“Florida man” is used so often in memes and social media jokes that it’s almost become part of our shared vocabulary.
The phrase is always used at the start of sentences that describe odd, bizarre, or comical events that take place in the state. Some are tragic, some are criminal, and some are ludicrous, but they’re all real news stories that occurred in Florida.
No one’s ever been able to explain why so many outlandish things happen there — or at least, why a similar volume of crazy stories isn’t reported in other US states — but most people know what’s coming next when a story begins with “Florida man.”
As used in TikTok posts, “Only in Ohio” is somewhat similar.
What is the “Only in Ohio” Joke on TikTok?
This TikTok trend actually has its roots in a Tumblr post from 2016. A user on the app posted a photo of a digital screen (on the back of a bus) that read “Ohio will be eliminated.” For some reason, it caught the attention of other users and was liked and reposted more than 100,000 times.
For another reason that can’t be explained, Ohio memes began morphing and spreading to other apps. One was a map of America titled “Danger Presented by Ohio,” showing Ohio as the only state in red and ranking the other states according to their relative safety. Another meme was an edited photo of the cartoon cat Garfield, thinking, “Time to nuke Ohio.”
Since then, TikTok users have taken things several steps further. They’ve created all sorts of TikTok content, including memes and videos purportedly showing or illustrating odd or unprecedented “events,” accompanied by the caption “Only in Ohio.” Few of these supposed occurrences were real; they’ve been photoshopped, animated, or more recently, created with AI.
Most of those TikTok videos and photos are clearly not real, but that hasn’t stopped people from creating ever more outlandish “Only in Ohio” TikTok posts. The “joke” has been circulating for years on the app.
We can’t explain why people still find it so funny — but if a joke works, why change it?
About the Author
Peter Hasselworth is a contributor at iDigic, sharing valuable insights about Instagram growth and social media marketing strategies.