Why Utah is So Weird

I said "Mormons" as I was clicking the video, and then Johnny Utah confirmed: "Mormons."

As a Wisconsinite, I take pride in the occasional news story about Wisconsin sports fans traveling to Utah for away games and drinking entire bars dry.

Utah resident, ex mormon here. I usually dont like hearing about Utah and the Mormon church online because people get a lot of things wrong. This was one of the most fair videos ive seen on the topics. Good and bad, it was accurate.

For the record, the beers are no longer watered down. Beer companies got together and told the Government that they would no longer be brewing, packaging, and shipping special 3% beers for a single state. 5%ish is the standard and available at gas stations and grocery stores, but if you want a highpoint you will need to go to a place with a liquor license

as someone from Utah, I can confirm we are weird

I really respect creators who don't make you wait for the answer to the question in their title, but Wendover takes the cake here by giving us the answer as the first word of the video.

Native Utahn here, served a mission, married in the temple, the whole 9, this was one of the most well done, unbiased, and informative video essays I’ve ever seen, I was worried that it would just be 25 minutes of you lambasting the dominant religion, but you did a great job giving an accurate view of the state, it’s origins, and its values! I served my mission in Oklahoma speaking Spanish, and it definitely softened my view on ilegal immigration! I learned a lot about what drives people to leave, and gain the sense of compassion that I had lacked otherwise

For everyone wondering, yes even East High where High School Musical was filmed has an LDS Seminary across the street.

I have been in and through Utah many times.. The strangest had to when I spent two weeks in SLC in the 90's for work. At some point I remember telling a friend ..."I have to go to a good burger and beer place!" I was on the road all over the country at the time and was basically living at places like Chili's and Applebees. They took me to what appeared to be an Italian bar / restaurant. We sat down at the bar and I ordered a burger and beer. I could clearly see liquor bottles in the back with beer taps. The waiter said: "You have to have a membership and a sponsor for the beer." I had no idea what this meant. "Membership?" "Spenser?"....for a beer? An older Italian man (like New York / Jersey Italian ..think Tony Soprano) sitting in the middle of the bar said: "I'll sponsor him."....like it was soothing he said 100 times a day and... The waiter brought my burger and beer. Easily the oddest meal experience ever.

Great video! Thank you. As an attorney who practiced in Utah and now practices in Illinois, I would add expungement as one of Utah’s uniquely progressive areas of law. Utah has been one of the leading states in the nation in pioneering ways for those with criminal records to clean, expunge, or overcome their records. Utah’s law is still ahead of Illinois’s in this way.

Someone in Wendover calling Utah weird is the best part of this super accurate video.

16:18 So the interesting thing about that is the Provo City Center Temple wasn't a temple until very recently. It used to be just a tabernacle (a very large meetinghouse). However, in 2010, it caught fire, and the whole structure other than the outer walls burned down. This prompted the decision to renovate it into a temple - and it just so happened to be at the center of the Provo city grid.

One important caveat for the high percent of Republican voters in Utah is the caucus/primary system. Because Democratic candidates are less likely to win, many voters with left-leaning values will register as Republican in order to participate in the Republican primary and elect more moderate candidates.

I love videos that answer the title question in the first second. Anti clickbait.

I am Colombian and member of the LDS church. I came to Utah for school and I love it here. I appreciate the nuanced and respectful tone of the video and the comments! Much love to everyone ❤

The only thing this is missing is an explanation of fry sauce. It's good! Everyone needs to try it. The most basic form you can make is (2 part mayo, 1 part ketchup, 1 part mustard. Mix well. Should be pink like a peach and taste tomato-y and tart. Goes well with heavily salted food.)

Also, there is a town called Wendover, which is on the border of Utah and Nevada. West Wendover, NV is the go-to place for people to drink, gamble, visit the dispensary, etc. Basically all the sins that are restricted in Utah.

Moved from New York backcountry to Salt Lake City for my masters degree. You wouldn’t think Utah is weird until you leave the state and go somewhere else. I loved my time in Utah, people are friendly and outgoing, and the temples, while not my thing, are some of the most beautiful structures you’ll see.

Here's the thing that no one talks about: We have a STRONG, decades long, multi-generational alternative community, and it's kind of growing. I work at the same goth nightclub my dad went to when he was my age (he still goes he's just not my age anymore), and I'm not the first nor the only kid of someone who regularly attend for most of their life currently working there. There's a goth club, multiple goth nights a month in various locations, multiple alternative themed thrift stores, goth community events (monday we're all seeing Abigail), goth camping trips, group migrations to out of state music festivals, post concert meetups.. It's a close knit, long lived community and It's so rarely talked about outside of maybe SLC Punk. Here's another thing I never see talked about: Do you know what Utah has disproportionately more of than most states, aside from children? Haunted house attractions. You have Nightmare on 13th, Fear Factory, Strangling Brothers Circus, Castle of Chaos, Shadows of Fear, Haunted Forest, Asylum 49, Haunted Kay's Cross, Dark Nightmare, Haunted Hollow, SO MANY DAMN CORN MAZES, and our local amusement park hosts at least 5-6 haunted houses on its property every fall. The thing that's always cracked me up about the premise of Five Nights At Freddy's 3 is that all of the games canonly take place in Hurricane, Utah, and Utah is no stranger to making haunted houses out of locations with confirmed deaths. I've named three already. I think these two factors are related. I think haunted houses, and fan conventions, and places like Evermore park (I know its closed at the moment but it's coming back as something similar to the original premise, just hopefully better funded) are the neutral middle ground where the least strict mormons and those who feel alienated by mormonism can meet and have a good time together. Halloween is a big holiday in this state because of that, too. For every family with 3 toddlers waddling from car to car in a church parking lot wearing massive coats over their costumes, there's a group of adults going to Nightmare on 13th and then going to eat at that horror movie themed burger resturaunt.

As someone who lived in utah for years and used to be a member of the church I appreciated the unbiased view this video presented. Even though I personally don’t agree with a lot of the doctrine taught I still have a lot of respect for people within the church as my family and a lot of old friends are still members. It was nice to see someone cover a topic that is incredibly easy to politicize in a way that pretty much only covered facts and routed their arguments in logic and reasoning rather than hate. Props to the creator for showing people the actual causes for the mormon influence on politics rather than the biased crap the typical person would give.