History Main / SouvenirLand

If there -are- specific ride parodies, they will almost always be of older rides -- you'll rarely see a parody of, for instance, Epcot's Test Track. This has the side effect that, sometimes, the show will parody something that isn't actually there anymore. Again, this is probably because the writers are working not from a recent guidemap but from their childhood memories. Such parodies will typically be fitted into one of the aforementioned three ride types -- if there ''was'' a parody of Test Track, for instance, it'd probably be a roller coaster.

* Wesaysoland of ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' is an [[CrapsackWorld absurdly pathetic]] version of this. The rides are nearly all under construction, it costs 6 dollars for ice on a stick (minus the ice), there's a nine-hour waiting list for strollers and the mascot is Moolah the Cash Cow. The whole thing was thrown together in a day to take advantage of the newly invented concept of vacation.
* After being forced by ABC (read: Disney) to do an episode [[VacationEpisode set at Walt Disney World,]] the producers of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' immediately turned around and did an episode about a creepy Naziesque theme park that brainwashes its employees.

There will inevitably be people in [[GoofySuit (really bad) cartoon character costumes that obscure the face]]. They will be free to wander aimlessly around the park without getting mobbed by little kids and disturbingly determined parents. [[note]]Nowadays, real characters have to appear at specific "greeting areas" with attendants and well-defined paths for approaching and leaving, because not all guests are all that well-behaved, and even those who are can be very dangerous to a cast member in one of these costumes. "Wandering" characters have not been seen with any reliable frequency since the beginning of the last decade.[[/note]] There will usually be no sign of "face characters", who are actors/actresses portraying characters who look enough like normal humans that they don't need masks or anything along those lines (think of Aladdin, for instance, or the various Franchise/{{Disney Princess}}es). The park may have a mascot character whose face can be [[SigilSpam seen absolutely everywhere]].

** This routine was the inspiration and main subject matter of the Music/WeirdAlYankovic song "Skipper Dan", which is about an acting prodigy who somehow ended up running the Jungle Cruise ride as his permanent career.

Frequently, rides will empty right into a gift shop. This ''is'' TruthInTelevision for both Disney and Universal, where any ride of any significance has its own gift shop which is usually conveniently located right where you exit the ride (although some rides built before the concept took hold, such as Franchise/TheHauntedMansion, have to make do with keeping a merchandise cart nearby). If there is a parade, it will probably be a) in the daytime and b) clearly based on the Main Street Electrical Parade (which is ''at night'', thus the lights that make it "Electrical"; alternate versions of the parade include Fantillusion at Disneyland Paris, Dreamlights at Tokyo Disneyland, and Spectromagic at Walt Disney World).

Note, however, that the depiction is often not -meant- to be a parody, merely an overgenericized example of something that attracts visitors precisely because it relies on exclusive attractions, referencing or parodying which would require additional explanation for the sake of viewers unfamiliar with the original. However, snark often works its way into the depiction regardless, as a stealth rant on consumerism and the ability of entertainment industry to make a profit off any idea, no matter how lame. If taken to the logical extreme, the attraction becomes a CrappyCarnival.

--> '''[[OurPresidentsAreDifferent US President]]''': When do we get to the ride?
--> '''Parents''': This ''is'' the ride! Wheee!!

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyElmyraAndTheBrain'' had the mice accompanying Elmyra on her class field trip to a Disneyland parody called Duckyland, with Brain intending to put a subliminal message on the audio at the Happy Sappy Children of Many Lands Ride. First, though, he's forced to go through some rides Elmyra wants to go on, and endures a lot of pain doing so; then, when he finally does switch the tapes on the ride, he finds out that he made a mistake in trusting Elmyra to bring the tape for him, because she instead brought a [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Baloney the Dinosaur]] tape. By the end of the episode, he says that even world domination is not worth it for him "to come back to this Hieronymous Bosch-inspired nightmare world."
** Before Elmyra joined in, Pinky is at one point tempted by Snowball to leave the Brain. The bait was Pinkyworld, a theme park contained inside a corporate headquarters. Of course, this is mouse-sized ...
** Pinky's apparently a sucker for these. [[spoiler:'Brain Noir' has Billie use one of these to try and win his heart; it was originally meant as just an innocent device to aid Brain in taking over the world.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' has Brisby land, which fits the characteristics of the Disney Theme Parks, [[spoiler:although with more sinister dealings and being a subject of ire to displaced revolutionaries]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' has Glove World, perhaps an obtuse reference to [[WhiteGloves Mickey Mouse's gloves]]. One episode revolves around [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick trying to work up the nerve to go to the newest roller coaster, the Fiery Fist O'Pain. Careful. [[Film/TheShawshankRedemption The last person that called that place obtuse got two months in the hole.]]

There is in fact a reasonable explanation for all of this -- theme parks are ''notoriously'' expensive to keep running (as evidenced by the large number of parks that have been shut down over the years) and merchandise sales are always the parks' #1 source of revenue, far more so than ticket sales. Therefore, it's vital for a theme park to entice its guests to buy the merchandise it's selling, as it will ensure that the park has a future. This trope is merely just the result of such a thing going ''way'' too overboard.

** Bizarre RealLife example: In Disney's Animal Kingdom park, there is a small area within the "Dinoland U. S. A." section of the park. And it is essentially the Souvenir Land version of Animal Kingdom. The ride Primeval Whirl is a parody of Dinosaur, the other thrill ride in that subsection of the park, and Triceratops Spin takes on Dumbo. Who says Disney doesn't have a sense of humor?
** ''Ride/JungleCruise'' is a parody of ''itself''. Well, more accurately, the modern ''Jungle Cruise'' is [[TakeThatMe a parody of the original ''Jungle Cruise'']] -- while the ride was originally played straight (Walt Disney didn't want to deal with all the complexities real animals would cause in a small area of a park, so he went with robotic ones), the current version is basically one big comedy routine having fun at the scenery's expense, especially in light of guests being able to ride among actual animals over at the aforementioned Animal Kingdom. Sample lines:

"Parents, don't forget your children. Forgotten children will be taught to sing and have their feet glued to the floor of '[[AndIMustScream ''Ride/ItsASmallWorld]]'."\\

** Some of the more recent Disney theme parks, Disney's California Adventure, Walt Disney Studios Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland, have been accused of this due to opening with a limited number of attractions (the first had a lot of off-the-shelf carnival-style rides and clones of shows and rides from the Florida Disney World complex, and many Disney park signatures like ''Ride/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' and ''Splash Mountain'' haven't yet made it to Hong Kong) but a full contingent of shops and restaurants -- i.e., you pay to get in, and then there's not much to do that doesn't require more money.

* '''Roller coaster'''. Sometimes steel, but usually wooden. Always completely outdoors with the track supports obvious (i.e. from a distance, it is immediately recognizable as a roller coaster). This doesn't quite fit Universal or Disney-- Universal coasters nearly all feature inversions (which are impossible on wooden coasters), while Disney parks almost (but not quite) always hide the track in some way, whether by putting it inside a building (Ride/SpaceMountain, Rock 'n Roller Coaster) or by theming (Ride/BigThunderMountainRailroad, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Expedition Everest etc.). Six Flags does use this sort of coaster at its parks, often playing up the nostalgia angle, but typically has steel coasters alongside them.
* '''Boat rides'''. In real life, these take two forms: rides that keep trying to splash you, usually with a big drop at the end, and rides that just use the boat as a form of transportation to show you scenery (Ride/PiratesOfTheCaribbean is one of these). Souvenir Land boat rides look like the latter for most of the ride, then suddenly throw in a big drop at the end (possibly the result of misremembering Splash Mountain). Jungle Cruise is frequently parodied. Oddly, the inevitable "Ride/ItsASmallWorld" parody (which usually features incredibly low-quality puppets that Walt probably would have fired you for trying to put in his park, or super-high-quality puppets that turn out to be enslaved children) is rarely one of these, usually just happening out in the open.

** Jungle Cruise is a parody of ''itself''. Well, more accurately, the modern Jungle Cruise is [[TakeThatMe a parody of the original Jungle Cruise]] -- while the ride was originally played straight (Walt Disney didn't want to deal with all the complexities real animals would cause in a small area of a park, so he went with robotic ones), the current version is basically one big comedy routine having fun at the scenery's expense, especially in light of guests being able to ride among actual animals over at the aforementioned Animal Kingdom. Sample lines:

"Parents, don't forget your children. Forgotten children will be taught to sing and have their feet glued to the floor of '[[AndIMustScream It's A Small World]]'."\\

** Some of the more recent Disney theme parks, Disney's California Adventure, Walt Disney Studios Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland, have been accused of this due to opening with a limited number of attractions (the first had a lot of off-the-shelf carnival-style rides and clones of shows and rides from the Florida Disney World complex, and many Disney park signatures like ''Pirates of the Caribbean'', ''Haunted Mansion'' and ''Splash Mountain'' haven't yet made it to Hong Kong) but a full contingent of shops and restaurants -- i.e., you pay to get in, and then there's not much to do that doesn't require more money.

* Warner Brothers Movie World in Australia, is just a minor step up from being this.

* Krustyland from ''Ride/TheSimpsonsRide'' at Ride/UniversalStudios is a poorly-put together theme park designed to shake as much money out of its customers' pockets as possible.

* '''Roller coaster'''. Sometimes steel, but usually wooden. Always completely outdoors with the track supports obvious (i.e. from a distance, it is immediately recognizable as a roller coaster). This doesn't quite fit Universal or Disney-- Universal coasters nearly all feature inversions (which are impossible on wooden coasters), while Disney parks almost (but not quite) always hide the track in some way, whether by putting it inside a building (Space Mountain, Rock 'n Roller Coaster) or by theming (Big Thunder Mountain, Matterhorn Bobsleds, Expedition Everest etc.). Six Flags does use this sort of coaster at its parks, often playing up the nostalgia angle, but typically has steel coasters alongside them.
* '''Boat rides'''. In real life, these take two forms: rides that keep trying to splash you, usually with a big drop at the end, and rides that just use the boat as a form of transportation to show you scenery (Pirates of the Caribbean is one of these). Souvenir Land boat rides look like the latter for most of the ride, then suddenly throw in a big drop at the end (possibly the result of misremembering Splash Mountain). Jungle Cruise is frequently parodied. Oddly, the inevitable "It's a Small World" parody (which usually features incredibly low-quality puppets that Walt probably would have fired you for trying to put in his park, or super-high-quality puppets that turn out to be enslaved children) is rarely one of these, usually just happening out in the open.

* '''Fair-type circling rides''' (like Dumbo The Flying Elephant or Astro Orbiter in the real Disney parks). These usually will be depicted as a huge deal, a major attraction on par with the roller coasters, and everyone in the group will want to ride, except for the people who get squeamish on thrill rides. This is the most obvious sign of the underlying difficulty, which is that the writers have probably not been to Disneyland or Disney World or whichever since they were little kids, at which point these probably seemed legitimately impressive. (Indeed, Dumbo is notorious for being so popular with little kids that its small per-ride capacity ensures looooong waits.)

In cartoon land, kids want to go to Souvenir Land, a [[TheThemeParkVersion theme park version]] of the theme park. The viewer, on the other hand, would find the experience much less amazing. While Souvenir Land is almost always ''treated'' as if it was the world's equivalent of the Disney parks, it tends to be noticeably less original and impressive than anything Disney or Universal has built. [[note:It can be more accurately compated to the level of Busch Gardens or the smaller regional theme parks that mushroomed in TheFifties but started fading out in TheEighties precisely because the standard assortment of rides was no longer believed worth the ticket price.]]

In cartoon land, kids want to go to Souvenir Land, a [[TheThemeParkVersion theme park version]] of the theme park. This experience is... less amazing. While Souvenir Land is almost always ''treated'' as if it was the world's equivalent of the Disney parks, it tends to be noticeably less impressive than anything Disney or Universal has built. It is more on the level of Busch Gardens or the smaller regional theme parks that mushroomed in TheFifties but started fading out in TheEighties.

If there are any specific ride parodies, they will almost always be of older rides -- you'll rarely see a parody of, for instance, Epcot's Test Track. This has the side effect that, sometimes, the show will parody something that isn't actually there anymore. Again, this is probably because the writers are working not from a recent guidemap but from their childhood memories. Such parodies will typically be fitted into one of the aforementioned three ride types -- if there ''was'' a parody of Test Track, for instance, it'd probably be a roller coaster.

Frequently, rides will empty into a gift shop. This ''is'' TruthInTelevision for both Disney and Universal, where any ride of any significance has its own gift shop which is usually conveniently located right where you exit the ride (although some rides built before the concept took hold, such as Franchise/TheHauntedMansion, have to make do with keeping a merchandise cart nearby). If there is a parade, it will probably be a) in the daytime and b) clearly based on the Main Street Electrical Parade (which is ''at night'', thus the lights that make it "Electrical"; alternate versions of the parade include Fantillusion at Disneyland Paris, Dreamlights at Tokyo Disneyland, and Spectromagic at Walt Disney World).

* One foodgasm-induced ImagineSpot in ''Anime/ShokugekiNoSoma'' transforms a group of judges into school girls spending the day at "Yukihee Land," as the dish was [[JustForPun a roller-coaster of flavors]].

* '''Roller coaster'''. Sometimes steel, but usually wooden. Always completely outdoors with the track supports obvious (i.e. from a distance, it is immediately recognizable as a roller coaster). This doesn't quite fit Universal or Disney-- Universal coasters nearly all feature inversions (which are impossible on wooden coasters), while Disney parks almost (but not quite) always hide the track in some way, whether by putting it inside a building (Space Mountain) or by theming (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad). Six Flags does use this sort of coaster at its parks, often playing up the nostalgia angle, but typically has steel coasters alongside them.