Florida Man of the Year: 8 Most Absurd Moments of 2025

While other media outlets write a year-in-review for 2025 to encapsulate the major historical events over the last year, New Times wants to highlight the past year’s milestones through coverage of a very unique species that only exists in Florida.

According to Google’s AI overview, “Florida Man refers to a popular internet meme and news trope about bizarre, outlandish, or foolish acts committed by men in Florida.” Based on these guidelines, we have seen our fair share of Florida Men come out of the woodwork over the last 12 months.

The unique Florida phenomenon comes in various forms, from professional basketball players to the prototypical scammers that thrive in the Sunshine State, to your child’s favorite character gone wild. In no particular order, here are eight Florida Men we met in 2025:

Iguana Division

In true Florida man fashion, Andrew Morales, also known as the Cuban Tarzan, caught an iguana the size of an elementary school-aged child back in October. The creature’s tail alone is longer than the length of an average iguana, and its claws look like they came straight from a horror movie set.

Morales’ Instagram features various videos of the young man chasing after and capturing the large tropical lizards, often launching himself into community pools and stagnant streams to retrieve the creatures. It’s unclear what Morales does with the iguanas after catching them.

Misogyny Division

After the self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan arrived in Fort Lauderdale from Romania in February amid their ongoing legal issues, the Tampa Bay Young Republicans welcomed the brothers to the Sunshine State with open arms.

“TBYR formally welcomes @Cobratate & @TateTheTalisman to Florida,” the group wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in a post that has since been removed. “As free speech absolutists, the Tates haven’t been formally convicted of any crimes and are welcome to speak to our group. We’re old enough to remember when a ‘Convicted Felon’ won the presidency #Freestate.”

Fellow conservatives like Megyn Kelly and Blaise Ingoglia quickly condemned the Tampa Bay Young Republicans for celebrating the brothers’ arrival.

Scam Division

You know what they say about Miami…a sunny place for shady people. It is where the scammers thrive. Earlier this year, a Florida man dined and dashed at five Sports Grill locations across Miami, accumulating $650 in unpaid tabs. He followed the same script during each visit: he would sit alone at the bar, order beers, wings, and shots, and then claim his wife “just arrived outside.” Once his takeout was ready for said wife, he would go outside to “deliver” the food, and poof, he was gone!

On one occasion, he allegedly waited for the bartender to go grab extra sauce before he vanished. At the Doral Sports Grill, he spent four hours at the bar, drinking Don Julio, then skipped out on paying his bill.

Juan Carlos Rivera, 40, was later identified in a photo lineup. He was arrested on charges of organized scheme to defraud and defrauding an innkeeper.

“You need to stay away from Sports Grill, sir, ” a Miami-Dade judge said in court.

Alligator Alcatraz Division

A man attempted to expose the world to what was happening inside the controversial immigration detention facility, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” But was it for the greater good or for some extra cash?

When the facility first opened deep in the Everglades, the TikTok user @skitheteamroski posted a series of viral videos inside the detention center. He showed what appeared to be a dorm inside the facility, the facility’s laundry tent, and the staff dining hall. As of July 9, his videos had garnered more than 2 million views.

The man was later fired for his videos and received a trespassing warning from the facility. He declined to speak with New Times “without compensation.”

“I’m not trying to elaborate more than I already have unless I’m compensated for doing so,” he wrote in a direct message on Instagram.

Crime Division

Ahead of his federal trial, convicted Trump assassin Ryan Routh had some unusual requests from behind bars. While serving as his own defense counsel, Routh proposed a one-on-one “beatdown session” with the president instead of a trial. But if that suggestion proved too intense, he had another idea to decide his fate: a round of golf “with the racist pig.”

“He wins, he can execute me,” Routh wrote in a pretrial motion. “I win, I get his job. Sorry hillbilly Vance.”

To get him in the right mindset for his proposed golf game, Routh suggested female strippers and a putting green to work on his putting skills. He also requested access to documents, visitation, email, a computer and printer or a “fancy typewriter.”

Childhood Nightmares Division

The children will be scarred forever. As Charles Entertainment Cheese, better known as Chuck E. Cheese, was charming children inside the restaurant-arcade in Tallahassee in July, two police officers came to arrest him for allegedly using a stolen credit card. Bodycam footage shows the officers approaching 41-year-old Jermel Jones in full costume.

“Chuck E. is a little busy, ma’am,” one of the officers says in the video. “Come on. Chuck E., stop resisting, stop resisting. You’re being detained.” The officers escorted the large rodent out of the arcade in handcuffs, as confused children looked on in horror. One child is heard saying, “Oh no!” while a mother tells the officers that they are traumatizing the children.

“Would ya’ll put Mickey Mouse in handcuffs?” she asks in the body-cam footage.

Superhero Division

The hero we didn’t know we needed. A Florida man wearing his Batman pajamas stopped a burglar in his tracks and detained the suspect until the police arrived.

Just after 2 a.m. on August 28, the Cape Coral Police Department responded to a burglary at a home in Cape Coral and discovered Kyle Myvett apprehending the suspect in his Batman onesie. He told detectives that he had “gone to bed when his home security cameras alerted him to someone breaking into his vehicle.” Wearing his Batman jammies, Myvett saw a man going through his truck before finding him in his neighbor’s garage and detaining him until officers arrived.