Last week, as you well know, I was down in la florida. Life is so strange there that it’s normal, if you know what I mean.

I laughed hysterically when I saw that Inverness was planning a month-long “Cooter Festival” but then didn’t even bother to mention it here because I figured it wasn’t that interesting. I figured I was just getting in touch with my inner Beavis and Butthead the first day I saw a poster advertising the festival (now I wish I’d stolen one of the posters).

Consequently, when I saw last night’s Daily Show, I laughed til I couldn’t breath. I actually thought I was going to pass out. I’m both relieved that other people find it funny and disturbed that I passed so quickly into acceptance when I saw the ads for the festival in the first place. You can take the floridian out of florida, I guess, but there’s apparently no cure for our particular brand of madness.

The press in Florida still doesn’t seem to get why it’s so damned funny:

‘Daily Show’ crew gets crack at city

By Mike Wright
For three guys used to dealing with the media, this was something quite unusual.

A city manager, a newspaper editor and a government critic all were put on the spot Wednesday by a crew from Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” a news program that tends to poke fun at small-town life.

The crew was in Inverness for a story about the Cooter Festival or, more accurately, the strange controversy that has erupted regarding the festival’s name.

City Manager Frank DiGiovanni said the festival, which debuts in October, was named after a small turtle common to small lakes such as Cooter Pond.

Greg Hamilton, editorial page editor for the St. Petersburg Times’ Citrus edition, wrote a column last month that noted the “cooter” also is a slang word that refers to the female anatomy.

[read the rest of the article]

I just refuse to believe that the reporter who wrote this piece – or anyone else – thinks this is funny just because the Daily Show likes to “poke fun at small-town life.” People, people, people. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel, making fun of this festival. I don’t think Ed Helms had to go far out of his way to make the whole thing look silly.

I think Inverness is just bitter because Allendale, South Carolina already owns the domain name for Cooterfest.com.