Speaker 1: Guess what, Mango, what's that Will? I'm going to Dollywood?
Speaker 1: You're what? I'm going to Dollywood. Our family was at
Speaker 1: this event last week, and we want a trip to
Speaker 1: freaking Dollywood. I feel like that Powerball winner from last week.
Speaker 1: And I do need to warrny about this. I may
Speaker 1: never come back to work again, so you've got to
Speaker 1: tell me what happens to Dollywood. I actually have no idea.
Speaker 1: That's part of why I'm so excited. I mean, of
Speaker 1: course I've heard of it. I grew up a few
Speaker 1: hours away from it, but you know, other than knowing
Speaker 1: that one of the co owners is Dolly Parton and
Speaker 1: she's great, and and then it's in this really pretty
Speaker 1: area of Tennessee, I know nothing about it. And I'm
Speaker 1: actually intentionally avoiding any information about it because I wanted
Speaker 1: to show up and be completely surprised. Well, I do
Speaker 1: have one spoiler for you, and this is something I
Speaker 1: remember from reading about it a a long time ago. And
Speaker 1: in the Chasing Rainbow section, Uh, they have this autograph
Speaker 1: picture from Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and I think you read
Speaker 1: something like you are so very special, how sweet? I know.
Speaker 1: I love that he gave her that affirmation, but I
Speaker 1: definitely want you to report back. I want to hear
Speaker 1: what your kids think about it. I definitely will. But
Speaker 1: winning this trip felt like a sign to me, you
Speaker 1: know that it was time to do this episode on
Speaker 1: the history and philosophy of theme parks. And we've been
Speaker 1: talking about doing this for a while now, so let's
Speaker 1: get started. Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
Speaker 1: good friend Man Guesh Ticketer and the man making funny
Speaker 1: faces at us through the soundproof glasses, our friend and
Speaker 1: producer Tristan McNeil. And today we're talking theme parks, all
Speaker 1: the science and imagination and you know, even the philosophy
Speaker 1: that goes into designing and building and running theme parks.
Speaker 1: So we thought it'd be fun to dig into some
Speaker 1: of the deep thinking behind one of the world's favorite
Speaker 1: forms of escapism. We've also got some great guests on
Speaker 1: the line to to help us talk about that. Now,
Speaker 1: who's joining us today, Meg, Yeah, to Today we'll be
Speaker 1: talking to David Younger, author of the new book Theme
Speaker 1: Park Design and the Art of them Entertainment. David's guide
Speaker 1: covers every aspect of the theme park industry, including interviews
Speaker 1: with theme park legends and Disney Imagine. Years will also
Speaker 1: be talking with a couple of theme park enthsists who've
Speaker 1: made it their life's work to chronicle all the going
Speaker 1: on at their favorite parks. Very cool. Alright, so we're
Speaker 1: gonna dive in in just a minute. But before we
Speaker 1: do that, we've heard from so many of you by
Speaker 1: email or on Facebook or Twitter, and even on our
Speaker 1: seven Fact hotline, and many of you have asked if
Speaker 1: you can play one of our ridiculous quizzes. So here's
Speaker 1: what we want you to do. Email us at Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius at how Stuff Works dot com or call
Speaker 1: us on the Fact hot line one eight four four
Speaker 1: pt Genius and tell us why we should have you
Speaker 1: on to play a quiz. Now, be sure to tell
Speaker 1: us something interesting, of course, a true interesting fact about yourself,
Speaker 1: and maybe, just maybe we'll have you on the show
Speaker 1: to play sometime. Alright, so before we get into the
Speaker 1: exhilarating rides and names of designs and all that good stuff,
Speaker 1: we probably need to start out by talking a little semantics. Semantics,
Speaker 1: you want to take this to the least fun place possible, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, I know, but there is an important distinction
Speaker 1: we should make about today's topic. So if you were
Speaker 1: to ask somebody the difference between an amusement park and
Speaker 1: a theme park, yeah, they might think it's a trick questions.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, both kinds of parks are high energy,
Speaker 1: their family friendly. You've got all the mechanical rides, the
Speaker 1: colorful designs, the tasty junk food, which is probably my
Speaker 1: favorite part, you know, But there's a very real difference
Speaker 1: between say, a seaside amusement park like a Coney Island,
Speaker 1: and a full blown theme park like Universal Studios or
Speaker 1: Lego Land. Sure, and I guess by the same token.
Speaker 1: Amusement parks can contain individual rides or areas that are
Speaker 1: themed to something. So if you think about something like
Speaker 1: Six Flags and their parks, they all have a bunch
Speaker 1: of unthmed roller coasters and carnival type rides, But then
Speaker 1: there are all those attractions from like Looney Tunes or
Speaker 1: d C Comics, So there's some crossover here and there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's true. But you know, for the most part,
Speaker 1: it's enough to know that the goal of an amusement
Speaker 1: park is to you know, give people a thrill more
Speaker 1: or less through random assortments of exciting rides. And you know,
Speaker 1: the aim of a theme park, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: is to really immerse people in this elaborate storytelling experience,
Speaker 1: and that just happens to use exciting rides as a
Speaker 1: way of telling these stories. So it was interesting to
Speaker 1: me in doing research for this episode that every aspect
Speaker 1: of a theme park, or at least a really good one,
Speaker 1: is meticulously crafted to support the parks theme. So not
Speaker 1: just like the architecture, but things like the smells in
Speaker 1: the air, the music being played, the characters of course,
Speaker 1: and employees uniforms, but landscaping, the color of the paint,
Speaker 1: the style of the benches, even the trash cans. Like
Speaker 1: everything you see or hear or smell or touch like
Speaker 1: it's carefully selected, all for the story that's being told,
Speaker 1: which just seems like such a lofty goal for for
Speaker 1: someplace where kids are like throwing tantrums and parents are
Speaker 1: angry that they're spending nine dollars for a soda. Now,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to be angry at Dollywood. A lot
Speaker 1: of us tend to associate these with, you know, crass
Speaker 1: commercialism or think of them as a low brow, more
Speaker 1: mindless form of entertainment. But that's something we'll see a
Speaker 1: lot today, is that there's more substance at the core
Speaker 1: of these theme parks than most of us give them
Speaker 1: credit for. And speaking of credit, I do want to
Speaker 1: take a minute upfront to recognize Frederick Thompson, the inventor
Speaker 1: of the world's first them detraction and a true theme
Speaker 1: park pioneer. Alright, so just to be sure we're we're
Speaker 1: not talking the same Fred Thompson who was the politician
Speaker 1: and the actor right now, but that would have been awesome,
Speaker 1: like talking about politician Fred Thompson and then dropping the
Speaker 1: line like, oh yeah, and he was a theme park pioneer.
Speaker 1: All right, all right, we'll have a separate episode on
Speaker 1: that Fred Thompson one day, but for this episode, this
Speaker 1: seems like a good place to start, all right, tell
Speaker 1: us more about him. Yeah, Thompson designed the first of
Speaker 1: what we've categorized today as a dark ride, but he
Speaker 1: hasn't gotten nearly as much attention as some of the
Speaker 1: other theme park titans we'll talk about today. And for
Speaker 1: any listeners who aren't up on their theme park lingo
Speaker 1: we should note that a dark ride is basically just
Speaker 1: an indoor ride where a vehicle has guided along this
Speaker 1: track and you know, you go from one set to another.
Speaker 1: So you know, think Mr Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland,
Speaker 1: or Haunted Mansion, or you know, even the generic kind
Speaker 1: of haunted house that you would go through if you
Speaker 1: were at an amusement park exactly. And Thompson really helped
Speaker 1: develop this genre of rides. He was an architecture designed
Speaker 1: buildings for county fairs and public exhibitions, and he really
Speaker 1: wanted to create a ride that could dazzle the audience's
Speaker 1: senses and help them forget about their everyday worries. So
Speaker 1: in nineteen o one, using copious amounts of plaster and
Speaker 1: modern advances like electric machinery and light bulbs, Thompson premiered
Speaker 1: his masterpiece, which he dubbed a Trip to the Moon.
Speaker 1: And you were saying, you know, this was nineteen o one,
Speaker 1: so you know, if you think about the timing there,
Speaker 1: not only have we not made it to the moon yet,
Speaker 1: but even the Right brothers, you know, their first man
Speaker 1: flight was still a couple of years off, so that
Speaker 1: this whole premise, this whole thing would have been complete
Speaker 1: science fiction at that point totally. And Thompson chose his
Speaker 1: theme wisely, which is why he was fine forking over
Speaker 1: eight tho dollars to build the attraction, which by the way,
Speaker 1: is more than two million dollars in today's money. Wow, God,
Speaker 1: that is so pricey, all right, So what exactly did
Speaker 1: you get for that kind of cash? Well, the main
Speaker 1: part of the ride was a thirty passenger airship that
Speaker 1: was suspended from the ceiling by steel cables, and you
Speaker 1: can find pictures of it online. It basically looks like
Speaker 1: a huge canoe with these wide or like wings, and
Speaker 1: the wings were controlled by this pulley system that let
Speaker 1: the ship rock back and forth. And they're also these
Speaker 1: like small fans that provide the sensation of wind rushing by.
Speaker 1: Like it was great, the feeling of soaring in this
Speaker 1: flying machine. And it's all enhanced by sound effects and
Speaker 1: hundreds of tiny lights, and there's like a painted canvas backdrop.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, especially for the time. And and uh, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't just that, Like the people rise beyond the
Speaker 1: Earth's atmosphere all the way to the moon, and and
Speaker 1: then when the ship reaches its destination, passengers disembark and
Speaker 1: entered this lunar cavern and it's made of plaster, where,
Speaker 1: of course they meet a race of moon people called
Speaker 1: the sell a Knife. And of course, so it's pretty
Speaker 1: much the world's first flight simulator, right, and it had
Speaker 1: to of course this added dose of sci fi whimsey.
Speaker 1: I kind of wish I could go back and ride
Speaker 1: this kind of thing and see how people would have
Speaker 1: responded to it initially. Yeah, and more than that, he
Speaker 1: was a visionary, so he included a gift shop where
Speaker 1: visitors could eat green moon cheese. Of course, all all right,
Speaker 1: So Frederick Thompson certainly played a part in the evolution
Speaker 1: of amusement parks and that transition into the theme parks.
Speaker 1: And you know, but while we're on the subject of credit,
Speaker 1: we do have to get this one out of the way.
Speaker 1: It would it would definitely be impossible to talk about
Speaker 1: theme parks without referencing their patron saint, and that's Walter
Speaker 1: Elias Disney, or Uncle Walt, as he's known to those
Speaker 1: who have drunk the kool aid. You know. But no
Speaker 1: matter what you think of Disney Parks or the behemoth
Speaker 1: parent company, that they belonged to. There's really no denying
Speaker 1: that the man behind the mouse revolutionized the entertainment industry
Speaker 1: and and of course paved the way for modern theme
Speaker 1: parks as we know them. Absolutely, Disney was responsible for
Speaker 1: so many technical innovations that became staples of of the industry.
Speaker 1: I mean the biggest is the audio animatronics, those life
Speaker 1: like robot characters that you see at So the Caribbean
Speaker 1: and the Enchanted Tiki Room. But you know, if we
Speaker 1: really want to give proper credit, we should also mention
Speaker 1: the creator of the world's first theme park, which you know,
Speaker 1: a contrary to popular belief, was not Walt Disney. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was reading about that too. So this honor actually
Speaker 1: belongs to a guy named Louis Coke. He was this
Speaker 1: industrialist and he had made it his retirement project to
Speaker 1: create the first ever theme park. Now, he lived near
Speaker 1: a tiny town called Santa Claus, Indiana. I know we've
Speaker 1: talked about Santa Claus, Indiana before, but as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: children from all of the world would visit the town
Speaker 1: in hopes of meeting Santa. Of course, they then only
Speaker 1: leave disappointed when they discovered old Saint Nick did not,
Speaker 1: in fact, spend his offseason in the rural Midwest. For
Speaker 1: some reason, does in vacation in the midst which is
Speaker 1: you know, that's funny, Like I had heard of Santa
Speaker 1: claus Land and heard of Santa Claus, Indiana, but I
Speaker 1: never knew the two were connected. But I'm curious, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't understand why parents would make that track. It
Speaker 1: seems crazy. Well either way, Louis Coke was the father
Speaker 1: of nine, so the thought of all those disappointed kids
Speaker 1: coming to town it really got to him. He'd always
Speaker 1: wanted to build an amusement park, and so in nineteen
Speaker 1: forty six, this was nine years before Disneyland would open
Speaker 1: to the public, Coke introduced the world to Santa Claus.
Speaker 1: I love that the first theme park has like the
Speaker 1: narrowest theme imaginable. I'd say it was pretty on the
Speaker 1: nose as a theme, but still groundbreaking as a concept.
Speaker 1: I mean, there had been tons of amusement parks before,
Speaker 1: but nothing quite like Santa claus Lands, which also seems
Speaker 1: a little crazy because the concept of like public amusement
Speaker 1: like that goes back all the way to the Renaissance.
Speaker 1: That's when a pleasure gardens started popping up on the
Speaker 1: grounds of English inns and taverns. Yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: somehow an amusement park with a dedicated theme had it
Speaker 1: really had never been done before, and thankfully the idea
Speaker 1: proved a huge hit with the public, and the Coke
Speaker 1: family was able to expand the park's theme in the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, and this allowed them to include areas themed
Speaker 1: around other holidays, so not just Christmas, but Thanksgiving, Halloween,
Speaker 1: fourth of July. It seems like such a strange place,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, But seventy one years later
Speaker 1: the park is still open for business. Then now it
Speaker 1: goes by the more inclusive name Holiday World. I like
Speaker 1: the Holiday World. It's so more smarter than like just
Speaker 1: hanging out with Santa, which you can do at any
Speaker 1: local mall. By the way, speaking of holidays, do you
Speaker 1: know that John D. Rockefeller used to celebrate a personal
Speaker 1: holiday every year called Job Day. It was the anniversary
Speaker 1: of the day he got his first job at sixteen,
Speaker 1: and he considered it way more important than any other
Speaker 1: day in his calendar. How well, I don't think I've
Speaker 1: seen any job Day land theme parks, but I agree
Speaker 1: with you it's it's better to have a broad and
Speaker 1: more universal concept. And you know, and thinking about all
Speaker 1: of this, I'm really curious about the decision making that
Speaker 1: goes into planning a theme park, Like, you know, how
Speaker 1: do you settle on a theme or decide what kind
Speaker 1: of attraction to use for for any of these given concepts. Well,
Speaker 1: how about we got David Younger on the line and
Speaker 1: see if he can walk us through that. Okay, Bengo. So,
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago we did an episode on World Records,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure if Guinness keeps up with a
Speaker 1: world record on the person who has interviewed the most
Speaker 1: theme park designers in the world, but if they did,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure we may be talking to the person
Speaker 1: who would take that crown. He's the author of really
Speaker 1: the the Ultimate Guide on designing Theme Parks. He spoke
Speaker 1: to thousands of designers, engineers, creatives and others during the
Speaker 1: project and the book is called Theme Park Design and
Speaker 1: the Art of Themed Entertainment. So, David Younger, welcome to
Speaker 1: part Time Genius. Thank you very much for having me. So, David,
Speaker 1: I've read this was a massive project and it took
Speaker 1: four years to complete. How did theme park design become
Speaker 1: a passion of yours, well, Rudy. For me, it's been
Speaker 1: something that I've been interested in ever since I was
Speaker 1: a kid. And it's like I was the kid that
Speaker 1: was playing roller coaster Tycoon NonStop, designing all all the
Speaker 1: different things. And so I knew I wanted to go
Speaker 1: into team time design. The only trouble was that there
Speaker 1: aren't design courses or the worms of the time. And
Speaker 1: so I went into film and said, and I realized
Speaker 1: that you can get hundreds of books on screenwriting and
Speaker 1: directing and editing for films, but nothing existed for for
Speaker 1: theme parks. So I kind of realized if I wanted
Speaker 1: to learn this myself and I wanted to buy this book,
Speaker 1: you didn't exist. I thought I'd have to write it myself.
Speaker 1: Well that's terrific. Now in the book, you talk about
Speaker 1: three types of theme park guests and describe them as
Speaker 1: world travelers, character huggers, and thrill seekers. And I was
Speaker 1: curious to talk first about that that first group. These
Speaker 1: world travelers. Now, these are the ones that you describe
Speaker 1: as is liking to be, you know, transported to another world.
Speaker 1: That that feels so convincing that you almost believe you're
Speaker 1: really there, and and I'm curious for you. You know
Speaker 1: what parks stand out as the best in the world
Speaker 1: are doing exactly that well. If you look at the
Speaker 1: different theme parks around the world, there are actually a
Speaker 1: number of different styles of design that the theme parks use.
Speaker 1: The best way of thinking about this is to compare Epic,
Speaker 1: for example, to The Magic Kingdom, where the Magic Kingdom,
Speaker 1: you're asked Tom kind of buy into this idea that
Speaker 1: you really are in the American West, or you really
Speaker 1: are in a fairy tale village. Whereas you compare that
Speaker 1: to Epcot, where you'll go on something alike, uh, the
Speaker 1: Universe of Energy, which is where you're not really in
Speaker 1: any time or place. You've just been kind of talked
Speaker 1: about a talt about energy and these parks like The
Speaker 1: Magic Kingdom that that try to convince you that you're
Speaker 1: really in another time, another time and place. It's all
Speaker 1: new traditional style parks, and really the best of that
Speaker 1: is definitely going to be Disney. I mean value of
Speaker 1: the people that invented it back in the nineteen fifties
Speaker 1: and they're still doing absolutely brilliantly today. But as well
Speaker 1: as a universal studios um it was kind of going
Speaker 1: for a postmodern type park in but ever Harry Potter opened,
Speaker 1: They're going for this place you in the world, convince
Speaker 1: you you're really their approach. I'm curious to hear you
Speaker 1: know where you see this this industry going. Obviously, there's
Speaker 1: been incredible evolution over the past couple of decades. What
Speaker 1: do you see changing or what do you see emerging
Speaker 1: in the world of theme parks and theme park design
Speaker 1: in the next couple of decades. Well, the main thing
Speaker 1: is how much theme parks are willing to commit to
Speaker 1: fully immersing you within, particularly intellectual properties like Star Wars
Speaker 1: and an Avatar and Harry Potter. So, for example, whereas
Speaker 1: twenty years ago Disney might get the licensed to build
Speaker 1: a Star Wars to put Star Wars into their theme parks,
Speaker 1: and they'll build one ride, now twenty years later they'll
Speaker 1: build an entire land and four attractions all Star Wars
Speaker 1: themes into it, as well as Star Wars themes, restaurants
Speaker 1: and Star Wars themes hotels and Stellars them shops. It's
Speaker 1: also becoming more personal, particularly with video games kind of
Speaker 1: threatening wity to step into a world. Theme parks have
Speaker 1: been trying to found ways of immersing yourself more and
Speaker 1: more um and one of the best ways of doing
Speaker 1: that is using new technology like the ones at the
Speaker 1: Whisping World of Harry potter Um where you actually get
Speaker 1: to cast your and spell within the environment. And that's
Speaker 1: something that hasn't been done before. So we didn't episode
Speaker 1: on IKEA a few weeks ago and talked about the
Speaker 1: thought that goes into the flow of the store, and
Speaker 1: I was curious if you could talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about like how that works for theme parks. So we've
Speaker 1: theme parks before. The theme parks are invented their where's
Speaker 1: kind of the state fairs and amusement parks like Coney Island.
Speaker 1: Their typical layout was just a grid layout, so you
Speaker 1: have intersections with the rides in the middle, and it
Speaker 1: was a really an interesting layout to walk around. It
Speaker 1: wasn't the most efficient way of laying things out, and
Speaker 1: so when dissee Land was designed in they decided, well,
Speaker 1: Disney decided to try something different and that's what invented
Speaker 1: the hubband spoke layout. So in the hubband spoke layout,
Speaker 1: you have a plaza at the middle with the castle
Speaker 1: and then you have radial walkways spanning out into the
Speaker 1: different them lands, and by doing that you kind of
Speaker 1: contain the theme lands into their particular areas, so you
Speaker 1: can create immersion and everything like that. And also it's
Speaker 1: a much easier way of finding your your way around
Speaker 1: around the park. But then within that you also have
Speaker 1: you've got to get the guests to move around within
Speaker 1: the park, so you you have the engines of movements
Speaker 1: that Team park Design is used. And there are two
Speaker 1: main ones. Okay, the first one is the weenie, which
Speaker 1: is an odd term, but basically a weenie is a
Speaker 1: visual magnet. It's something that you see in the descent
Speaker 1: and you go, wow, that looks interesting. I want to
Speaker 1: learn more about that, and so you walk towards it.
Speaker 1: And the best example of that is obviously the Castle
Speaker 1: on Main Street USA. You go through the gates at Disneyland,
Speaker 1: you see the castle and you immediately want to walk
Speaker 1: up to and and and and see what's see what's
Speaker 1: down there. And similarly at Digital and Paris Dislam Paris
Speaker 1: is the first part where not only did they use
Speaker 1: a weenie at the end of the Main Street USA,
Speaker 1: but they put we need into every single laps, so
Speaker 1: when you're in the hub, you could look towards Discovery
Speaker 1: Land and see space mountains, you can look towards Frontier
Speaker 1: Land and see Biggs under Mantain, and every which everywhere
Speaker 1: you look, you have this this visual icon pulling you
Speaker 1: towards it. But then the second term, which is the
Speaker 1: one that's used in shopping walls, is the anchor h
Speaker 1: So in shopping malls, you'll kind of typically find that
Speaker 1: the biggest store to pay at the extremities of the mall,
Speaker 1: and then all of the smaller shops and the boutiques
Speaker 1: shops and the independent shops place in between at the
Speaker 1: anchor stores. So that guests we'll go to an anchor store,
Speaker 1: then they'll go to the next anchor store, and on
Speaker 1: the way they'll see these other shops along the way
Speaker 1: and go, oh, I'll have a look in here. David,
Speaker 1: this has been fascinating. I don't know about bangsh but
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get to another theme park. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure we'll have this on our minds when we
Speaker 1: are walking around the next theme park that we're in.
Speaker 1: But thanks so much for joining us on part time, genius.
Speaker 1: You're very welcome. You're listening to part time genius, and
Speaker 1: today we're talking about the big ideas behind theme parks.
Speaker 1: All right, Samga, what would you say if I told
Speaker 1: you that Disneyland was actually more real than the world
Speaker 1: outside it's gates. I mean, I'd probably say, you've gotten
Speaker 1: into that Uncle walk cool aid you mentioned earlier. Well,
Speaker 1: I know it's a pretty wild claim, but it's one
Speaker 1: that kept coming up and doing the research for this episode,
Speaker 1: so I started wondering if there was something to the
Speaker 1: idea of theme parks being you know, this heightened form
Speaker 1: of reality. And from what I can tell, the first
Speaker 1: person to suggest this might have actually been Walt Disney himself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm guessing Walt Disney was not biased at all. No,
Speaker 1: not at all, no way, no way was he biased. Well,
Speaker 1: but there is an interesting story here. And then the
Speaker 1: story goes that in the early days of the park,
Speaker 1: Walt once gave a private tour to the famous evangelist
Speaker 1: Billy Graham, and Graham walked around, thought it was nice,
Speaker 1: and he made some sort of comment that Disneyland was simply,
Speaker 1: you know, a nice fantasy, which which seems harmless enough, right. Well, well,
Speaker 1: Walt reportedly took this as this subtle dig against his park,
Speaker 1: and the implication being that it was somehow false and
Speaker 1: therefore maybe a waste of time. So Waltz clearly offended.
Speaker 1: Did he kick him out of the park. Well, not
Speaker 1: not exactly, but he did fire back with this passionate
Speaker 1: and honestly pretty shocking claim. So he told Graham, here
Speaker 1: here's the quote. He said, you know, fantasy isn't here.
Speaker 1: This is very real. The park is reality. The people
Speaker 1: are natural here, they're having a good time, they're communicating.
Speaker 1: This is what people really are. The fantasy is it's
Speaker 1: out there outside the gates of Disneyland, where people have
Speaker 1: hatreds and people have prejudices. It's not really real. Disney
Speaker 1: sounds so, but you said, other people made similar claims
Speaker 1: to Yeah, and you know one of the most prominent
Speaker 1: to do so was the Italian novelist and essayist Umberto Echo.
Speaker 1: It was the mid nineteen seventies and Echo went on
Speaker 1: what he described as a pilgrimage in search of hyper reality,
Speaker 1: or the world of the absolute fake is. This basically
Speaker 1: means he tooled around the US for a year. He
Speaker 1: was touring and critiquing these popular tourist spots that housed
Speaker 1: artistic reproductions or historical recreations, and all these other examples
Speaker 1: of faux reality. So you know, even things like wax
Speaker 1: museums and the Western theme towns. But of course he
Speaker 1: also visited America's top two fake cities, being Disneyland and
Speaker 1: California and Disney World in Florida. So it sounds like
Speaker 1: Echo is sort of skeptical of America's fascination with fantasy.
Speaker 1: How does he bind up concluding our theme parks are
Speaker 1: more real than the real world. Well, it goes back
Speaker 1: to this idea of hyper reality. You know that the
Speaker 1: idea that simulation provides the ultimate expression of the thing
Speaker 1: it represents. And it's a little heavy here, but just
Speaker 1: to explain it, so, so think about the Jungle Cruise
Speaker 1: ride in the adventure Land section of the park. That's
Speaker 1: the one where you take a boat ride down this
Speaker 1: you know, several South American rivers, and the skipper there
Speaker 1: at the helm makes you know all these bad animal puns.
Speaker 1: And Echo writes about the ride and says, when there's
Speaker 1: a fake a hippopotamus, dinosaur, a sea serpent, it's not
Speaker 1: so much because it wouldn't be possible to have the
Speaker 1: real equivalent, but because the public is meant to admire
Speaker 1: the perfection of the fake and its obedience to the program.
Speaker 1: In this sense, Disneyland not only produces illusion, but in confessing,
Speaker 1: it stimulates the desire for it. A real crocodile can
Speaker 1: be found in a zoo, and as a rule, it's
Speaker 1: you know, dozing or hiding. But Disneyland tells us that
Speaker 1: fake nature corresponds much more to our daydream demands. He
Speaker 1: goes on to say, you risk feeling homesick for Disneyland,
Speaker 1: where the wild animals don't have to be coaxed. Disneyland
Speaker 1: tells us that technology can give us more reality than
Speaker 1: nature can. And that's some deep stuff. And it actually
Speaker 1: reminds me of something I read about how really well
Speaker 1: manning here gardens for once destination spots for tourists, like
Speaker 1: long before mechanical attractions caught on. In a weird way,
Speaker 1: they almost seem like precursors to theme parks, at least
Speaker 1: given that idea of hyper reality you're talking about, how
Speaker 1: do you figure that well gardens like a little microcosm.
Speaker 1: It's this idealized take on nature. And and so if
Speaker 1: you think of a Japanese garden where you have rocks
Speaker 1: and water plants, ornaments, miniature pagoda to like, we arranged
Speaker 1: these elements as we please to to create our own
Speaker 1: little oasis, a small piece of land that's meant to
Speaker 1: represent the best parts of the world outside of all right,
Speaker 1: I get that. And just like a theme park, this
Speaker 1: elaborate gardens drives to mimic something about the real world,
Speaker 1: and of course by softening the edges and being really
Speaker 1: selective about what's included, and the result winds up feeling
Speaker 1: like something unique altogether. And it's it's not quite fake,
Speaker 1: but not altogether real either, Yeah, hyper real. But but
Speaker 1: here's the thing that the kinds of gardens people cultivate
Speaker 1: are usually reflections on the cultures to which they belong.
Speaker 1: So for for example, French gardens tend to idealize the
Speaker 1: symmetry and and orally rose to to reflect man's mastery
Speaker 1: of nature, while many English gardens do the opposite. So
Speaker 1: what exactly do our theme parks say about who we
Speaker 1: are as a people? Well, I mean, I'd kind of
Speaker 1: like to think it says something about us being a
Speaker 1: culture of dreamers. You know that we draw on timeless
Speaker 1: stories to make sense of the world and maybe even
Speaker 1: add meaning to our lives. And you know, although I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's a cynical answer about consumerism that others would
Speaker 1: offer as well, like the idealized version of Land full
Speaker 1: of Santa Claus is right, maybe that, But I'm with you.
Speaker 1: Let's take the high road on this one. After all,
Speaker 1: will be in good company if we do. Um, because
Speaker 1: you know, Ray Bradberry himself leave this all right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually saw this as well. So Bradberry was one
Speaker 1: of Disney's most outspoken fans, right, yeah, definitely so. In fact,
Speaker 1: when a nine article in the Nation denounced Disneyland as
Speaker 1: vulgar entertainment on the same level as like Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: Bradberry basically published a piece and Holiday magazine entitled The
Speaker 1: Machine Tooled Happy Land, and in it he sets the
Speaker 1: record straight on why intellectuals or anyone else for that matter,
Speaker 1: shouldn't be ashamed to visit the happiest place on Earth.
Speaker 1: And in particular, Bradberry praised Disney's breakthrough an audio animatronics,
Speaker 1: which he saw is the next best thing to creating
Speaker 1: life itself. Really wow, he went pretty far with this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you should hear this quote, So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: read it to you. Only a few hundred years ago,
Speaker 1: all this would have been considered blasphemous. To create man
Speaker 1: is not man's business, but God's. Disney and every technician
Speaker 1: with him would have been bundled and burned at the
Speaker 1: stake in six hundred, which is true, right, But this
Speaker 1: is what he continues. But but the fact remains that
Speaker 1: Disney is the first to make a robot that is
Speaker 1: convincingly real, that looks, speaks, and acts like a man.
Speaker 1: He has set the history of humanized robots on its
Speaker 1: way towards wider, more fantastic excursions. Wow. So, so you've
Speaker 1: got this science fiction writer who was seeing things he'd
Speaker 1: only dreamed of in his stories taking shape in in
Speaker 1: real life. Right, and and he's just awed by the possibilities.
Speaker 1: He even goes on to describe this future in which
Speaker 1: these robots sort of affirmed the truth of history and
Speaker 1: make it real to people in a way that simply
Speaker 1: reading about it always falls short. It's a really poetic
Speaker 1: notion about these future robot museums where, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to quote again, we may begin to believe in every
Speaker 1: one of men's many million days upon this earth for
Speaker 1: these students, it will not be history was, but history is. Well,
Speaker 1: that's definitely an interesting idea, and it's kind of like
Speaker 1: Bradbury also recognized the hyper reality of these theme parks,
Speaker 1: but rather than viewing that as a negative, he you know,
Speaker 1: he saw it as a way to reinforce truths of
Speaker 1: about history and the world itself. I guess yeah, you
Speaker 1: can really tell why Bradbury saw a fellow futurist in
Speaker 1: Walt Disney like they were both unceasingly optimistic about what
Speaker 1: mankind could achieve. And I don't want to lean too
Speaker 1: heavily on his essay, but but there's one more section
Speaker 1: that really captures what a theme park can be at
Speaker 1: its best, So I'll go ahead and read it here.
Speaker 1: Quote in Disneyland, while has proven again that the first
Speaker 1: function of architecture is to make men over, make them
Speaker 1: wish to go on living, feed them fresh oxygen, grow
Speaker 1: them tall, to light their eyes, make them kind. Disneyland
Speaker 1: liberates men to be their better selves, and he continues,
Speaker 1: here you will see the happy faces of people. I
Speaker 1: don't mean dumb cluck happy. I don't mean men's club
Speaker 1: happy or sewing circle. Happy, I mean truly happy, and
Speaker 1: I've got to keep going because it's so good. No
Speaker 1: beat Nix here, No cool people with cool faces pretending
Speaker 1: not to care, thus swindling themselves out of life or
Speaker 1: any chance for life. Disneyland cause you to care all
Speaker 1: over again. You feel it's the first you feel. It's
Speaker 1: the first day in the spring of that special year,
Speaker 1: when when you've discovered you were really alive. No cool
Speaker 1: people with cool faces in Disney World. That's pretty great.
Speaker 1: I'd say that's pretty much the definition of a ringing endorsement.
Speaker 1: I honestly, I'm not even sure how to respond to that. Well,
Speaker 1: the ideal of response would probably be to make a
Speaker 1: bee line for Disneyland. But since we're the middle of
Speaker 1: an episode, how about we just break for a quiz.
Speaker 1: Our next guest is a super fan of theme parks
Speaker 1: and has turned his reporting and trip planning into a
Speaker 1: really successful career as the founder and editor of Theme
Speaker 1: Park Insider. Robert Niles. Welcome to part time Genius. Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. It's great to be here. Great. Well, so, Robert,
Speaker 1: I was curious, was there a theme park experience or
Speaker 1: just some specific theme park that really sparked this passion
Speaker 1: of yours. Well, I'm a Los Angeles native, so my
Speaker 1: kids hauled me down to Annaheim to visit Disneyland a
Speaker 1: lot when I was a kid. But really maybe the
Speaker 1: thing that turned me onto this was when we visited
Speaker 1: Universal Studios Hollywood back when it was just the Universal
Speaker 1: Studio Tour and I was about six years old or something,
Speaker 1: but I got picked to be one of those audience volunteers,
Speaker 1: and so I was the freckle faced little kid in
Speaker 1: the Rice the Fake Race Rice Serroni commercial that they
Speaker 1: taped on the back lot back then. I'm just like, well,
Speaker 1: this is kind of cool. I could be part of
Speaker 1: the show. So um. That always kind of stuck with me.
Speaker 1: And then when I was in college, I started working
Speaker 1: at Walt disney World during the summers, and that just
Speaker 1: really cemented it. So I've been a just a huge
Speaker 1: theme park fan ever since. Do you have a favorite
Speaker 1: weird theme park or just a favorite theme park overall? Oh? Wow,
Speaker 1: I mean I think my favorite theme park would be
Speaker 1: Tokyo Disney Sea in Japan. Just an absolutely lovely parket
Speaker 1: shows to what you can do with a budget of
Speaker 1: several billion dollars. Um. But in terms of like a
Speaker 1: little fun, quirky parks, I'm a real fan of Holiday World,
Speaker 1: which is located in the tiny town of Santa Claus
Speaker 1: in the Anna. Um. It's just this wonderful points uh park,
Speaker 1: really out in the middle of the cornfield someplace. But
Speaker 1: it's got some really great World Clash roller coasters there,
Speaker 1: and you've got a really fun crew of sands the
Speaker 1: show up at this place. It's not like this is
Speaker 1: just a park out in the suburbs and everybody who
Speaker 1: live there comes in. If you're going to Santa Claus, Indiana,
Speaker 1: you're a dedicated theme park fan. It's just nice to
Speaker 1: be around a bunch of other theme park geeks like
Speaker 1: me whenever I visit. That's so nice to hear because
Speaker 1: we we've actually read about it and and talked about
Speaker 1: it a little on the show, but to hear that
Speaker 1: it's like a real park for enthusiasts is pretty great. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's uh, that's great. Well, what about some favorite attractions,
Speaker 1: just favorite oddball attractions you've seen, you know, at different parks. Um. Actually,
Speaker 1: I'll talk about one that I haven't seen yet, but
Speaker 1: one of our writers just just went on it's at
Speaker 1: this park in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado, This Glenwood Canyon Adventure Park,
Speaker 1: and they've built a rock ride, except that when you
Speaker 1: typically think of drop ride, it's a big tower where
Speaker 1: you go up a couple hundred feet in the air
Speaker 1: and when you drop back to the ground. This is
Speaker 1: seemed to be a mind drop ride, and it's actually
Speaker 1: in a mind so you enter on the ground and
Speaker 1: then you drop down into a hole, which just sounds
Speaker 1: like that could be a huge phobia trigger for a
Speaker 1: lot of which of course makes it that much more
Speaker 1: fun for everybody else. Um, but that's a that's a
Speaker 1: quirky little park that it doesn't mean it's not like
Speaker 1: a Disney park or anything. You didn't tiny attendance. But
Speaker 1: they've got stuff like a roller coaster that's perched on
Speaker 1: the edge of a thousand foot cliffs and all of
Speaker 1: these things that are a little bit extreme for a
Speaker 1: theme park attraction. So that's that's moved up high on
Speaker 1: my two new Bucket list of places to go visit.
Speaker 1: Are there any pet teams you'd love to see developed
Speaker 1: into a park? Oh wow? Um? Yeah, I mean the
Speaker 1: first thing everybody always says is that everybody want Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings of the Park because you know, just
Speaker 1: a huge ike. But um, you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: parks have developed these kind of video game based shooter
Speaker 1: rides now like you see it, it does light You're
Speaker 1: at Disney and Men in Black, Universal and Justice League
Speaker 1: at six Flags. But so there's a desire to do
Speaker 1: something that's interactive. So I think, um, one thing, I'd
Speaker 1: really like to see some type of thing where it's
Speaker 1: it's almost like you're in the Game of Blue or something.
Speaker 1: You have to solve some sort of mystery in order
Speaker 1: to advance into the attraction of that sort of gameplay
Speaker 1: could be a lot of fun in a team park attraction. Definitely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's pretty great. Well, we we we appreciate you're
Speaker 1: telling us all about these parks, but we can't let
Speaker 1: you go without putting you to the test. So, so
Speaker 1: what game are we playing with Robert today, Mango, We're
Speaker 1: playing a little game called roller Coaster or Discontinued Superhero?
Speaker 1: All right, that's right, So this is simple. We're going
Speaker 1: to give you a name and you tell us whether
Speaker 1: it's a roller coaster or a discontinued Superhero. Are you ready?
Speaker 1: Why not? Both maybe should be here we go. Number one,
Speaker 1: Bouncing Boy. I'm going to guess that's a discontinued superhero. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a really dumb discontinued superhero. Bouncing boys. Big skill
Speaker 1: was that he turned into a bouncing ball. I don't
Speaker 1: know I would have wanted to do that as a kid. Alright.
Speaker 1: Number two, he's one for one. Number two Steal Vengeance. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's definitely a roller coup. Actually going to be a
Speaker 1: roller coaster. Wow, well done if bonus points if you
Speaker 1: happen to know where this is going to be, that's
Speaker 1: a cedar point. Fantastic. Ohile, nicely done. He is an
Speaker 1: expert here. Okay, he's three for two. That's right. Number
Speaker 1: three Yank and Doodle. That's just awful. No matter what,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get superhero. Yeah. According to rancor dot
Speaker 1: COM's description, when they're together, they have superhero strength. When
Speaker 1: they're a part, they're just dude. Alright, alright. Number four
Speaker 1: King Dakah definitely roller coaster. Alright, bonus points for where
Speaker 1: it is. That would be at six Flags Trade Adventure
Speaker 1: in New Jersey. Nicely done. Number five The red Bee.
Speaker 1: The red Bee. That could go either way. Uh, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say just continued superhero again. Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: The red Be's power was that he was powerless, but
Speaker 1: he had to train b that he attacked people with.
Speaker 1: And that trained bee's name was Michael. Actually, you know what,
Speaker 1: there was one here for for for an even an
Speaker 1: additional bonus point. I thought this one was interesting. All right,
Speaker 1: here we go thunder Dolphin. Oh that's another one that's
Speaker 1: could go either way. Could be a roller coaster to
Speaker 1: SeaWorld Parks. Not familiar with which one, but let's say
Speaker 1: Woller Coaster. Yeah. So this is a Tokyo Dome city
Speaker 1: and this agile coaster dodges buildings and threads the needle
Speaker 1: through a giant ferris wheel. All right, nicely done. So
Speaker 1: how's Robert done today? Mango? He's got an incredible seven
Speaker 1: for six, which has never happened on a show before.
Speaker 1: It's a record. So what is Robert? Yeah, he earns
Speaker 1: a note to his mom or boss singing his praises,
Speaker 1: So congratulations Robert. All right, Well, if you guys are
Speaker 1: thinking about attending a theme park, you should check out
Speaker 1: theme Park Insider. Robert. Thanks for joining us on part
Speaker 1: time genius. Thanks for having me. Okay, so we had
Speaker 1: a pretty heavy discussion earlier about hyper reality and theme
Speaker 1: parks and you know, even Disneyland's role as this you
Speaker 1: might say, a technological steward of history. But but what
Speaker 1: do you say we could keep things a little bit
Speaker 1: lighter in this last segment, Mango all, I'm all for it.
Speaker 1: I was actually thinking we could just go back and
Speaker 1: forth with some of the lesser known theme parks we
Speaker 1: came across during our research. I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but the ones that really grabbed my attention where these random,
Speaker 1: like oddball parks with with all these themes that are
Speaker 1: definitely not Disney. All right, sure, I'm up for that, soap.
Speaker 1: So what are you thinking of? First? Well, some of
Speaker 1: the weirdest theme parks I came across, where where these
Speaker 1: kids Zania Family Entertainment centers. They're they're basically indoor kids
Speaker 1: sized replica cities, complete with miniature of vehicles and buildings
Speaker 1: like hospitals, shops, banks, restaurants, and even a tiny airport.
Speaker 1: And the ideas that kids can gain valuable life experience
Speaker 1: by taking part in twenty five minute career based role playing.
Speaker 1: Oh god, yeah, it gets worse. So, so kids get
Speaker 1: a chance to try their hand at lofty job assignments
Speaker 1: such as performing surgery or piloting an aircraft, as well
Speaker 1: as more menial tasks like that you find them, like
Speaker 1: changing attire or working in a Coca Cola bottling plan.
Speaker 1: It's like the worst theme park ever, man, what is
Speaker 1: what exactly is the theme? Is it adulthood or just
Speaker 1: monotony or what? Well, you haven't even heard the best
Speaker 1: part yet. So kids learned the value of their labor
Speaker 1: by earning kids. Those the official currency of kids Zania,
Speaker 1: and they can accrue interest when deposited in the kids
Speaker 1: Zanian Bank. Gosh, oh wow, All right, well that that's
Speaker 1: pretty bleak, but I actually still think I can top that.
Speaker 1: So last fall, the UK was home to a theme
Speaker 1: park based entirely on the literary works of Charles Dickens.
Speaker 1: It was called Dickens World, and the park offered this
Speaker 1: interactive tour through the drab buildings and grimy cobblestone streets
Speaker 1: of old Victorian London. They even boasted about this Greater
Speaker 1: Expectations themed water run, and sadly the whole thing went
Speaker 1: belly up. Though this was last October because the company
Speaker 1: behind the park declared itself insolvent and talking about the
Speaker 1: worst of times. Oh man, that should have been job. Still,
Speaker 1: if we're going for bleak, you'll want to check out
Speaker 1: Survival Drama in Lithuania. And while not a park, per say,
Speaker 1: it's the world's premier themed attraction for those looking to
Speaker 1: experience what life was like for a citizen of the
Speaker 1: USSR during the nineteen eighties. So the whole ordeal starts
Speaker 1: when guests are ambushed by the Red Army in the
Speaker 1: middle of a forest, and and and then they're transported
Speaker 1: to a former Soviet bunk here in the eastern European
Speaker 1: country side, and it only gets worse like from there.
Speaker 1: It's a brisk three hours of underground tunnels, barking dogs,
Speaker 1: verbal abuse, humiliation, coercion, and even propaganda screening sproadly, And
Speaker 1: it's all followed by a celebratory tin of beef and
Speaker 1: a shot of vodka to to wash the taste of
Speaker 1: totalitarian regime from your mouth. For the kids, right, it's horrible.
Speaker 1: I honestly don't know what's worse that something like this
Speaker 1: is legal, or that people actually pay to be a
Speaker 1: part of it. I know, it sounds like the worst
Speaker 1: vacation ever. But but according to the theater producer behind
Speaker 1: the attraction, that's kind of the point. Like in an
Speaker 1: interview with The Daily Mail, she said, quote, it's not
Speaker 1: for everyone, but these days children must learn that it's
Speaker 1: not a laughing matter. Many understand what it was like.
Speaker 1: They should realize how much progress there's been over the
Speaker 1: past seventeen years, Like how they have vacation time to
Speaker 1: learn these lessons. But I guess in a way that's
Speaker 1: kind of admirable. But but we're supposed to be keeping
Speaker 1: things light in this last section. So did you you know,
Speaker 1: did you come across any lesser known parks that aren't
Speaker 1: completely mortifying? Yeah? So one of the coolest parks I
Speaker 1: found is called Efteling World of Wonders. It's this amazing
Speaker 1: a hundred eight a theme park in Amsterdam, and it's
Speaker 1: consistently ranked one of the best in all of Europe.
Speaker 1: And in fact, Efteling is unbelievably popular. It's one of
Speaker 1: the few non Disney, non universal parks to crack the
Speaker 1: top twenty five highest attended theme parks in the world. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's pretty impressive. So what's the theme for the park.
Speaker 1: I mean that that's the cool thing. Though the whole
Speaker 1: park is based on classic fairy tales and folklore, so elves, gnomes,
Speaker 1: fairies and like and and even though there's some thematic
Speaker 1: crossover between this one and the Disney parks there, there's
Speaker 1: a much tighter focus on tradition and storytelling at Efteling.
Speaker 1: So it's I don't know, kind of a less commercialized
Speaker 1: theme park. Maybe, yeah, kind of. I mean there are shops,
Speaker 1: to be sure, but but they aren't as central a
Speaker 1: focus as they would be in any American theme park,
Speaker 1: which is all the more impressive when you consider the
Speaker 1: cutting edge ride technology and and the lavishly detailed theming
Speaker 1: found throughout the park. You get the feeling the designers
Speaker 1: didn't have to make a whole lot of compromises in
Speaker 1: order to save a few pennies or squeezing another storefront,
Speaker 1: and the results this really classy theme park. You know,
Speaker 1: before the episode, I probably would have considered a classy
Speaker 1: theme park to be an oxy moron, But you know,
Speaker 1: looking into all the philosophy at the root of these experiences,
Speaker 1: I guess I feel kind of differently now. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: all fun and games until someone has an existential crisis
Speaker 1: on Space Mountain. Right, I'll try to hold yourself together, man,
Speaker 1: go at least long enough for this episode's fact off. Okay,
Speaker 1: so why don't you pick this one off? All right?
Speaker 1: I can do that. So, um, did you know that
Speaker 1: Freud and Young visited Dreamland and Coney Island together? It's
Speaker 1: it's actually true. And when they did, supposedly, Freud told
Speaker 1: Young that Coney Island was the only part of America
Speaker 1: that interesting. So this is about Walt Disney, and it's
Speaker 1: the fact I always think about whenever I hear his name.
Speaker 1: If visitors came to visit Walt Disney, he'd serve them
Speaker 1: tomato juice, and he'd be furious if they refused to
Speaker 1: drink it. In fact, a secretary would even warn people
Speaker 1: that it was best to just accept it before they
Speaker 1: walked in. I had actually heard that fact before. But
Speaker 1: but speaking of Disney, one of my favorite parks. And
Speaker 1: I don't know why I included this fact because I
Speaker 1: have the hardest time saying this word. But it's the
Speaker 1: Beijing jing Shan Amusement Park. It sounds fun to say,
Speaker 1: it is so hard to say, And and mental flaws
Speaker 1: dubbed this the copyright and fringiest place on Earth. And
Speaker 1: although park has been sued several times and often had
Speaker 1: to take down statues, it's happily filled with rip off
Speaker 1: animated characters and landmarks that looks so much like these
Speaker 1: Disney characters. And oddly enough, this is something they've embraced
Speaker 1: in their advertising. You know what their old slogan was,
Speaker 1: It was Disney is too far to go, Please come
Speaker 1: to she Jing Shan. I think I said so. One
Speaker 1: of my favorite theme park thrills to read about was
Speaker 1: this park called crocoss Us Cove in Darwin, Australia, and
Speaker 1: they have something that's way scarier than any roller coaster.
Speaker 1: It's called the Cage of Death, and so you're getting
Speaker 1: this little acrylic tank wuity which they then submerge in
Speaker 1: water and you end up right next to the sixteen
Speaker 1: foot crocodile. It sounds terrifying, but Crocostaurs Cove isn't a
Speaker 1: one trick pony, and it also has the largest display
Speaker 1: of Australian rough piles anywhere. Wow, that is crazy. All right. Well,
Speaker 1: while we're on the topic of our favorite weird theme parks,
Speaker 1: one of these days I really want to go to
Speaker 1: a place called bon Bon Land, which is just an
Speaker 1: hour or so away from Copenhagen and Denmark. And so
Speaker 1: you know, you know, we like to credit Harry Potter
Speaker 1: with popularizing all those nasty flavored jelly beans, from toe
Speaker 1: jam to stinky cheese and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But this park is the home of a candy factory
Speaker 1: that's been making disgusting confections like ear wax, seagull droppings,
Speaker 1: and dog farts since the eighties. And in the early
Speaker 1: nineties they decided to open a theme park there. And
Speaker 1: and I know my son would die to go to
Speaker 1: this place because they have one ride that's called the
Speaker 1: dog Farting roller Coaster. Do you get to travel through
Speaker 1: lots of poop and enjoy the accompanying soundtrack. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: as we always say on the show, no matter how
Speaker 1: old you get, dog farts are always funny. It's true.
Speaker 1: I can't beat that. I'm gonna give you this week's trophy.
Speaker 1: You congrats, well, thanks so much, and don't forget to
Speaker 1: write to us at part time genius at how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com or call us on the seven Fact hotline.
Speaker 1: That's one eight four four pt Genius. You can share
Speaker 1: a fact or tell us why we should have you
Speaker 1: on to play a quiz sometime. Thanks for listening, Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of
Speaker 1: how stuff works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant
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Speaker 1: to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown
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Speaker 1: We forget Jason? Jason who