Areas of your state that are made fun of, looked down upon, or have unique characteristics (i.e. accents, people).

[Zoness]

To a Chicagoan:

Northern Illinois -- Not Chicago, the fringe outlands past the suburbs
Central Illinois -- Hicks (it's cool, we think they are pretentious and self-important)
Southern Illinois -- Ultra-hicks, might as well be Alabama

[Han$ome Texan]

all of texas except far west texas

[PortCity]

Originally Posted by Zoness

To a Chicagoan:

Northern Illinois -- Not Chicago, the fringe outlands past the suburbs
Central Illinois -- Hicks (it's cool, we think they are pretentious and self-important)
Southern Illinois -- Ultra-hicks, might as well be Alabama

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by sds941

I traveled to the NW US, where I heard several locals there refer to residents of my home state as FLOR-IDIOTS. Sad to say, they are not that far from the mark, LOL.

I've heard people from North Carolina, where a lot of Floridians are moving, call them Floridiots, too.

[Mightyqueen801]

In New Jersey, it is the geographical area known as the Pine Barrens and the people who live there are called Pineys, a derogatory term. It's a large area of Pygmy Pines that was considered "barren" by the original European settlers because the soil is acidic and crops don't grow well. (But other plants like orchids grow there naturally.) It became the place where fugitives and criminals went to hide and over time the people who ended up living there became mistrustful of outsiders. It was thought that people there were inbred or defective in some way. There were always stories of people who went into the Pine Barrens and never came out because the Pineys murdered them, and sometimes the Pineys themselves perpetuated those stories to keep outsiders and law enforcement out of their home.

The Pine Barrens is also the supposed home of the 13th child of a Mrs. Leeds, who grew up to become The Jersey Devil that haunted those woods. Ah, you didn't know there was a story behind the name of that hockey team?

Now there are attempts going on to save the Pine Barrens from overdevelopment in this most densely populated state.

NJ Pine Barrens - General Information and Maps