Most New Orleans stereotypes aren't flat-out lies. They're exaggerations with a grain of truth in them, which is what makes them so hard to kill. So instead of pretending they're all wrong, we ranked them, starting with the most wrong and working down to the one that's basically just a weather report.
Each gets a wrongness score out of 10. We've heard every one of these across the counter on Magazine Street and Chartres Street, usually from someone who means well. We've left out a few of the big ones, like Bourbon Street and "Cajun country," because they deserve more than a score. These are the rest.
1. "Mardi Gras Is One Day"
Wrongness: 9/10
Technically, Mardi Gras is one day. It's Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. But nobody here means the Tuesday when they say Mardi Gras. They mean Carnival, the whole season, which 64 Parishes dates from Twelfth Night on January 6 all the way through Fat Tuesday. Depending on when Easter falls, that's anywhere from about four weeks to about two months.
That means weeks of parades and balls, plus king cake in every office break room in the city. Visitors who fly in for the Tuesday only get the finale. If you're planning a trip, our guide on what to do during Mardi Gras will help you pick your weekend. And when the king cake shows up, remember: the knife stays in the box.
2. "There Are Alligators Everywhere"
Wrongness: 8/10
You will not see an alligator walking down Magazine Street. We've been here twenty years and it hasn't happened yet.
Louisiana has plenty of them, but they live where alligators like to live, which is the swamp. If you want to see one, the Barataria Preserve south of the city is your best shot, and we covered how to go without a pricey tour in our post on tourist traps locals skip. The wildlife you'll actually meet in town is the flying palmetto bug, which is worse.
The closest you'll get to a gator on the streetcar is somebody wearing King Gator, one of our oldest shirts.
3. "Everything Is Spicy"
Wrongness: 7/10
New Orleans food is seasoned. That isn't the same as hot. Creole cooking leans on the holy trinity and a long-cooked roux, and a good gumbo should taste deep, not painful. The heat mostly lives in the bottle on the table, and you're the one who decides how much.
Crawfish boils are the exception that keeps this stereotype alive. Some backyard boils will clear your sinuses for the week. We love them for it. If you want to try one, our guide to the crawfish boil tells you how to behave once you're invited.
4. "Everybody's Drunk All the Time"
Wrongness: 6/10
We'll take a few points off this one, because yes, you can legally walk down the street with a drink here, and yes, we wrote an entire love letter to the go-cup.
But the people you see stumbling down Bourbon at 2 a.m. on a Saturday are, overwhelmingly, visiting. Most locals are asleep, because they have to open a shop or work a double in the morning. The drinking culture here is real. It's just mostly a slow beer on a porch, not a yard-long frozen thing.
5. "The Whole City Is Haunted"
Wrongness: 4/10
We can't prove it isn't. That's the problem with this one.
What we can say is that the city does a lot of the spooky work on its own. The cemeteries are above ground. Some of the buildings in the old neighborhoods have been standing for more than two centuries. Whether there's a ghost in your hotel room is between you and the ghost, but if you want a cemetery with real character and fewer tour groups, go see St. Roch.
6. "There's Jazz on Every Corner"
Wrongness: 3/10
Not every corner. But more than you'd expect.
The National Park Service runs a whole New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park here, which tells you something about how seriously the country takes the city's claim. On any given night you can find brass bands, traditional jazz, funk, bounce, R&B and a cover band doing "Sweet Caroline" within a few miles of each other. The trick is knowing where to look. Check the WWOZ calendar, and tip whoever's playing. Our Listen To Your City shirt is for the people who go looking.
7. "It's Hot and Sticky"
Wrongness: 1/10
Correct. No notes.
The one point we're holding back is for the few weeks in winter when it gets genuinely cold and every local acts like the world is ending. The rest of the year, you will sweat in places you didn't know could sweat. We've written about humidity as the city's great unifier and we stand by every word. Dress accordingly. Something sleeveless, like Died of Humidity, is a smart start.
The Ones We Didn't Rank
There's a longer list where these came from. Some stereotypes aren't wrong so much as incomplete, and a few deserve a whole post of their own. If you think we scored one too high, come argue with us at the shop. Arguing about this stuff is half the fun of living here.
New Orleans Stereotypes: FAQ
Is New Orleans food really spicy?
Mostly it's well-seasoned rather than hot. Creole dishes build flavor with the holy trinity and a long-cooked roux, and most of the heat comes from hot sauce you add yourself. Some crawfish boils are the spicy exception.
Is Mardi Gras just one day?
Mardi Gras itself is Fat Tuesday, but Carnival season starts on Twelfth Night, January 6, and runs until then. Parades roll for several weeks before the big day.
Are there alligators in New Orleans?
Not on city streets. Alligators live in the swamps and wetlands around the city, and the Barataria Preserve in Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve is a good place to see them.
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