lol It's a cultural thing, like I said in the pictures thread it started with the civil war. It used to be funny mock people who said Mizzer-ah and they'd mock us for saying Missor-ee. Then the politics get involved when you reach a certain age, and now the media talks about the two Missouri's and you become aware of each other and why you are different.
Its annoying and then the Missouri Republican party refuses to call the state Missor-ee and that when politicians come here to St. Louis and KC they say it to our faces Mizzer-ah (aka haha in your face and no we don't care about you, money will go to the boonies, but vote for us). It would be the equivalent of somebody going to the PQ convention and saying 'Canada forever, Quebec blows'.
Same goes for people who say Illinoise instead of Illin-oye. Illinoisians see this as a cut down and ignorance. One thing to know about Midwesterners, they don't like southern influences who 'muck it up'. It's a pure-laine attitude and it shows in how Midwesterners are brought up over southerners. So when you have a state that has 2 strong influences, you'll get your battles. It's a dog eat dog world. East coast west coast make fun and mock the Midwest, midwesterners mock southerners, southerners mock east coast west coast.