A musical satire inspired by the disastrous Willy Wonka event in Glasgow, with the unusual name of "Willy Fest," is in development, the BBC reports. The writing team was "assembled in less time than it takes for someone to sing the first verse of 'Oompa Loompa Doompa-Dee-Do'," producer Richard Kraft said. Kraft previously produced a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and the team for this project includes Emmy-nominated comedian Riki Lindhome and Broadway songwriters Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner. Here's more.
The story of it's failure will bring orders of magnitude more joy and to far more people than a properly done experience ever could have.
It's Fyre Festival for the rest of us. In side each of us is either The Unknown or Depressed Oompa Loompa. WE are the willy wonka experience. It disapoints because we disappoint ourselves. You wouldn't get it 🚬
Time to put another AI author on blast, this time it’s the person who made the AI Willy Wonka "Experience". If you’re unsure what I just said, a guy named Billy Coull created a Willy Wonka “Experience” and created the entire event using AI. It sounds weird and it looked bad. Here are some links to a few articles about him and the whole experience if you want a more in-depth look into this guy. I’m just the cliff notes.
Daily Mail "The face behind Willy Wonka 'scam': How Billy Coull 'conned' kids by using AI generated images to sell 'immersive' experience, sold Chat-GPT authored novels on Amazon, and faced backlash for cancelling Santa grotto"
There's not much I need to say about this guy which those articles haven't already covered. The dude loves AI, and everything he touches has AI in it. Down below is a screenshot of his website followed by his Amazon author page. If you see these books, stay away from them.
Ground Zero at the #Glasgow#Wonka debacle, powered by hubris, greed, and, naturally, #AI bollocks. A certain depressed #OompaLoompa spills the (jelly) beans:
"...I don’t know how else you can put sprinkles on shit, but we were trying to be the sprinkles on shit..."
A stand-up comedian hired to play Willy at Willy’s Chocolate Experience has spoken to the Independent about his experience. "They even misspelt my contract but I do have a legally binding ‘Coontract’," he said. He eventually left the event before it had finished, accompanied by two other Willy Wonkas and the nearest Oompa Loompas.
"Wonkidoodles at McDuff's Chocolate Factory: A Script”
Willy McDuff, a character of eccentric charm and wit, stands before the curtain that separates the mundane from the magical. The audience is buzzing with anticipation
Willy McDuff: (with a grandiose flourish) Ladies, gentlemen, and esteemed guests of all ages, welcome! I am Willy McDuff, your humble guide on this journey to the extraordinary, the spectacular, the downright magical Garden of Enchantment!
Police were called to a Willy Wonka event in Glasgow after angry parents demanded refunds of their £35 (US$44.37) fee. Organizers House of Illuminati had promised a "journey filled with wondrous creations and enchanting surprises at every turn" but discovered a sparse warehouse with a bouncy castle. The Independent has more.
Update: The organizers of Willy's Chocolate Experience may have used AI-generated images to advertise their event, which one attendee described as "like Willy Wonka from Temu." IGN has more.
@megsouth First thing that sprang to mind! Gizmodo juxtaposed the allegedly AI-generated ads and the reality. Just see if you can spot the difference 🤣
'Wonka' may make villains of big business, but at the same time glamorizes the status quo fantasy of a genius entrepreneur who harvests ingredients as a humble traveler. Back in reality his type is completely divorced from the laborers that make his dream possible.
I'm not sure I agree with the central concept of this, but
"Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a story about what happens when you willingly step into the fairy circle and engage with every single aspect of the territory beyond because you’re a child and none of your guardians were knowledgeable enough to tell you the rules. It’s about modernity coming up against things it no longer remembers or understands. It’s about the dangers of forgetting in a world that is rapidly filling up with distractions and frivolities."
is a great thought and one I want to revisit a few times.
Just realized tonight that the employment of Oompa Loompas in "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory" displaced an entire factory worth of workers, and cast Charlie's family into abject poverty--so much they all shared a bed and only had cabbage soup for food. 🤔
Seit Jahren mangelt es an öffentlichen #Investitionen. Hierbei erweist sich die #Schuldenbremse als gewaltiger Bremsklotz. Durch ihre Konstruktion wird sie den Anforderungen der Zukunft nicht gerecht. Ein dogmatisches Festhalten an ihr führt zu kostspieligen Langzeitschäden. Es braucht dringend eine Reform.
When noting some #artists weren’t great people, I am not being reductionist or saying one can’t enjoy their #art. Pointing out parts of #RoaldDahl’s work were problematic—the original Oompa Loompas in #WillyWonka were Africans he “saved,” #colonialism and #racism abound—and his virulent #antisemitism—he talked about #Jewish bankers and #media, that Hitler chose #Jews for a reason—is showing the full person. The good and the bad can be discussed while still loving someone’s work.