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Horror author Stephen King has apologized for making a joke at upstate New York's expense.
Amid the drama over Kevin McCarthy's speakership battle last week, King compared the speakership of the U.S. House of Representatives to a stay in Utica, New York. McCarthy needed a few days to win over 20 Republicans who initially did not support his speakership. He finally won the title last Friday in the 15th round of voting.
"(T)he Speakership is like that old joke: First prize is a week in Utica. Second prize is TWO weeks in Utica," King tweeted of the city in upstate New York last week.
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King felt the wrath of upstate New Yorkers – including some lawmakers – who may have agreed that the 15-round speakership battle was a "mess," but rejected the author's comparison.
Stephen King at the 2018 PEN Literary Gala in New York on May 22, 2018. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
"Utica is a great city!" Utica councilman Delvin J. Moody tweeted. "I am a utica native and proud to be so. The speakership is a whole over cluster mess."
"Hey, man… Utica is a great city," New York Rep. Marcus Molinaro said.
"Utica is far from ‘The Dead Zone’ these days Mr. King. Come and see how #OneidaCounty has grown," Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. tweeted.
Third District Councilor Celeste Friend, who is running for mayor of Utica, poked fun at King's own work by tweeting, "Third prize is being forced to read Insomnia cover-to-cover in one sitting."
Stephen King attends a special screening of "IT" on Sept. 6, 2017, in Bangor, Maine. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images for Warner Bros.)
"Oof. Utica is great!" Sara Hughes, features editor for The Times Union, said.
Several others said that King must have never tried some local delicacies like "chicken riggies," tomato pie, Utica Club beer, while others suggested he get some shopping done at the Sangertown Square Mall.
The city of Utica's own Twitter account replied with one word, "mid," which is considered slang for "trashy" or mediocre.
King later "sincerely apologized" and joked that perhaps he should have singled out Cleveland or Salt Lake City instead.
"Bet," the city replied.
Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during the Concordia Annual Summit on Sept. 20, 2022, in New York City. (Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul accepted King's apology, with a reminder to the writer "not to pick a fight with 20 million New Yorkers!"
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Some local New York outlets pointed out that King has previously referenced Utica in his work. The main character in King’s 1987 sci-fi book "The Tommyknockers" was from Utica. And King's own daughter, Naomi King, was a minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Utica from 2005 to 2007, according to the church's website. King has previously joked about getting the ideas for his stories from the city located 50 miles east of Syracuse, according to Syracuse.com.
"Utica," King said in 2016. "I tell people I go to the used ideas store in Utica."
Syracuse.com reporter Geoff Herbert advised the author to "stick to horror" in a recent article, which he said was in jest.