Florida man Tom Brady walks into complete stranger's kitchen thinking it was his coach's house. Tampa Bay Times, 2020. Weeks after signing with the Buccaneers, Brady was looking for his offensive coordinator's home and picked the wrong door.
  6. Florida man has seen 'Avengers: Endgame' a record 116 times and he's not slowing down. Tampa Bay Times, 2019. The count was tracked for a Guinness World Records attempt, which is why the number is so precise.
  7. Florida Man pretends to be prosecutor, tries to drop charges against himself. The Daytona Beach News-Journal, 2020. A court story; the paperwork is what gave him away.
  8. Florida Man in prison allowed to sit in guard station & order Chinese takeout after giving guards advice on their taxes. KARE 11, 2019. The kind of detail nobody would invent: the inmate had a background in accounting.
  9. Young Florida Man who struggled with homelessness graduates as school's valedictorian. WSVN, 2020. Not every Florida Man story is an arrest. This one was the most-shared good-news headline in our library.
  10. Florida Man hacks bank, tries to steal $7 billion because "Jesus wanted him to be rich". WFTV, 2017. Seven billion is the detail that makes people click "fake". It is the amount in the police report.
  11. Florida man calls 911 to brag after fleeing traffic stop. 'Like what do we pay you guys for?' KMBC, 2019. The 911 recording exists because Florida's public records law makes it public - see why Florida.
  12. Florida woman running for mayor of her city as 'Sea Turtle' so that she can put a turtle in office 'to give nature a voice'. Tampa Bay Times, 2019. A Clearwater campaign built around an environmental message; the candidate meant it.
  13. Florida Man throws alligator into Wendy's for incorrect nugget amount. The Washington Post, 2016. The most famous headline in the genre. The charge was assault with a deadly weapon; the weapon was a three-and-a-half-foot alligator passed through a drive-through window.
  14. Florida Woman tries to use Lyft as getaway vehicle, driver refuses, prompting her to call Uber. NBC Miami, 2019. The stolen item was an e-cigarette; the second ride-hailing app is what turned it into a headline.
  15. Florida man refuses to pay for gold-plated steak he didn't order, Salt Bae calls cops. The Takeout, 2020. A Miami restaurant, a celebrity chef and a dispute over a bill: three real-world specifics in one line.

What these have in common

Read them again and a pattern shows: a precise number (116 times, $7 billion, 24 hours), a named institution (a court, a 911 line, a restaurant chain), and a twist that is strange rather than witty. Nobody set out to write a joke; the joke is that the report is accurate. Our guide to spotting fakes lists the opposite tells - the neat punchline, the invented brand, the too-clever detail - and the numbers guide shows which topics fool players most often.

Play against them

Several of these headlines rotate through the daily challenge and the endless mode, each paired with a fake written in the same style. If you got most of this list right on instinct, the game will tell you how you compare with everyone else; if you did not, the library is the place to calibrate. And if your own birthday has produced a good one, it is on the by-date pages.