Everything Is Big in Texas: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"You have heard the saying that everything is bigger in the Lone Star state, and it is true that the cats are the size of dogs and the dogs are the size of European cars. But Texans themselves are of normal proportions, with normal-sized dreams and loves, who just happen to own cars that are the size of twenty-five European cars."''
|'''John Hodgman'''|''[[The Areas of My Expertise]]''}}
In real life, Texas is a diverse state in terms of geography and culture. It can easily be divided into five different regions culturally, with climates ranging from the near desert like conditions of the panhandle to the humid coastal subtropics along the shoreline. [[DFW Metroplex|Dallas]], [[Greater Houston|Houston]] and San Antonio count as three of the US's top ten most populous cities, with the state capital of Austin and the cities of Fort Worth and El Paso rounding off the list of cities that can be described as ''big.'' The state itself is ''huge'', being [
In terms of culture Texas plays host to some of the largest Hispanic and Asian American communities in the South Eastern United States. The state's ranks of professionals, business leaders and politicians draw from all racial and religious groups who can produce people with the ability, which basically means each and every one of them. Many government institutions retain their form from the days of the Republic of Texas and Reconstruction Era. Politics is personality based as much as anything else from the state's history of being in the Solid South, leading to such politicians as [[Kinky Friedman]], a self described Jewish Cowboy and entertainer whose campaign slogan was "Why the hell not?", popping up from time to time.
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{{examples|The Vastness of Texas Contains These Works}}
==
* A Geico commercial features the Geico Gecko traveling around the US. He went to Texas, and he talked about how everything is bigger there, such as the hats, the steak, and the hair.
== Anime and Manga ==
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* New Texas in [[Saber Marionette J]].
* Osaka in the dub of ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'' is given a Texas accent, Houston in particular, because both Texans and Osakans share the stereotype of being loud, obnoxious country hicks. (Osaka herself, of course, is the complete opposite.)<ref>Worth noting, the English-dub voice actress, Kira Vincent-Davis, is a native of Houston, where the anime was dubbed, so at least you know the accent is legit.</ref>
** A similar approach was taken with ''[[
== [[Comic
* After Marvel's ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' storyline, each US state got its own superhero team. Texas got the Rangers, a group which includes three cowboy-themed heroes, an Indian-themed hero, and Armadillo, who is a big armadillo.
** Rangers was a pre-existing team - they formed from local heroes to stop the Hulk in the early 80s. Doesn't make them less [[Captain Ethnic]] about it.
* One of the enemies of ''[[Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew]]'' was "Armordillo", an armor-plated armadillo with a dangerous tail, who came from the Earth-C US state of "Taxes" (nicknamed the "Lone Stork State"). As such, Armordillo spoke like an Old West gunslinger/outlaw.
** Several Earth-C versions of Texas cities were also mentioned in the series, including "San Antoadio" (San Antonio) and "Hogston" (Houston). Taxes also was the home of historical landmark the Alamole (Alamo).
* In ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)|Preacher]]''. Jesse Custer makes a point of refusing to steal horses, as some obscure Texan point of honor.
** [[Truth in Television]]: in a culture centered around free-range cattle ranching, like in the old West, cattle and horse thieving were more likely to get you hanged than murder, rape and bank robbing. Some of those old laws are still on the books, although mostly ignored these days.
* ''[[Blue Beetle]]''. Jaime Reyes, the third Blue Beetle, lives and works in a reasonably-accurate version of [[Other Cities in Texas|El Paso]]. One storyline on [[The Illegal|immigration along the Texas border]] was met with [[Internet Backdraft|mixed reactions]].
== [[Film]] ==
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* ''[[Whip It]]'' takes place in [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|Bodeen, Texas]] and Austin. Amusingly it was mostly filmed in Michigan.
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* One of the many pilots who passed through the Stalag 13 underground was a large and enthusiastic Texan. He wore a cowboy hat (yes, while flying his plane), used many Texan colloquialisms and was very amused by meeting actual foreigners such as the British Newkirk and French LeBeau.
* Gordon Bullit in the fourth season of ''[[The OC]]'' is a walking, talking Texan stereotype.
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** Bones: "It looks like she carried a half-full canteen..."
** OK Ranger: "Definitely from Texas..."
* An episode of ''[[
* ''[[The Good Guys]]'' was set in Dallas, and they portray it as pretty diverse culture- and accent-wise (both the good and bad guys).
* [[Friday Night Lights]] is set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas. While the show focuses on high school football (and its all-important status in the small town), it also covers issues prevalent in Texas and the nation at large; race relations, extreme poverty, pregnancy, religion, alcoholism, parental abuse and other issues surface with regularity.
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* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has the evil front for Primatech Paper here in Volume 1, though it becomes less significant when the Bennetts move to California in Volume 2.
* ''GCB'' is set in Texas, and is about as stereotypical as it can get.
== [[Literature]] ==
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* ''For Texas and Zed''
* ''[[The Ayes]] of Texas'' and it's sequels in which Texas becomes an independent nation.
== [[Music]] ==
* [[The Austin Lounge Lizards]]' ''Stupid Texas Song'' is one long indulgence of this trope.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* In ''[[The Most Happy Fella]]'', the [[Beta Couple]] sing a number about how everything is big in Dallas, where they're from, "but the rest of Texas looks a mess."
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* ''[[Battle Fantasia]]'' Takes place in a fantasy world with your typical western European fantasy kingdom, a steampunk Dwarf kingdom, Magic talkin rabbits... and a masked gunslinger from Texas... Right.
* [[Team Fortress 2|The Engineer]] Comes from Bee Cave, Texas. While he has the typical southern drawl and has a lot of wild west themed unlocks, he's also probably the smartest member of the team.
== Web Comics ==
* The comic ''Torio'' had [http://torio.comicgenesis.com/d/20070205.html Jimmy Benson]{{Dead link}}, a perpetually-grinning, belt-buckle-flaunting Texan who even spoke in bigger letters than the rest of the cast (compared to [[Shrinking Violet|Crispin]], who had trouble maintaining capital letters). He was based on a couple of Texan roommates the author had, neither of whom would ever shut up about how awesome Texas was.
* Subverted in ''[[Freefall]]'' in the figure of Tex, the Texan. [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff600/fv00600.htm Though he speaks of their big stuff, he himself is... shall we say, height-challenged, a full head shorter than Sam's] [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff700/fv00603.htm artificial skeleton presents him as.]
* Although [[Something*Positive|Davan, Peejee and Aubrey]] live in Boston they all hail from Texas and the strip makes frequent sidetrips there.
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1008. Texans do not get revolvers as a racial weapon proficiency. }}
* About one half of [[Survival of the Fittest|SOTF-TV]]'s characters (the other half being from a [[Sucky School]] in [[Motor City|Detroit]]) are from a wealthy private school in Bryan, Texas. While the stereotype hasn't come up as much as you'd expect, it has received [[Lampshade Hanging]] both in and out of character.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The [[Affably Evil]] oil tycoon [[Meaningful Name|Rich Texan]] in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' acts as a stereotypical [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[King of the Hill]]'' dips in and out of this stereotype with every other episode, sometimes portraying Texas and Texans more realistically and other times portraying them as naive, conservative throwbacks who only care about hunting, beer and football. The landscape of Texas in the show also seems to include nothing but suburbia, desert and empty fields. Given that [[Mike Judge]] is actually a Texan, and has portrayed a much less stereotypical Texas in ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' and ''[[Office Space]]'' (yes, both of those took place in Texas), this is more a case of [[Affectionate Parody]] than [[Did Not Do the Research]]. In addition, the Hills live in the suburbs of a somewhat small town, which generally are much closer to the stereotyped depictions seen in the show than the big cities like [[DFW Metroplex|Dallas]] and [[Houston]] are.
** One episode had Hank pandering to a visiting New England investor to use Strickland as its propane supplier. The investor expected this trope and kept pestering Hank about cowboy hats and boots and used words like "russlin'" and "twisters". The investor eventually went with Strickland's competitor Thatherton because he acted the stereotype.
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* 80's cartoon ''[[Bravestarr]]'' was this trope [[Recycled in Space]]!
** Just to emphasize: the setting is the ''planet'' of New Texas. Doesn't get much bigger than that.
* The [[Bugs Bunny]] ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' cartoon "Oily Hare" is set 531 miles from "[[DFW Metroplex|Dollar$]], Texa$" and 20 miles from "Deepinahearta Texa$". The short was made in 1952, when the oil money was just starting to flow into the state, hence the dollar signs replacing the letter "S".
== Real Life ==
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** In the college game, Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, where the Longhorns play, is also the epitome of this trope. The stadium holds ''more than 100,000'' fans (but it's not even the biggest stadium; that one belongs to Michigan).
* Inverted in Texas Hill Country deer, which are tiny.
* [
* Most of the popular anime you all know...was dubbed right here in this state. That's right, [[Fullmetal Alchemist]], [[Dragon Ball]], [[Ouran High School Host Club]], [[Yu Yu Hakusho]], slews of a bunch of others, the recent [[FUNimation|FuniDub]] of [[One Piece]]...all dubbed by Funimation. Their headquarters is right here in Dallas, Texas.
** Most of the ''other'' popular anime you all know was also dubbed in Texas, by [[ADV Films]]. (Although after ADV's financial troubles, many of their titles were transferred to FUNimation.)
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* Rick Perry, former 2012 Republican candidate for President, takes this trope to [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] levels. Another example is another former President, [[Lyndon B. Johnson]].
* The Texas State Capitol building is 11 feet taller than the US Capitol building. Don't tell me size doesn't matter!
* Molly Ivins talks about her state in [https://web.archive.org/web/20141016093833/http://www.thenation.com/article/texas-america?page=full "Is Texas America?"], an article for ''The Nation magazine.
** Ivins practically built her career on talking smack about Texas, and made no secret of her belief that she was one of the only intelligent people from there.
* Inverted with [[Audie Murphy]], at only 5'5".
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Bigger Is Better]]
[[Category:Indexed States of America]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
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