They will usually concede a basis for the accusation but point to California as the focus of the infection. Californians stoutly maintain that their bad reputation is derived solely from the acts of the inhabitants of Los Angeles County. Angelenos will, when pressed, admit the charge but explain hastily, 'It's Hollywood. It's not our fault, we didn't ask for it; Hollywood just grew.'
The people in Hollywood don't care; they glory in it. If you are interested, they will drive you up Laurel Canyon 'where we keep the violent cases.' The Canyonites — the brown-legged women, the trunks-clad men constantly busy building and rebuilding their slap-happy unfinished houses — regard with faint contempt the dull creatures who live down in the flats, and treasure in their hearts the secret knowledge that they, and only they, know how to live."
A lot of weird news stories seem to take place in the United States of America, giving a misleading impression that the country has more weirdness than average. Social scientists have proposed that it makes Americans a rather poor choice
for drawing broader conclusions about humanity from.
Often used negatively as a No True Scotsman fallacy, in which someone says a specific negative thing can happen "only in America", regardless of if any other part of the world can or has been subjected to it.
Compare with Vocal Minority, Mis-blamed. See Only in Florida and Only in Miami as a subset. See Eagleland and Gangsterland for the unfortunate image that results.
Changing with time as an increasingly large number of "and finally..." stories derive from China and India. Most of these stories are invented by the media. The two nations, not coincidentally, have the first and second largest populations in the world, respectively.
This trope name does not refer to works that are only available in the US. That would be No Export for You. Only an American could make that mistake.
Nor does it refer to Larry the Cable Guy's television series of the same name.
