As a European, I just don’t get it. Cincinatti seems like it’s a pretty cool city.

42 comments

  1. Do you know why all the trees along the Ohio river lean *towards* Ohio?

    Cause Ohio sucks

  2. Its one of those states thats great at being mediocre. Nothing about Ohio really stands out to make it noteworthy or different

  3. If you’re talking about the meme, it’s rooted in absurdism.

    Ohio is considered one of the most plain, unremarkable states in the country.

  4. There is nothing wrong with Ohio, but there’s nothing right with it either.

  5. I have literally never seen these memes, only heard of them because of this sub.

    I imagine Ohio is just shorthand for an average state. Even though most people in both Ohio and NYC are just going to work/school, go home, eat dinner, socialize or leisure time for a bit, and then go to sleep.

  6. It’s run of the mill, and in that case, if anything is too ordinary in the U.S. we like to attach weird going ons, hidden meanings and speculation on why something can be so ordinary, so then that must mean that something actually really weird is going on beneath it all.

    We’re really creative so it just got more ridiculous and more over exaggerated. It’s just random jokes attached to a state. I’m sure they’ll cycle through all the states at some point. They’ve already done California, New York, Florida, Texas etc.

  10. Miserable winters, abandoned ruins of once great industries, dying towns plagued with drug abuse, trains with toxic chemicals getting derailed.

    Seems real to me.

  11. “Ohio is an American state in the Midwest region of the country that became the subject of memes across social media platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Instagram and TikTok, among other platforms, predominantly following the Ohio vs. the World trend that started in 2016. Going into the 2020s, the concept of Ohio as a meme became commonplace through multiple trends that humorously labeled Ohio as an American middle place, existing as a capitalist wasteland of chaos and mayhem, akin to creepypastas, lore and randomness, becoming an imagined epitome of American signifiers such as Breezewood, Pennsylvania. Ohio meme trends include Wait, It’s All Ohio? Always Has Been, Can’t Even X in Ohio, Only in Ohio, the Ohio Final Boss and the King of Ohio, among other micro-trends.”

    – know your meme

  13. Former Ohioan here. 🙋🏼‍♀️

    Ohio is a nice place, pretty and clean, but kind of boring in comparison to other states. It also has a lot of cloud cover, and is a pretty populous state. This is all to say that Ohioans are always traveling to other areas for vacation. People in the states Ohioans frequently travel to get sick to death of hearing that the visitors are from Ohio. I live in SC, and there is the perception that everyone from out of town is from Ohio. It is statistically an inaccurate perception, but it is what it is. Also, people from other states don’t like Ohio is all about OSU football. Reality being what it is, though, there just isn’t that much that’s a bigger deal to Ohioans than Buckeye football. Other states get sick of hearing about it.

  14. I lived there for a while and it is pretty bland. All they care about is Cornhole and Ohio State football.

  15. Ohio is the viewed as the absence of culture.

    It’s one of the most populated states (11MM) but it doesn’t have a city that stands out. It gets made fun of by the northeast (NYC/Philly/DC) for being too midwest bumpkin, but gets labeled by the other midwest states for being too much like the east coast. It’s too far from the ocean. It doesn’t have any good skiing or extremely diverse hiking landscapes. It’s not a major tourist destination (except Cedar Point).

    Most of the state is a mix of rural and suburban. Much of the state is also part of the “rust belt” (areas that once had thriving factory-economies that are gone), so places like Youngstown and Toledo have some really dilapidated areas. The “Three C’s” (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati) are all very mediocre mid-tier cities – and are mostly just suburban single-family home sprawl with a small downtown and a handful of sleepy “high streets” and very devoid of culture or livelihood that you’re finding in NYC, Miami, Los Angeles, DC, Chicago, or Philadelphia. Not that the C’s are bad – per se – in fact, Cincinnati is undergoing a huge revival and has a great school system and a handful of cool neighborhoods for a very low cost of living. But it’s not a place I would call, “pretty cool”.

  16. Probably the only place where it translates to real life is in Michigan. It stems from a border dispute during the two states’ applications for statehood back in the 1800’s.

    That being said, those SOBs deserve every ounce of it!

  17. Cincinnati is awesome, don’t be fooled. Great architecture, history, food, beer.

  18. It’s fairly nondescript. That said the meme doesn’t make any sense considering that it’s one of the less generic Midwestern states considering it has quite a few major cities

  19. You know that one kid in highschool everybody made fun of for no reason? That’s Ohio. Minding it’s business, and they hate it.

  20. It’s very underrated. I’ve lived long term in 4 States and 2 other countries (Finland and China) and Ohio is a good place to live. I especially like Columbus. It has some great neighborhoods, good restaurants, bars and sports, a relatively low cost of living (though with the influx on Intel’s chip fab plant and 2 new Google data centers that is rapidly changing) and a good road system (you are able to get from one corner of the city to any other corner quite quickly). Politically all of the major cities lean blue. Outside of winter I would pick it over most of the other places I’ve lived. People do give Ohio a hard time but the criticism is becoming rapidly less accurate as time goes on.

  21. Native Ohioan here. There’s a meme going around that is targeted at the state as a whole because I believe nobody actually talks about the state and what has happened within its lines.

    Ohio is not a boring state. People think it is because nobody ever actually hears anything about anything that has happened here unless some celebrity brought something to light like Dave Chapelle buying a large lump of land recently or a few other celebrities that grew up in the state.

    Ohio is know for most of its history such as the time of the Underground Railroad, the “Mother of Modern Presidents,” Ohio was the birthplace of seven U.S. presidents: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William H. Taft and Warren G.

    You can learn more [here](https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/ohio) about the state. I’m pretty sure there are many more things other than what’s listed in this article that make this state more interesting rather than boring.

  22. It’s mostly a meme, but rooted somewhat in fact – Ohio is generally a statistically average state with unremarkable geography.

  24. So you know how some places people say it’s a great place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there? Ohio is kind of the opposite. We don’t have anything particularly tourist worthy to the outside word but by and large it isn’t a bad place to live. Ohio tends to be a very average place which is honestly fine with me. I have travelled to several other states/cities and countries (Mexico, England and Canada) so I have seen other places but anywhere else I’d want to live is either cost prohibitive or has weather I don’t want to deal with (hurricanes mainly).

    Cost of living is about 11% lower than the national average according to [this article](https://www.rentcafe.com/cost-of-living-calculator/us/oh/), housing is around 28% lower and utilities about 7% lower. There *are* things to do, but our museums aren’t as large or prestigious as other places which is viewed as a lack of culture. We do have concerts, sports teams, malls, movie theaters, tons of metro parks, festivals/fairs/craft shows, a few decent zoos (at least one of which has been featured on ‘Secrets of the Zoo’ on National Geographic), a national park, national forest, Lake Eerie and it’s islands and an excellent Air Force museum. I haven’t done much in the way of nightlife for several years because everyone I know started getting married and having kids but Columbus used to have decent options (and I’m sure the same can be said about Cincinnati and Cleveland). Again, they aren’t the biggest or the coolest but we have them.

    We have 4 seasons but the weather can be crazy and the jokes about experiencing 4 seasons in 2 days or running the a/c and heat in the same day is actually true. Tornados are a thing but rare, no hurricanes and minimal earthquakes (the only ones I know if I’m my lifetime have been too weak to even register for me. Summer can get pretty hot and humid (80s-90s with high humidity usually 70% or more), and winter can get cold but the average winter temp is higher than most people think (Dec-Feb the average is right around 30 degrees F). The worst weather thing for me is the gloom from November to March followed by what feels like never ending rain in spring.

    The other plus (this one is kind of weird) is that it is within fairly ‘easy’ driving distance to a lot of other places. Which is where the Ohioans/midwesterners driving everywhere jokes stem from (I’ve literally never flown somewhere I can drive to in 12 hours or less). Chicago is a 6 hour drive, DC is 7 hours, Niagara Falls (Canadian side) is about 5.5 hours, and Virginia or Carolina coast is about 10 hours. According to [this article](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/503187/25-things-you-should-know-about-columbus-ohio) from 2017, about 48% of Americans live within 600 miles of Columbus Ohio (depending on speed limits and traffic roughly an 8.5-10 hour drive) so even though it’s proximity to other places is a bit of a strange reason to like a place, it makes traveling (especially by car) pretty easy.

    In short, Ohio is very good at being completely average and I guess that makes it boring.

  25. Ohio hides a lot of its history. Sometimes you have to dig a bit to find info and most ohioians still are learning things. It’s a pretty popular state, there’s over 11 million people living in Ohio. The weather can be garbage, it can snow one day and the next day it’s 70 degrees Fahrenheit, but it never gets too cold and it never gets too hot here, we don’t have too many natural disasters so we have attracted big business like Facebook, Google, Intel, Amazon, and various data centers.

    North is Great Lakes and fishing, south his hilly and west is flat as an arrow.

    Ohioians have a unique accent, the way we say things. I have traveled to Florida, ate in places that see people from all over and waitresses usually pick up right away that myself and the people I am with are from Ohio.

    There’s a lot of history in Ohio, history meaning the last few hundred years. Like we had famous moonshine in new straitsville, we aren’t known for our moonshine because it’s still illegal here but we were on the map for it back in the day. [moonshine history](https://youtu.be/vnJq8w0VwHc)

    There’s a famous ship that sank on the Great Lakes called the [Edmund Fitzgerald](https://youtu.be/9vST6hVRj2A). Link to the song.

    Lots of Indian arrowheads scattered around, I believe the shawnee were the native Americans in the hocking hills area. Tecumseh was the famous chief that to this day they have one hell of a outdoor performance about, I have seen it a few times and it was a great show. [Tecumseh](https://youtu.be/sRP7HVIKsYg)

    We have the largest aviation museum. [National Museum of the United States, Air Force in Dayton, Ohio](https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/)

    My grandpa knew Orville Wright after Wilber passed away. My grandpa used to walk down to the Wright Brothers bicycle shop and sit on Orville’s lap, he would tell him stories of building the Wright glider, times at kitty hawk etc etc, Orville convinced my grandpa to join the Air Force where he met JFK, Julia, Childe, he flew B29 bombers in WWII against Japan etc.

    Hocking Hills is a special place, lots of parks to visit, fantastic place to ride motorcycles through. https://www.hockinghills.com/

    Ohio seems very boring, in ways it is but it has a lot to offer.

    I almost forgot if all the polar ice caps melt, we won’t be underwater lmao.

    Here’s another gem. If you know of Funk and Wagnalls dictionary and encyclopedias, they were well known all over the USA, they were from Ohio and built a beautiful building called [Wagnalls memorial library](https://youtu.be/dQAagPTNW7s) which is still around today.

  26. Pretty sure Chappelle started it by describing the opioid crisis he was seeing around him in Ohio. He makes a lot of jokes about it

    “Ohio comes from an old Indian word….it means land of the poor white people”

    That started the cascade of memes and such

  27. It was my least favorite state that I’ve lived in, but I kinda set myself up on that one. I mean, I did move there from Michigan… Kicking and screaming.

  28. Lot of farmland. The cities are pretty cool, buy open spaces of cornfields in between. It can be a boring road trip.

    But like Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, and Columbus are pretty awesome. I’m from Youngstown and it’s a pretty cool spot too IMO.

  30. As someone that lived in Ohio for about 18 years, both Columbus and Cleveland, it boggles my mind why so many people consider Ohio plain and boring. Kansas and Iowa, those are plain and boring. Ohio has a lot to offer. And only the west half of Ohio is “flat, plain, boring,” as people are describing. Southeast Ohio is the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. It is GORGEOUS, lush country. Lots of beautiful hiking and camping. You have Lake Erie to the north. Beaches, boating, lighthouses. Attractions across the state: Columbus Zoo/Zoombeezi Bay, National Air and Space Museum, Cedar Point, The Wilds, COSI, Rock and.Roll Hall of Fame, Put-in-Bay. There are Natural history museums, Modern art museums, science centers and theaters in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati. There are state parks, Amish country, pick your own everything and great farmers markets. I’m not into sports, but there are the Browns and Indians, Columbus has OSU football and minor hockey and soccer leagues.

    Is the state as exciting like the big ones like California and Florida? No, but there are many much more boring states.

  31. Well, I for one have thoroughly enjoyed road trips through Ohio. The best mechanic repaired my car on one trip. And the architecture in Cincinnati is pretty cool. Politics are awful, though.

  32. There are probably worse places. There’s spots that are just extremely desolate and empty like kansas and Wyoming. There’s places with harsher weather although it gets really cold in Ohio too. Ohio is just extremely normal. Even if you’d like to think that there’s probably some really strange stuff lurking just underneath the surface for the same reason, well…. nah it’s just Ohio.

  33. We’re probably not as cool as other states because we don’t get quite as many mass shootings.

  35. I’ve lived in 6 states and moved to SW Ohio 5 years ago. With the exception of Colorado, Ohio is by far my favorite overall. We live in a beautiful area between Dayton and Cincy. The people are super friendly, the cost of living is relatively low and we have 4 true seasons.

  36. Ohio is called America in miniature. It’s a very interesting mix of major cities, small rural towns, industrial centers, agricultural hubs, financial hubs. It has a National Park (Cuyahoga Valley), the Appalachian Mountains, flat Midwestern farmland and the Great Lakes.

    The cities are all quite unique and varied, with Cincinnati as your Southern-esque historic River City, Columbus as your booming tech hub/Midwest City and Cleveland being a historic industrial hub.

    Cincinnati in particular is one of my favorite cities and I really enjoyed my time there: https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/ooiaos/the_rust_belt_doesnt_get_much_love_on_this_sub/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1

    But even outside of that you have lots of [interesting places](https://www.google.com/travel/things-to-do/see-all?g2lb=2502548,2503771,2503781,2504113,4258168,4284970,4306835,4757164,4814050,4850738,4864715,4867855,4874190,4886480,4893075,4915017,4920132,4924070,4936396,4955435,4965990,4968087,4972345,4985712,4990494,72241300,72244840,72253158,72256471&hl=en-US&gl=us&ssta=1&dest_mid=/m/05kkh&dest_state_type=sattd&dest_src=ts&q=top+sighrs+ohio).

    Cleveland’s orchestra is top 5 in the country. It also had a top 3 hospital (Cleveland Clinic) and the 3rd best art museum in the country by public opinion: https://www.ranker.com/list/best-art-museums-in-the-united-states/admiralcrunch

    Note that Toledo’s Museum of Art is #11, Cincinnati Art Museum is #33, Dayton Art Institute is #66, Allen Memorial Art Museum is #70, Columbus Museum of Art is #94. For such a supposedly backwards place, 6 of the top 100 art museums in the country is not bad.

    Ohio is also called the amusement park capital of America due to Cedar Point, the only park with 5 roller coasters over 200ft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Point?wprov=sfti1

    And Kings Island is also really good, even by national standards.

    Reddit has a coastal, often liberal elitism that says anything interior is hokey, boring and inferior. You’re just tapping into that strain of bias. Personally, Ohio is a Top 5 state for me, up there with Pennsylvania.

    I love the diners, the Americana, the farms and hills, the Art Deco, the neon signs. There’s something very welcoming and down-to-earth about it. Not everyone wants to live in LA with type A personalities and traffic.

  37. As a former Ohio resident, I think Ohio is fine. The best description probably comes from Ohio based band, Relient K.

    “Ohio has the flavor of a water chestnut
    It’s not too crazy and it’s not the best but
    We’re not setting forest fires just out of boredom
    I’d rather see a movie if in fact I can afford one
    ‘Cause a small town is like a small stage
    For teenagers and their drama
    Instead of playing shows, we’ll be showing plays
    Like 90210 without the Beverly Hills”

  39. Ohio is just a relatively unremarkable place. It’s not bad or anything, it’s just average. It’s sort of a stereotype for the Midwest. I think the meme plays off of this fact with absurdism.

    It also shows just how easily people are influenced by the internet instead of anecdotal evidence or experience.

    We all love to poke fun at Ohio for being the saltine crackers of the snack aisle, but I’ve never once met a single person from Ohio who wasn’t a cool, down-to-earth, friendly person. Not once.

  40. I don’t get it either. I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I have spent in Ohio. I even toyed with the idea of moving there at one point.

  41. Ohio is basically just a mini-United states. You have your cities, your rural, and pretty similar demographics to the whole of the US, not to mention it is very important in presidential elections since it is a swing state. So for every tidbit about history, science, and the cool stuff, you also have viral stories akin to a man on meth blowing up his trailer or a suicidal man with an exotic animal collection releasing his tigers and monkeys onto the populace (true story)x It’s the crazy and fun stories that get more traction and Ohio is just big enough to get the attention. I love Ohio and I’m fine with the memes.

  42. People like to say Ohio is boring to drive through, but you could say that about most of the Midwest. There are a lot of good qualities and fun things about the state: Cedar Point, Kings Island, Hocking Hills, Yellow Springs, major universities, two NFL, MLB, and MLS teams, one NBA and NHL team. It’s a livable, fairly affordable state with lots of employment opportunities. The state has the fifth most Fortune 500 companies in the US. Columbus is considered the third best city for fashion designers and companies. There are 8, soon to be 9 medical schools. It’s a swing state so is very important in presidential elections. I don’t always agree with decisions from certain politicians, but you’re going to find that anywhere.

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