Where did the ongoing ‘do a good deed and the mayor of the town congratulates you with the key to the city’ in movies & shows come from? Was that ever a real thing?

Question

I’m watching family guy & Peter found a missing kid and as a reward the mayor gave him the key to the city (or town hall?).
I’ve also seen this happen in a few other movies.

Was this ever a real thing? Is this an inside joke I’m not aware of?

In: 2567

Answer 1

I live in Chicagoland. Years ago when my twins were little, we took them to Lincoln Park zoo. On the way in, we got stopped by the local ABC news crew as they were asking people random questions about the news we watched. They asked if we’d be ok with being in camera to answer the questions and at the end they had us say the name of our town. I did and thought nothing of it until about 6 months later they started to air 30 second commercials with all the people they stopped through Chicago that summer.

I got included in the commercial and I found it on YouTube and emailed it to my towns Mayor asking for an honorary key to the city.

He politely declined my request. Can’t say I blame him.