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Florida Man Challenge: Why is everyone Googling their own birthdays?

Google "Florida Man" and your birthdate, and find a bizarre crime from the Sunshine State to call your own.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read
Road sign saying "Welcome to Florida, the Sunshine State."

You mean the Florida Man state, right?

Paul Giamou/Getty Images

Florida is famous for its many bizarre crimes, often committed by (if you go according to news headlines), a seemingly unstoppable criminal known as "Florida Man," or #FloridaMan.

So on Tuesday, when a Tumblr user going by gandalfsoda made up a game involving Googling Florida Man crimes that occurred on your birthday, it didn't take long for things to go viral.

"New fun personality game: search up "Florida man" and your birthday and see what headline you get (year is not necessary)," wrote gandalfsoda, who did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The Tumblr post now has more than 44,000 notes, and with help from a tweet from a Twitter user called swervin merv, the idea spread to other social media platforms and went viral there as well.

"Mine is Florida Man tries to attack neighbor with tractor," wrote swervin merv.

It doesn't always produce a comedy gem. Dec. 15 is kind of depressing: "Florida man killed in-laws, ordered pizza." And Aug. 4 doesn't come up with much of anything -- mostly stories about the challenge itself.

But keep trying. There are 365 days in the year, Florida man has been busy, you know a lot of people, and they all have birthdays. Here are just a few:

Oct. 8: Florida suspect, 22, allegedly attacked mother with sausages

May 23: Florida man dials 911 and demands ride home to change his underwear

Nov. 12: Florida man dressed like Fred Flintstone pulled over in his 'footmobile'

Feb. 14: Florida man caught on camera licking doorbell

Jan. 22: Florida man arrested for fried-chicken attack on his girlfriend

Some Internet users are very suspicious about what seems like an innocent couple seconds of Googling. Maybe Google started it to evilly steal just one more bit of data about you! You'd better search and post a few dozen friends' birthdays just to throw them off the scent.

"Have you guys figured out that the "google Florida man" bit is a data mining scam, or are you too busy taking an ancestry test?" read one tweet.

One source that does seem to be benefiting from the Florida Man Birthday Challenge? Florida newspapers, which are reaping plenty of page views to old Florida Man stories.

"Today, the Times' digital team noticed something strange," the Tampa Bay Times reports in a story about the challenge. "Our top stories of the day? All Florida Man."

Let's just wrap up with a classic: Aug. 23: Half-naked man walks goat in the rain, welcome to Florida!