YMMV / Willy's Chocolate Experience

• Accidental Innuendo: Much merriment was had over the typos on the digital flyer promising "a pasadise [sic] of sweet teats", but it was also pointed out that Willy's Chocolate Experience could pass for a porn title.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: All the talk about The Unknown being Nightmare Fuel actually has a happy ending. Felicia Dawkins, the actress, would wind up securing a role at the London Dungeon because of the whole debacle, reprising the character no less.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Around the same time the event went viral, the popular horror-based multiplayer video game Dead by Daylight revealed its own monster called "The Unknown", this one designed In the Style of Internet-based horror such as Creepypasta and Analog Horror.
• Memetic Mutation: The whole thing was so loaded with problems that it spread like wildfire on social media, but memes quickly centered on these things in particular:
  • Willy's Chocolate Experience is Krabby Land ^explanation The experience in general has been widely compared to Krabby Land from SpongeBob SquarePants, with numerous memes, edits and explanation videos comparing Willy's Chocolate Experience to the eponymous Crappy Carnival.
  • Bartender/Meth Lab Oompa Loompa ^explanationOne particular pic of a Wonkidoodle (one of the not-Oompa Loompas) in the Jellybean Room, standing next to a table with a chemistry set on it, and smoke rising behind her, with an expression that's equal parts depressed, bored, sour, frustrated and humiliated. Everyone agreed that the whole setup looked more like a meth lab than a chocolate factory, with many memes containing references to Breaking Bad.
    • The Oompa Loompa is Squidward. ^explanation As an extension of the comparisons with Krabby Land mentioned above, some people have likened Wonkidoodle actress Kristy Paterson's depressed expression to Squidward Tentacles, and often cast him as the "depressed Oompa Loompa" in crossover memes.
      YouTube commenter (as Mr. Krabs): Now Mr. Squidward, you'll be playing one of the Oompa Loompas in the new Wonka experience at Krabby Land. Here's a chemistry set. Do something with it! (scuttles away)
  • The Unknown. ^explanationThe completely insane concept of "an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls" turned The Unknown into an overnight Memetic Badass favorite, especially inspired by a widely-seen video from the event where one of the rotating performers playing Willy says "What is that? It's The Unknown!" in a tone of Dull Surprise, then The Unknown emerges from behind a mirror and scares a child. Some people have even noted that The Unknown is exactly the kind of eccentric, macabre villain that Roald Dahl might've come up with. It's also received some overlap with Dead by Daylight, which also has a villain called the Unknown; although that Unknown is a tiny bit scarier than the villain of the Experience. People cosplaying as the Unknown were spotted at Dublin Comic Con and ACME Glasgow not long after.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Unknown, an evil figure in a black robe and creepy mask who pops out at visitors from behind a mirror, is a rather jarring addition to an event for small children. Though the execution was met with mixed reactions, some clips recorded from the event show kids that were genuinely frightened by the character since without the script, there was no warning that he even existed.
  Willy:^note (as portrayed by an unidentified long-haired actor, and it's unclear whether the cast was going with "Wonka" or "McDuff" at that point) What is that? It's The Unknown!
  Child in audience: Nooooooooooo!
• Nightmare Retardant:
  • The Unknown becomes this as soon as you realize that he's played by a very sweet teen actress, though the event's target audience mostly wouldn't know any better.
  • Also related to The Unknown, it seems that the actors attempted to invoke this trope at some point by encouraging the children in attendance to make scary faces to scare "The Great Unknown" back into hiding, to make the little ones feel more empowered against the unexpectedly frightening character.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Paterson stated that, despite the shoddiness of the event, the actors all committed to giving it their all to entertain children. Once the dust from the sheer ridiculousness of the event settled, it became clear that they were very much young up-and-comers looking for a break and accepted the job out of an earnest belief that it was workable, being just as disappointed as everyone else when it was very much the opposite.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The AI images on the site show a teddy bear with part of a human hand growing out of its head, a bunny with a nightmarish face that looks like it's bleeding with a Slasher Smile, and a bizarre Monster Clown-esque version of Wonka with a wide Comedy Mask grin and no eyes.
• Viewer Name Confusion: Many people tend to simply refer to the characters by their official counterparts' names ("Willy Wonka", "Oompa Loompas", etc.) while not knowing of or disregarding their Captain Ersatz names in the script. This extends to the actors themselves in interviews. Some people even go as far as calling the event the "Willy Wonka Experience". The Channel 5 documentary is actually just called "Wonka: The Scandal That Rocked Britain."

---