You know you're a Yooper when ...

Don't know what a Yooper is? Click here!
Want some more Yooper Humor? Try Here or Here or Here.
And of course, there's the official homepage for Da Yoopers!
JibJab even has a Yooper Ghost Story!

  1. A trip to the islands means a trip to Mackinac and Bois Blanc.
  2. You use the Yooper Rule of Apostrophes: dinty = didn't he; shounta = shouldn't have; and wounta = wouldn't have. Gotta love the U.P. Language!
  3. The word "Eh" seems to find its way onto the end of every sentence.
  4. You leave you beers outside to get cold.
  5. You break something and then fix it with duct tape.
  6. You refer to downtown Iron Mountain as a classic example of urban decay.
     
    (Thanks to Kasey from Ontonagon and David from Kingsford for the following 21 submissions!)
  7. You know who Patty U. is, and you live 120 miles away.
  8. You can spell Ahmeek, know what Ahmeek means, and know where it is. (You don't know? Then visit HERE.)
  9. You drive to Traverse City to tan on the beaches.
  10. You know what they grow in dat dere Garden Peninsula.
  11. Your bitter family feud comes to a head over the annual Lions-Packers game.
  12. You've ever had a snow day after Mother's Day.
  13. Your county spends more time and money on the snowmobile trails than they do the state highways.
  14. More businesses close in the summer than in the winter due to the season.
  15. You include Wisconsin in "the deep South".
  16. The back door to your camp is a fridge door. Bonus points if you stock that fridge.
  17. You've been to Holiday and ShopKo more times than you care to count, but you've never been to Dunkin Donuts or a 7-11.
  18. The cops have ever pulled you over on a snowmobile.
  19. The police backup in a high speed chase is the DNR.
  20. You only get channels 6 and 13, and you don't mind.
  21. Your camp lacks indoor plumbing and electricity because it's not necessary, but has a stockpile of beer and pork rinds.
  22. You know the four spots in the UP where you can't get "Da Bear".
  23. You run outside barefoot to check the mail - in February - and don't notice the cold.
  24. "Jumping the border" means a beer run to Hurley.
  25. Your first cousins marry, and it doesn't seem out of the ordinary.
  26. Your class valedictorian is a logger.
  27. You have four or more broken down vehicles in your yard. Bonus points if they're snowmobiles.
     
  28. Your basic vehicle survival kit consists of blankets, pillows, a shovel, and rock salt.
  29. You need a translator when you come to visit:
     
    Henry Payne cartoon
    (by Henry Payne, © 2004 Detroit News)

  30. You get inspiration from the movie "Escanaba in da Moonlight" by Jeff Daniels.
  31. You think fine dining is a pasty and a Pabst.
  32. You have a bumper sticker that says "Say Ya To Da UP."
  33. Your school has a 8th grade graduation.
  34. You pay the taxes on your camp from the proceeds of beer can returns.
  35. You come home from the bar late at night and your wife asks, "Had a good time dear?"
  36. The smell of snowmobile exhaust reminds you of Last Christmas.
  37. You check your bank balance to see if you can afford to buy four pasties from the pasty sale this week.
  38. You make your own pasties, because who makes them better??? Nobody!!
  39. You plan your vacation around deer season.
  40. You use venison hamburger to make chili.
  41. Going up north means a hunting trip to Canada.
  42. Your neighbor plows your driveway and you pay him back with Yooper currency: a frozen lake trout from your freezer.
  43. You jump out of the sauna and into the lake and you feel that great feeling of the water bubbling off your skin and that great sound of popping as the bubble hit the air.
    -- Special Thanks to Yooper Patty U. of Silver City, MI for sharing that great experience she fondly remembers while visiting Lake Roland.
  44. You only own three spices - salt, pepper and ketchup.
  45. You design your Halloween costumes to fit over a snowsuit.
  46. You have more miles on your snowblower than your car.
  47. You have 10 favorite recipes for venison.
  48. Your TrueValue Hardware on any Saturday is busier than the toy stores at Christmas.
  49. You've taken your kids trick-or-treating in a blizzard.
  50. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes get filled with snow.
  51. You think everyone from the city has an accent.
  52. You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightie with only 8 buttons.
  53. You owe more money on your snowmobile than your car... or
  54. One of your cars is a Ski-Doo.
  55. The local paper covers national and international headlines on l/4 page, but requires 6 pages for sports.
  56. Your snowblower gets stuck on the roof.
  57. You think the start of deer hunting season is a national holiday.
  58. Summer takes place the second week of July (and it still rains!!).
  59. You know which leaves make good toilet paper.
  60. You find -20°F a little chilly.
  61. The trunk of your car doubles as a deep freezer.
  62. You attended a formal event in your best clothes, your finest jewelry and your snowmobile boots.
  63. Shoveling the driveway constitutes a great upper body workout.
  64. You know the four seasons: Winter, Still Winter, Almost Winter, and Construction.
  65. The municipality buys a Zamboni before a bus.
  66. Your parents had their 50th anniversary at the Merwin Creek Campground.
  67. You have two mailboxes, one that is normal for early winter, and one that is seven feet tall and already buried October 2.
  68. You have a door upstairs so that you can go outside in the winter (to get the mail in your seven-foot tall mailbox!).
  69. Your vocabulary includes the following: da, dis, dat, dees, dem and deirs. Also included is the number "tree."
  70. You have a "camp," not a "cottage."
  71. You go "fishing out da camp."
  72. At your wedding you toast with Grape MD20/20 instead of champagne.
  73. You saw a sign that said "Drink Canada Dry" and you've been trying ever since.
  74. Your mosquito repellent doubles as your aftershave.
  75. Road Pop is your name for beer.

  76. You actually get these jokes, and forward them to all your Yooper friends.

Don't know what a Yooper is, eh? Well, first you have to go back to your 4th grade geography class and recall that Michigan is made up of two peninsulae (or "peninsulas" if you prefer) connected by the Mackinac Bridge: a Lower Peninsula that looks like a mitten and an Upper Peninsula that kinda resembles a hunchback jumping rabbit. Look at the picture along the left edge of this page. Well, the Upper Peninsula is often called the U.P. Say it out loud: "U-P" ... "You-Pea" ... "Yoop" So, a person from the U.P. must be a "Yooper," right? Right!

No, the Lower Peninsula is NOT called the L.P. for some reason, which means people who hail from the Lower Peninsula are NOT called "Loopers." Instead, they're called "Trolls." They live under the bridge. (Think about it for a while if you don't get it at first. And if you still don't get it, ask someone nearby, that way they'll get to not only laugh at the joke but also at YOU for not getting it!) I'm also told that occasionally they're called "Flatlanders" because much of the Lower Peninsula is as flat as the Great Plains. But that's much more boring than being a Troll.

If you would like to add your own favorite to this list, send it along to me at and I'll consider it.


Back to the Michi-Fun Page.

This page is maintained by Ryan Simmons, at .
Updated in January 2008