If you somehow haven’t heard about the infamous “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” event that was held in Glasgow on February 24 and canceled a day in, the entire saga is wild. The children’s event (tickets cost £35, roughly $44 USD) was promoted as “a place where chocolate dreams become reality,” only for it to be a low-budget, barely decorated warehouse that looked nothing like the AI-rendered images used to promote it. The cops were called because the event was such a disaster, but those of us on the outside can bask in the glow of this dumpster fire. Since Willy’s Chocolate Experience went viral, people have taken to recreating the event in video games—even big brands are jumping on the trend.
One specific shot of a legally distinct Oompa Loompa has gone viral and become the basis of several memes surrounding the event. The photo shows one of the actors standing at a scientific-looking station, looking less than thrilled, while smoke rises in the background. In an interview with Variety, the actor, named Kirsty Paterson, said she finds the whole thing “funny,” but also “embarrassing” for her acting career. But the image has become synonymous with the fiasco and has been recreated in several games, both by fans and by video game companies themselves. Click through to see them all.
