At the heart of the national recession in 2009, comedian Mike Polk Jr. created a series of Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Videos that lampooned the city as it fought through some of its darkest hours. Among the shots taken as the narrator sings: … come and look at both of our buildings, here’s a place where there used to be industry … see our river that catches on fire … our economy’s based on LeBron James!
The final punchline of the video is the catch-phrase for potential Cleveland tourists, as the narrator happily sings out: It could be worse though, at least we’re not Detroit!