And the losers who got the most lawyers! 
I’m lucky; I’ve from the Wyoming Valley. In a pinch I can say I’m from Connecticut. 
Or you acknowledge there are some cities that have “rivalries”. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, for example, always make fun of each other. Ditto Pittsburgh and Cleveland. (A lot of it has to do with sports)
That went right over your head, didn’t it?
Don’t have a cow, man. Where’s the beef?
Again, I find it rude to say this to someone you’ve just met.
As for rivalries, I can’t think of any for El Paso unless it’s Las Cruces. I’ve never had someone from my “rival” say this. It’s usually people from anywhere but west Texas.
Sure it’s one thing to joke around after you know them. If you know I’m a big fan of … team and you’re a rival, that sort of thing is to be expected. I hear from, well fans of every other football teams, about the Cowboys. I find it beyond stupid because I don’t follow sports at all.
So honestly, when someone pulls out this joke, what reaction is expected?
Haha, you’re a riot!! (when I don’t think they are)
Oh yeah? Well your city is … (I’m not in jr high anymore)
Blank state (my default)
Or am I missing something?
You know, every person on I-95 in Connecticut is going to slow down and read that post…
Buffalo and Rochester, both around the same size, have had a Goofus and Gallant-type rivalry that’s been going on for decades. Buffalo is working class blue collar to the core, much like Pittsburgh, while Rochester is very white collar and quite affluent. Rochester is quite bucolic, and much easier on the eyes than Buffalo, but Buffalo has a big city feel, and is considered more exciting and fun; more street life, more bars and high end restaurants, and generally more going on.
There’s similar Goofus-and-Gallant rivalries between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Houston and Dallas, and from what I understand, Memphis and Nashville.
My hometown is a small town in Germany ( Oberammergau ) so the usual response is “Huh ?” rather than “I’m sorry.”
Dad was a lawyer and a language instructor for the NATO school.
I know the place. Not been there myself, but an aunt and uncle have seen the Passion Play.
Grew up in NJ, have lived in Arkansas for 30 years. Anything you wanna say to me?
Yeah, sucks to be you! 
(Sorry, but you know you were BEGGING for it!)
How do you respond to any other bit of good-natured teasing? Pretty much any such reaction is valid. The polite laugh, the smirk, the playful eye roll, the disapproving lip press, the complete ignorance, and so on. Pick whatever you want to communicate whether you approve.
I don’t get why people expect these sorts of things to be genuinely funny or original, either. If they were, they wouldn’t serve their purpose. They have so little edge precisely because they are so common. They are “safe” insulting jokes.
This bonding style of humor is just often unoriginal.
I got this a lot when I lived in Newark, NJ. It didn’t bother me when it came from people from outside of NJ, because I figured they didn’t know any better. Sometimes I would head them off at the pass with my own joke. But when the ribbing would come from people who just lived a few miles away, on the “better” side of town, it would piss me off.
I often feel like I have to defend London. I don’t hear “I’m sorry” specifically, but there are a lot of fools who talk shit out of… I don’t know. I can’t help but think that envy comes into it. The attitude is very similar to what you’ll hear about NYC. But London, like NYC, is a world class city with all kinds of different people, cultures, places to visit, etc. Some seem to imagine London is full of rich, privileged people who all vote Conservative, when the truth is that it’s a total mix of far-too-rich and far-too-poor, and it’s an island of Labour voters in the sea of blue that is the south east of England. The ignorance is almost intolerable.
My home town was great then, today I could not afford to live there and has grown to at least triple or more what it was when I was a kid. Redondo Beach, California was a great place for a kid to grow up in the 40’s and 50’s. The last time I was back I got lost in my own hometown!
I’m also from Las Cruces, and I’ve heard it a few times. For a long time I’d just answer with “Why?” I never had anyone tell me why they’d be sorry and usually the subject just got dropped, or else I’d explain that Cruces is a great town in a beautiful state, if they really wanted to discuss it.
But one day a man in a bar in Chicago asked where I was from. When I told him he replied with a smile, “We all have our cross to bear.” I thought that was clever, and we shared a chuckle. I have since stolen his line, and it’s now my stock answer when I hear “I’m sorry.” Next to nobody gets it, but it makes me happy all the same.
But he just said one cross to bear, right?
My hometown? Never happened to me. Not about my hometown.
Nope.