Among the many things that some people believe without the slightest bit of evidence is that there is no such place as Wyoming. Apparently, there are websites and online discussion forums devoted to this theory. It seems to me this would be a pretty easy thing to prove or disprove…and if it could be proven, the Democratic party would have done so by now and eliminated two Republican senators, one Republican Congressperson and three electoral college votes that always go G.O.P.
What interests me about this is that according to the Associated Press and to the website Big Think, I am responsible for this strange belief because of a segment I wrote in a cartoon in 1989…
Oddly enough, the theory that Wyoming does not exist may have originated with a 1980s television cartoon. In an episode of Garfield and Friends that aired in 1989, the titular cartoon cat explains to an audience that the square on the map labeled "Wyoming" does not denote a real place, but rather expresses an Italian word for "no state here."
Wyoming is not an Italian word and Garfield did not help map the United States. Nonetheless, the movement either began or gained national exposure at that time, when it implanted into the passive minds of kids watching television who grew up to be adults who ponder the reality of state borders on the internet.
That's what the Associated Press said and they're never wrong except for most of the time. Here's the segment in question. Perhaps the stark, realistic statement of facts by the animated talking cat convinced some people it was a serious documentary…
And yes, that's Gary Owens as the announcer. Thanks to Taylor Ramsey for telling me about this…and y'know, this whole thing with people believing Donald Trump is a good, honest man who won the 2020 Presidential Election is starting to make a little more sense to me.