Lieutenant Dan Florida Man

Submission 180

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About

Lieutenant Dan Florida Man, also known as Joseph Malinowski, refers to a Florida Man and internet figure nicknamed "Lieutenant Dan" (as in the character Lieutenant Dan Taylor from the film Forrest Gump) who went viral on the TikTok account of Tampa Terrance (@terrenceconcannon) in late 2024 after refusing to evacuate and leave his boat during Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Lieutenant Dan is white, has tattoos and is an amputee who's missing his left leg, hence the comparison to the Forrest Gump character. Lieutenant Dan weathered and survived Helene in September 2024, but internet users and fans were worried about him during October's Hurricane Milton. Viral videos of Lieutenant Dan spread on TikTok and gained cross-platform spread to Twitter / X and elsewhere as users shared their concerns and memes.

Online History

Hurricane Helene

Lieutenant Dan's online presence started on September 25th, 2024, when TikToker^[1] Tampa Terrance (@terrenceconcannon) shared a video of him days before Hurricane Helene made landfall in which he told the hurricane to "come and get me." The video received over 950,500 plays and 67,100 likes in two weeks (shown below).

Lieutenant Dan went more viral on September 26th, when TikToker^[2] Tampa Terrance posted another video with him before Helene made landfall, gaining over 6.3 million plays and 311,700 likes in 13 days (shown below).

Tampa Terrance continued to check in with Lieutenant Dan amid Helene as both didn't evacuate during the storm. Later on September 26th, 2024, TikToker^[3] Tampa Terrance posted an interview with Dan amid the storm, gaining over 13.3 million plays and 1.2 million likes in 13 days (shown below).

Hurricane Milton

On October 6th, 2024, Tampa Terrance posted a new TikTok^[4] in which he relayed the news to Lieutenant Dan about Hurricane Milton approaching Tampa. Lieutenant Dan was unbothered by the news and said he was going to stay. Over three days, the video received roughly 1.9 million plays and 108,600 likes (shown below).

On October 8th, Tampa Terrance posted another TikTok^[5] with Lieutenant Dan, reinforcing his position that he wasn't going to evacuate for Milton. The video received over 11.8 million plays and 817,600 likes in a day (shown below).

Online Reactions

On October 8th, 2024, videos of Lieutenant Dan were reposted to Twitter / X, such as by the DramaAlert X^[6] account, which received over 16.6 million views and 63,000 likes in a day (shown below).

The abovementioned tweet inspired viral reactions on the app, like a quote tweet shared by X^[7] user @bigcontentguy on October 8th, who joked, "that hurricane just got a notification that a category 5 florida man is approaching," receiving over 45,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Later on October 8th, X^[8] user @PresidentToguro quoted the same post, joking about Lana Del Rey and Jeremy Dufrene's Marriage, writing, "Some 25 year old Lana del Rey fan is gonna marry this guy to copy her," receiving over 2,400 likes in a day (shown below).

Also on October 8th, 2024, X^[9] user @_jackmcpherson posted a Lieutenant Dan TikTok, saying that he'd been following his "lore" and wrote, "I will be devastated if he doesn’t make it but I believe he has the heart to survive," receiving over 11,000 likes in a day (shown below).