Behind the headlines on It’s Florida, Man

HBO comedy series It’s Florida, Man centres on reenactments of six of the true crime cases behind some of the most bizarre newspaper headlines ever to come out of America’s soft, dangly bit. 

The legendary Florida Man – a lunatic supervillain given to surviving bizarre situations of his own making – was born when the state’s unusual freedom of information law, known as the Sunshine Law, granted the public full access to local police arrest and incident reports, along with attendance at (and recordings from) all public meetings. 

It was a golden goose for the press, as journalists from around the US and abroad mined the records for incidents that would give them sweet, sweet clickbait-style tabloid headlines. To protect the accused’s identity, all actions in headlines were ascribed to an anonymous Florida Man (with Florida Woman getting a rare look in now and then). And who could resist scooping up a newspaper or opening an article when headlines promised scenarios like, “Florida Man Arrested For Practicing Karate By Kicking Swans In The Head,” or “Florida Man Pretends To Be Prosecutor, Tries To Drop Charges Against Himself”? 

Now in It’s Florida, Man, the original people behind the headlines tell their side of the story, while some of Hollywood’s top performers, including Juliette Lewis (Yellowjackets Season 1-3), Randall Park (Trainwreck), and Anna Faris (The Estate) reenact the absurdities, and Barry star Stephen Root narrates.

Binge It’s Florida, Man now.

Episode 1: Florida Man tries to cut off and eat a karate teacher’s toes for Bassnectar tickets (the event happened in 2019, but there is no official record of a headline)

In 2019, Walt Disney World performer Phil (Sam Richardson, Veep Season 3-7) took his dancer friend Carolyn (Ego Ndowim, Genie) with him after he agreed to chop off, cook and eat a karate teacher Steve’s (Randall Park) toes in front of him – in exchange for enough money to buy tickets to attend a performance by Phil’s favourite DJ, Bassnectar (Steve Little). With just 48 hours to raise the cash, Phil had put up an ad on a website (Craigslist) offering to do “anything” to raise the money. And Steve had contacted him and explained his consensual cannibalism fantasy. Both had to stare reality in the face once Phil had the knife in his hand.

PS: Phil got his money (find out how in the episode) only to arrive at the venue and find out that the concert had been canceled because the root of the venue had collapsed. And Steve has since been to therapy to address his issues. 

Episode 2: “’I had to fight’: Florida man survives in swamp for three days after losing arm to alligator” – Sarasota Herald Tribune, 12 September 2022

In July 2022, 43-year-old Eric Merda (Simon Rex, Bupkis) spent four (or two, depending on who’s telling the story) days lost in the Florida swamp near Manatee Fish Camp, after an alligator tore off his arm while he was swimming naked across a reservoir. 

According to the original case report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation officer, dated 20 July 2022, Mr Merda was found naked with his right arm missing from the elbow down. During a search of Mr Merda’s van, an investigator found a shopping receipt dated 18 July 2022, at around 1pm. Mr Merda was also unable to accurately remember at which point he’d taken off his clothes. But to be honest, both of those details seem kind of nitpicky once an alligator rips off your arm.

Episode 3: “Florida’s half-naked mermaids go to war with a witch” – New York Post, 22 June 2023

This juicy-sounding tale of mermaids vs witches turns out to be more of a tale of toxic cop syndrome. In 2023, Whitney Fair (Anna Faris), who was working at a mermaid burlesque show for Fort Lauderdale’s Wreck Bar, filed a complaint against sheriff’s lieutenant Jeffrey Mellies (Steven Ogg, Boiling Point), claiming that he had used the police database to dig up information about her in 2018, at the request of his wife Mia (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) – a former fellow mermaid (and self-declared witch) who was fired from Wreck Bar after fighting with the other cast members. The couple then used information gained from Jeffrey’s search to make accusations against, and harass, Whitney online. Jeffrey’s harassment included personal confrontations while in uniform, and trespassing on Whitney’s property to tamper with her security camera after he and Mia moved in next door to her.

While Jeffrey denied the accusations, he admitted during an Internal Affairs investigation in 2021 that he had checked up on Whitney and two other mermaids as part of a self-assigned “criminal investigation”, which he believed he had a right to do! Jeff claimed that anything he did while working as a cop was “official police business”, and that his being a cop was a 24/7 identity. The law did not agree with his assessment.

Episode 4: “Florida duo – one in a bull costume – try to burn down a home with ragu, cops say.” – The Sacramento Bee, 20 March 2018

On 13 March 2018, sheriff’s deputies arrested Derrick Irving (Echo Kellum) and John Silva (Cameron Britton) for breaking into the home of one of Derrick’s ex-lovers, and trying to burn it down by setting a pot of spaghetti sauce on his stove along with a dishcloth that they were hoping would ignite on the hot plate. They also stole a flat screen TV along with an air conditioning unit. When police arrested the two men after following up a call from the victim, who’d spotted suspicious activity on his security cameras, Derrick was wearing a bull costume, and there was a telltale empty jar of spaghetti sauce in their car. 

It turns out these saucy Florida arsonists had something in common – both had dated their victim in the past, and both were mad about it. The victim seemed baffled, but the spaghetti sauce fire tale made it all the way the world, even appearing in the London Evening Standard.

Episode 5: “Florida suburb is overrun by fluffy rabbits after breeder goes rogue” – Popular Science, 24 July 2023

It’s such an innocent headline, but if you have people in your neighbourhood who feed wild animals, and you’re active in your local social media forums, you know the state of frothing frenzy that differing opinions about handling wildlife induces, whether they’re baboons, or bunnies. 

When rabbit fanciers including Kim Renk Dryer (Juliette Lewis) of East Coast Rabbit Rescue, and staff from rescue group Penny & Wild Smalls of South Florida, got wind of a colony of 60 to 100 lionhead rabbits living wild in Fort Lauderdale’s Jenada Isles neighbourhood, they stepped in to rehome the rabbits, whose dense fur and placid nature makes them unsuitable for surviving in the wild in Florida (most of the neighbourhood rabbits had a lifespan of just two years). According to locals, the rabbits were released by a backyard breeder who just dumped her surviving stock before moving out of the neighbourhood around 2021.

They were met with resistance from some locals like Dan Trebowski, who believed they were taking the rabbits to be killed. And police were called in when others allegedly threatened the rescuers and followed them in an attempt to intimidate them. Meanwhile, bunny haters (including one played by Jake Johnson) were threatening to poison, shoot, or capture the rabbits to feed them to snakes. After finding out what was really going on, Dan asked to join the list of people volunteering to adopt a couple of (sterilised) bunnies.

Episode 6: “Florida sheriff sued for ‘Wheel of Fugitive’ defamation” – Associated Press, 30 January 2023

In yet another case of toxic cop syndrome, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey was sued for defamation by one of the men included on his social media account’s Wheel of Fugitive “game show”. The show featured a wheel divided in 10 segments, each featuring a mugshot of a supposed fugitive from justice. The sheriff would spin the wheel and the public would then be asked to be on the lookout for the person whose mugshot was at the pointer when the wheel stopped spinning. 

But the man suing pointed out that he’d seen his own picture and name on the wheel several times in 2021, when the police had no outstanding warrants against him. And, in fact, he was already in jail on a violation of probation charge on one of the occasions when he saw his mugshot on the wheel. 

According to a Florida Today investigation, the plaintiff was just one of 60 people who’d been featured on the wheel between February 2020 and February 2021, who were either in jail at the time the episode aired, had their cases dismissed, or had no active arrest warrants. In August 2024, though, Judge Laurie Buchanan threw the defamation case out of court, citing a 2023 ruling from the Florida appellate court that granted public officials like Sheriff Ivey “absolute immunity” for any comments they make while pursuing their official duties, “however false, malicious, or badly motivated the words may be.” As a result, the Wheel of Fugitive is still in use today.

With It’s Florida, Man getting the green light for a second season, we’d love to see the real stories behind these six headlines:

1. Florida Man Charged With Assault With A Deadly Weapon After Throwing Alligator Through Wendy’s Drive-Thru Window
2. Florida Man Gets Tired Of Waiting In Hospital, Steals Ambulance, Drives Home
3. Florida Man Who Tried To Run To Bermuda In Inflatable Bubble Rescued By Coast Guard, Again
4. Florida Man Steals Neighbour’s Peacock, Gets Chased By Angry Birds
5. Florida Man Stabs Tourist Despite Having No Arms
6. Florida Man Tries To Leave Strip Club, Crashes Into House, Runs Himself Over

Binge It’s Florida, Man now.

7 more shows with Florida vibes

Killing It Seasons 1-2: comedy series co-creators Dan Goor (Parks and Recreation) and Luke Del Tredici tell the tale of disaster-prone wannabe entrepreneur Craig Foster (Craig Robinson, The Office). Driven to financial desperation after he loses his job, Craig enters the Florida Python Challenge –.a (real-life) competition to see which weirdo can kill the most invasive snakes.

Apples Never Fall: Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty, drama series Apples Never Fall centres on recent retirees Stan (Sam Neill, Jurassic Park) and Joy (Annette Bening, Poolman), who have sold their successful tennis academy and are ready to start their golden years, when Joy goes missing shortly after young woman knocks on their door. As the mystery deepens and dark secrets surface, their adult children are forced to reexamine their parents’ “perfect” marriage”.

The Real Housewives of Miami Season 3: Guerdy’s Abraira shock breast cancer diagnosis and relationship revelations bring some friendships closer than ever while tearing others apart when the Sunshine State ladies return.

Miami Vice: Director Michael Mann reboots the classic 80s cop show about Miami’s top vice detectives in this movie with Colin Farrell (The Penguin) as Detective James “Sonny” Crockett, and Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained) as Detective Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine S4 episodes 1-3: Jake (Andy Samberg) and Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) are like two big New York fish out of water as they try their best to blend in with the Florida locals while in witness protection. See it for Captain Holt battling as the world’s most unconvincing straight man, while working at a business called The Fun Zone. 

2 Fast 2 Furious: In the second film in the franchise, Brian (Paul Walker) and his childhood bestie (Tyrese Gibson, Transformers) are undercover in Miami trying to find evidence to arrest a drug lord (Vin didn’t appear because of a contract dispute).

Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Bad Boys For Life, and Bad Boys: Ride of Die: Buddy cop movies might have peaked with this ultra-destructive, quippy and self-aware look at chaotic Miami cops Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence, Death at a Funeral).