History Trivia / WillysChocolateExperience

* TroubledProduction: The event became infamous in part for everything that went wrong behind the scenes.
** Billy Coull, the organizer, apparently threw the event together in little time, as the script and promotional artwork were AI-generated, and the actual venue was very sparsely decorated with scenery hired from a local prop rental company, with little effort taken to hide the fact it was held in a warehouse.
** Even the cast had wrongly assumed that things were much more organized than they really were. According to Paul Connell and Michael Archibald, two of the three actors hired to play Willy [=McDuff=], they were given ''one day'' to learn the AI-generated script, and according to The Unknown's actor Felicia Dawkins, no rehearsals took place.
** Kirsty Paterson (the memetic "depressed Oompa Loompa") saw the sparse decorations the day before the event, but figured that there'd be a team of set decorators working through the night to build things out. When Paterson saw the venue in the same state on opening day, she elected to continue with her job to avoid disappointing children. She and fellow Wonkidoodle actress Jenny Fogarty were given their costumes an hour before the event opened from an Amazon box that "probably arrived that morning", and they were "sexy" Oompa-Loompa costumes inappropriate for family-friendly events instead of normal ones; the Wonkidoodle actresses wore clothes underneath to try to make their costumes more modest.
** The cast was instructed to hand out two or three jellybeans and a quarter cup of lemonade. Even with the ration, they still ran out quickly, and limeade had to be substituted for lemonade.
** As the script was entirely generated by AI, it included some very bizarre moments that would've been impossible to do with practical effects; the intent was that Willy and The Unknown would have a laser battle that ended with Willy sucking The Unknown into a vacuum cleaner. No attempt was made to adapt that into a form that the actors could actually do, so as a result, huge portions of the story were just ignored. This rendered The Unknown as even more of a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere than he already was.
** After the first three performances, Coull had the cast abandon the script and let the guests walk through the event on their own, which only lasted two minutes compared to the 45-minute performances. This also left The Unknown, who was originally an antagonist, scaring children for no reason. Coull also started scolding the actors for spending too much time with the kids and not going through them fast enough to make more money.
** Connell was promised 15-minute breaks every 45 minutes, but wound up playing [=McDuff=] for over three hours, uninterrupted.
** After a lunch break, Connell saw a crowd of angry parents violently demanding refunds from Coull; once the event closed during its opening day, the actors all went to a pub, and came back to find police at the scene.
** Paterson and Fogarty stated that they were only compensated half of the £500 they were promised.

** Creator/FreddieHighmore, guesting on the April 9, 2024 episode of ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'', did a RoleReprise in a sketch that purported to be a trailer for a sequel to ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''. In the sketch, a grown-up Charlie Bucket offers some lucky kids a tour of the factory, which turns out to be the Chocolate Experience, complete with the Depressed Oompa-Loompa[=/=]Wonkidoodle offering the kids "some yummy methamphetamine", The Unknown showing up (and shedding a SingleTear as Charlie talks about his impoverished youth), and Charlie admitting that he used [=ChatGPT=] for all the artwork and songs, before confessing that he was in over his head running the factory as a 10-year-old after Wonka gave it to him, and he let it go to seed over the years.

** Creator/FreddieHighmore, guesting on the April 9, 2024 episode of ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'', did a RoleReprise in a sketch that purported to be a trailer for a sequel to ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''. In the sketch, a grown-up Charlie Bucket offers some lucky kids a tour of the factory, which turns out to be the Chocolate Experience, complete with the Depressed Oompa-Loompa[=/=]Wonkidoodle offering the kids "yummy methamphetamine", The Unknown showing up (and shedding a SingleTear as Charlie talks about his impoverished youth), and Charlie admitting that he used [=ChatGPT=] for all the artwork and songs, before confessing that he was in over his head running the factory as a 10-year-old after Wonka gave it to him, and he let it go to seed over the years.

** Creator/FreddieHighmore, guesting on the April 9, 2024 episode of ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'', did a RoleReprise in a sketch that purported to be a trailer for a sequel to ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''. In the sketch, a grown-up Charlie Bucket offers some lucky kids a tour of the factory, which turns out to be the Chocolate Experience, complete with the Depressed Oompa-Loompa[=/=]Wonkidoodle offering the kids meth, The Unknown showing up (and shedding a SingleTear as Charlie talks about his impoverished youth), and Charlie admitting that he used [=ChatGPT=] for all the artwork and songs, before confessing that he was in over his head running the factory as a 10-year-old after Wonka gave it to him, and he let it go to seed over the years.

** Creator/FreddieHighmore, guesting on the April 9, 2024 episode of ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'', did a sketch riffing on his role in ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''. Here, a grown-up Charlie Bucket offers some lucky kids a tour of the factory, which turns out to be the Chocolate Experience, complete with the Depressed Oompa-Loompa[=/=]Wonkidoodle offering the kids meth, an appearance by The Unknown, and Charlie admitting that he generated everything via [=ChatGPT=], before confessing that he was in over his head running the factory as a 10-year-old after Wonka gave it to him, and he let it go to seed over the years.

** While the script called for The Unknown to be defeated with a vacuum cleaner, no prop was provided, and the actors were told to improvise.

** One segment of ''WebVideo/AISponge'' Rehydrated has Mr. Krabs rebrand [[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS3E17 Krabby Land]] to a "Willy Wonka theme park" and create MediaNotes/AIGeneratedArtwork for it.

* AbsurdlyShortProductionTime: All signs point to the event being thrown together on an extremely short notice. The website was registered on the 22nd January for an event held on the 24th February, with most of the promotional artwork and text, along with the script, being outsourced to generative AI tools. The show's staff have suggested that they were given a day or two at most to prepare for the event, with costumes being delivered to them last second and there being virtually no rehearsal time. The scenery used at the event, despite the production company implying that it would be bespoke and handmade by them, was instead traced to the inventory of a local prop rental company, indicating that not much time had been spent on that either.

** The February 27, 2024 episode of ''Series/AfterMidnight'' featured a segment where the panelists poked fun at it ("The asbestos tastes like asbestos!" "Instead of bringing your beloved grandparent, you have to bring your creepy uncle").

** The February 27, 2024 episode of ''Series/AfterMidnight'' featured a segment where the panelists poked fun at it ("The asbestos tastes like asbestos!" "Instead of your beloved grandfather, you have to bring your creepy uncle.").

* AbsurdlyShortProductionTime: All signs point to the event being thrown together on an extremely short notice. The website was registered on the 22nd January for an event held on the 24th February, with most of the promotional artwork and text, along with the script, being outsourced to generative AI tools. The shows staff have suggested that they were given a day or two at most to prepare for the event, with costumes being delivered to them last second and there being virtually no rehearsal time. The scenery used at the event, despite the production company implying that it would be bespoke and handmade by them, was instead traced to the inventory of a local prop rental company, indicating that not much time had been spent on that either.

* AbsurdlyShortProductionTime: All signs point to the event being thrown together on an extremely short notice. The website was registered on the 22nd January for an event held on the 24th February, with most of the promotional artwork and text, along with the script, being outsourced to generative AI tools. The scenery used at the event, despite the production company implying that it would be bespoke and handmade by them, was instead traced to the inventory of a local prop rental company, indicating that not much time had been spent on that either.

** Billy Coull, the organizer, apparently threw the event together in little time, as the script and promotional artwork were AI-generated, and the actual venue was very sparsely decorated, with little effort taken to hide the fact it was held in a warehouse.