Tampa has long labored as a tidy pop culture punchline. Need we count the ways we have been poked and prodded everywhere from standup sets to “30 Rock”? If Florida is the root of all absurdity, Tampa is the juiciest fruit on the tree, er … cob.

Usually, though, this region gets lambasted from afar, perpetrators lobbing digs at our sweaty idiosyncrasies before running back to West Village apartments with four roommates. The culprits don’t often make fun of us to our face.

That all changed Tuesday as “Shucked,” a Tony Award-winning musical comedy now on tour, opened at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.

The show with music and lyrics by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally and a book by Robert Horn goes like this: The residents of fictional town Cob County encounter har

See Full Page