Most of us have probably been in a slump lately and in need of some good, uplifting news. So Glasgow said: "Hold my jelly beans." The immersive Willy Wonka Experience that went viral last week has been an excellent source of entertainment for people across all social media platforms. And while it wasn't so fun for the actors involved or the people who bought tickets for $40, the level of absurdity kind of does make one chuckle nonetheless.
For those unaware, we're talking about the Willy Wonka "immersive experience" (the event even has its own Wikipedia page!). It's the scam that involved an AI-generated script, a partially decorated warehouse, half cups of lemonade and two jelly beans for the kids, the sad Oompa Loompa, and the unforgettable character "The Unknown," who supposedly even has its own horror movie coming out in 2024.
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This is how the organizers advertised the event
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Image credits: willyschocolateexperience
Image credits: willyschocolateexperience
Image credits: willyschocolateexperience
But what should have been a magical experience turned out to be a sad, partially decorated warehouse
Image credits: momentsmediauk
Image credits: momentsmediauk
This TikTok sums up the fiasco pretty well
One of the parents who attended the now-infamous event, Stuart Sinclair, shared some pictures on Facebook
Image credits: Stuart Sinclair
Image credits: Stuart Sinclair
Image credits: Stuart Sinclair
Image credits: Stuart Sinclair
Here are some more pictures from the 'magical experience'
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Image credits: momentsmediauk
Image credits: CultureCrave
Image credits: CultureCrave
Image credits: Good Morning Britain
In short, the whole story goes like this: tickets for an immersive "Willy's Chocolate Experience" went online, and people rushed to buy them. The ads promised "an adventure brimming with magical creations," but when people arrived, what they saw was a huge disappointment.
You can see from the pictures that the whole event was a low-budget and low-effort scam. One of the parents who bought tickets and attended it, Stuart Sinclair, wrote on Facebook: "What an absolute shambles of an event." He detailed how his kids got two jelly beans each and half a cup of lemonade. "Never seen anything like it, was [definitely] an 'experience,'" the man wrote.
Image credits: Stuart Sinclair
Another parent, Alana Lockens, shared with The New York Times how she had some doubts before the event. Apparently, after she bought the tickets, the organizers updated the website with a legal warning that claimed the event was in no way related to the Wonka franchise owned by Warner Bros.
When she arrived at the event, she was somewhat relieved that there was actually 'an experience' taking place. However, that relief was short-lived. "I can laugh about it now, but initially, I just thought it looked ridiculous. It was so poorly done, considering how much the tickets had cost us." Some parents even called the police, but they left shortly after.
The cherry on top: announcing the cancellation of the event with a piece of cardboard
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Both the organizers and the owners of the space where the 'Willy Experience' took place spoke out
The company that organized the event, House of Illuminati (the jokes write themselves at this point), issued an official apology. They wrote how sorry they were for the disappointment and promised to issue refunds to those who purchased tickets.
Box Hub, the event space in Glasgow where the "magical experience" took place, issued a statement too. "All comedy aside, we understand that many children and families were left disappointed after traveling from across the country for this event." They also put the now-infamous "Event Cancelled" cardboard sign up for auction on eBay and promised to donate the profits to the Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity.
Nobody was expecting Hugh Grant or Timothée Chalamet to show up, but the Walmart versions of the characters still left people disappointed
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Image credits: CultureCrave
Image credits: CultureCrave
The actors for "The Unknown" and an Oompa Loompa spoke out on TikTok
The actors have spoken out about the disastrous experience as well
The people playing the characters were victims of poor planning and a low budget and had to make do with what they had. Two of the actresses who played Oompa Loompas, Kirsty Paterson and Jenny Fogarty, went on to Good Morning Britain to tell their side of the story.
Kirsty said that the organizers gave the actors the script the night before. When they inquired about makeup (Oompa Loompas are orange, after all), the organizers told the actors to "improvise." The women spoke about how all the actors knew on the day of the event that nothing was going right, but they didn't want to disappoint the children.
One of the three Willy Wonkas broke his silence as well. 19-year-old Michael Archibald has spoken to Sky News and on his personal TikTok account about his experience as an actor for the event. “I thought it was where dreams went to die,” the actor said. He claims the actors didn't have any motivation as everything was "incredibly last minute," and the script was clearly not written by a person.
The AI-generated script is available to read online. And oh, excuse me, Willy Wonka's name here is actually Willy McDuff, and the Oompa Loompas are, in fact, Wonkidoodles. My mistake! Michael also told Sky News that the organizers scrapped the script on the day of the event and told the actors to "make things up."
Despite the many mishaps, Archibald tried to find the positive. "The kids were absolute wonders. They were just so lovely. They were wanting photos and were getting really excited. And I just wanted to make sure that I did my role as best as I could and make their day just that little bit better."
Image credits: CultureCrave
Who is this mysterious "The Unknown?"
Perhaps the character that has garnered the most interest from people on social media is The Unknown. The video where Wonka's actor introduces it with the words "What is that? It's The Unknown!" has gone viral and sparked countless memes and speculations about who was behind the mask. And no, it's not the "missing" Kate Middleton. The actor behind the character is 16-year-old Felicia. She made a few TikToks about her experience, answering frequently asked questions from people.
Felicia said that, according to the script, the character is a chocolate maker that "lives in the walls" (!?). Apparently, it's canon that this character is a lifelong nemesis of Willy's. There was even supposed to be a fight between them at the end, but the actor behind The Unknown said that this ending got scrapped.
The production didn't have a "giant hoover" that The Unknown could get sucked into after losing to the protagonist. Felicia said that this kind of ending just wasn't possible under the circumstances, even if it was in the script. "One of the organizers just told us: 'Just improv it. Just do what you want.' And me and the Willy Wonka were like: 'How can we do whatever we want for that?'" Felicia also said that this was her first-ever paid acting job.
There has been news that there's a horror movie in the works about The Unknown. I'd recommend taking the announcement with a grain of salt, as the production company that is supposedly distributing it doesn't seem entirely legitimate. However, even if it's not real, kudos to those who came up with it for their commitment to take the memery of this whole disaster to a whole new level.
Naturally, the Internet had a field day with this DashCon and Fyre Fest-level disaster
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