• AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Am I supposed to be mad at these small time con-men capitalists? This is what the modern global economy is all about. Attempting to fuck over the people who aren’t you, attempting to receive the maximum while providing the absolute minimum you can get away with without consequences. Their mistake was only slightly miscalculating that minimum where people would feel cheated but otherwise leave minus their money grumbling, but not enough to make it a weird news of the day story.

    When’s the last time your fast food sandwich looked remotely like the one on all the signs?They look like that sandwich in the ad was a tire that got deflated, deforming under its own weight, at best. Those scammers just had swaths of lawyers and lobbyists to make their false advertising your problem, until now it’s just how it is. Deception is a vital component of market capitalism.

    Why are you harassing these glorious, aspiring job creators acting in rational self-interest?

      • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Can we start with the con-men hurting/exploiting millions and threatening billions with their “externalities,” capitalist Orwellian shorthand for “I already have your money, so my mess is your problem, you stupid fucking suckers🖕🤑🖕?”

        Because these bottom feeders are just a symptom of the above’s global sociocultural damage. They ruined some kid’s afternoons (but when those grown kids are dying from capitalist made climate change induced Cat 6 superstorms, or hungry from the associated crop failures, or the scammers successfully lobby to catch yet another tax break out of the asses of those kid’s education funding using their unlimited exploitation bucks, 🤷). It might be cathartic to kick their ass, but it’s odd and inconsistent to the extreme considering how comfortable we are with our most prolific con-men being allowed to own, and keep!.. everything, every exploited, scammed dollar, instead of getting their ass kicked as you say.

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Back to the days of running the snake oil salesmen out of town tarred and feathered?

    • veroxii@aussie.zone
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      9 months ago

      We went to Japan last year and they have a fast food chain called MOS burger. The food looked exactly like the menu pictures… It was amazing! Plump and delicious.

    • fidodo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      What? They didn’t slightly miscalculate the minimum, they grossly blasted past it. Yes, your point is that false advertising is a spectrum, and a certain amount is generally expected, but this isn’t in some mushy grey area of it, it’s egregiously over the line. Yeah food doesn’t look like it does on the packages, but if this event were food it would be a grey goop. Frankly I find your attempt at ignoring magnitude lazy, sloppy, and cynical.

      • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Lol magnitude? Really? These microcapitalists ruined these kids afternoon with their scam, while the ones these scammers emulate poison them with microplastics and Threaten their ONLY habitat, to the scam shareholder’s applause and most of society considering them aspirational figures, buying the scam of “sometimes companies make a mess, it isn’t their problem or responsibility, and we call this competely valid economic event an externality herp derp 🤡.”

        Also Most corporate run INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY EXPERIENCE exhibitions are only one step up from this in terms of marketing vs reality. They calculated the formula of acceptable customer mark dissatisfaction from intentionally dishonest marketing hype correctly.

        So please, do continue telling me more about the magnitude of these microcapitalist’s microscam.

        sits in Wonka meme pose.

        • fidodo@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Dude, put this stuff in your comment then. All you mentioned in your comment was that food doesn’t look the way they do in advertisements. I can’t read your mind, I can only read what’s in your comment.

        • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Come on, they’ve given those kids and their parents an experience they’ll remember for years to come! They’ll be able to talk about it at every social gathering! It’s priceless!

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I know people don’t read articles, but at least scroll down to the picture of “an Oompa Loompa running a meth lab”

      • xor@infosec.pub
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        9 months ago

        what if i told you:
        not all chemistry is for making meth?

      • Rin@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        I had no context when I first saw this image and assumed it was something drug related.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The most ridiculous part of this story is the workers showed up, saw what it looked like, and just went to work…

        Like, just lock the doors and go back home. Nothing good will come of trying to pull it off, and there’s no way you’re getting paid

        • snooggums@midwest.social
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          9 months ago

          Going home doesn’t get you a paycheck so that you can eat. Working is a chance to get paid, even if it looks like a guarantee that they won’t to someone who isn’t under that strain.

        • Leeker@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I mean the event organizer was there to have the doors open (of course the person was flanked by two bouncers). So it isn’t like the worker even if they wanted to could stop it. I’m sure those bouncers could’ve been turned on her like they were the parents asking for refunds. (Source)

        • phreekno@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Not everyone can just snub their boss and say no this is not up to my standards. Not when you need to secure a paycheck so you can make at least part of your rent

            • phreekno@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              idk what the employees had with the owner but if they were wage workers, not subcontracted, then there would be some legal expectation to pay them and they would have recourse if they didn’t get paid. if you leave then you can’t claim that they didn’t pay you for work. in new york city if an employer schedules you for the day and sends you home early, most of the time they are expected to pay you for the time simply because you were scheduled for the day.

        • dotMonkey@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Some travelled hours to even get there, so whether they went home or stayed, their day would be wasted. They thought they’d stay for the kids to try make them at least enjoy their time somewhat. This is what I heard from Ludwig’s video on YouTube.

        • Leeker@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Just like her script being created by a AI. The money they are going to pay her in is made by AI.

          • Shyfer@ttrpg.network
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            9 months ago

            It’s even better than money, it’s Loompa Coin. Sure it’s worth nothing now, but that just means it’s a great investment. Any day now the value will skyrocket…

      • Rolando@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Speaking to MailOnline, she confirmed that not only had she not been paid she also hadn’t been briefed on what her role would involve. She explained: ‘I was angry at the time because I felt like this is embarrassing for me, and I felt bad for the people coming in as well. I actually ended up shouting at the guy. I just said to him he’s a joke and this is like embarrassing, and how can we basically live with himself, doing this to people. This is really embarrassing for me. My job is teaching kids yoga and I go into schools and stuff and I do kids’ entertainment. This is none of our faults at all. We got the job and then we got given the script. By that point I’d signed a contract and they said they were going to put us £500 for the two days which is a lot of money which is a lot of money to say no to.’

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/galleries/article-13134989/Embarrassed-Oompa-Loompas-actresses-Wonka-scam-talks.html

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Coull appears to be the only official employee of the company, …he presents himself as a business-savvy life coach.

    Life coach, why am I not surprised?

  • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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    9 months ago

    duped unsuspecting parents into bringing their kids to a truly dmsial event using clearly AI-generated marketing materials.

    Said the AI generated article.

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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    9 months ago

    I look forward to more AI failures and flops and hope the public and financial backlash is intense for each every one of them. You cannot automate human creativity, and until the powers that be feel that in their wallets, we’re going to be getting more and more of this inane drivel while actual, talented writers lose job opportunities.

    The company has since promised to refund customers, but whether they’ll all actually get their money back remains to be seen.

    I’d be demanding it in full.

    • fluxion@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      They didn’t even proof read the promotional flyers to make sure they made sense. It’s an absolutely absurd level of laziness.

      • phillaholic@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        You’re describing AI. We are in the get rich quick period of AI usage.

        • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          No, we’re describing a human endeavour. If the promotional flyers had been made by outsourcing it to Fiverr and they came back wonky it would have been the same basic problem. They outsourced this and then ether didn’t have the resources or interest in checking the work that came back.

    • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This was clearly a scam from the start. AI art is a tool, just like a paintbrush - if you don’t know what you’re doing (or if you just dont give a fuck, like this event), the outcome will understandably be shit.

    • Riskable@programming.dev
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      9 months ago

      This wasn’t a failure of AI. It was just a low-effort charade. If you want to put in the least amount of effort possible in such things, AI is there for you.

      If they had put in any effort whatsoever they would’ve taken the first “draft” BS generated by the AI, made some minimal changes, then fed it back into the AI for further improvement.

      Chat AIs are just that: Chat. You’re supposed to go back and forth in conversation with the AI in order to get a good result. It appears the organizers of this event put together some terrible prompts and didn’t even bother to spend an extra ten minutes refining things.

      AI is a tool like any other. This pathetic event is a textbook case of how AI can’t replace humans entirely (not yet, anyway). You still gotta put in some effort.

    • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s gonna be the new Dot Com bubble. Sure, we’ll have to deal with this nonsense for another year or two, but once it gets to the point of insanity/critical mass hopefully that’s when people stop throwing AI at everything.

      I see ads all around my city for the new Galaxy S24, it looks the exact same as my S23, and probably has the same hardware, mostly, but their new selling point is that it comes with AI. That’s literally the only thing on the billboard.

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      9 months ago

      Problem is, even when we get over this shit and hire the “creatives” back, they won’t be getting the same wages.

      And a lot of the money that could go to the artists is going to go to these silicone valley pricks, too. Never think for a second the people making AI like this don’t appreciate what they’re doing. This shit is custom built to steal the livelihood from artists and put it directly into their own pockets.

      • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        You’re coming from a very selfish perspective, it’s just capitalism rotting your brain.

        Ai is being designed to help solve problems that affect billions of people, it’s already able to do amazing things that greatly improve people’s lives in many ways. You’re ignoring all of that and discounting it simply because you’re only worried about your own selfish interests, and you’re ignoring the benefit it could have on your life simply because you fear change.

        Being able to get explanations of things in your own language and ask questions is huge for people from underdeveloped regions of the world, especially for subjects like coding where documentation is always terse, technical, and always in English. Though I’ve already used it myself to help understand a German project, also projects written in coding languages I haven’t studied - and wow is it useful for languages I do know well, it’s increased my productivity hugely on my open source project. being able to do things like drop in a choice block and say ‘put these elements in a sizer’ saves so much time, dropping a line in and saying ‘what are the options for formating this?’ and it gives me direct and comprehensive answers - that could have been half an hour in the documentation.

        Of course I make open source software to help give people the tools they need to live better lives, for me the more I can create the more tools I and everyone have to improve our lives - I’m trying to move towards a better world where people don’t need to beg corporations for scraps by performing doggie tricks for them, you want to keep rolling over and eagerly giving you creativity to advertising agencies and corporate owned movie studios so they can sell more shit to the masses. Stop figuring to protect capitalism it doesn’t give a shit about you.

    • The_Vampire@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yeah, this is just people misapplying the AI tools we are given. They’re not close to General AI, you certainly can’t expect them to do all the work for you yet.

      • Martineski@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        You didn’t even say if you are for or againt it and just stated the truth and people downvoted you for that. Lmao

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    9 months ago

    Connell wasn’t the only actor surprised to find that props promised by the script didn’t actually exist.

    So there was never a dress rehearsal and the performance was a cold read? AI may be to blame for the bad script, but there many other points of failure happening here.

  • PeterPoopshit@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Imagine hosting an event so lame that it makes international news solely because of how incredibly lame it was. Just damn.

  • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    I think i read this story when it was called huckleberry finn.

    It was that book, right? Where the con man sold tickets to a “ribald show” which ended up just being one dude running around naked?

  • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Doesn’t sound much worse than the Avengers experience that came to my city. It was like $30 for a 10 minute walkabout of a big room with the avenger costumes and a bunch of costumes, I felt ripped off

    • pruwyben@discuss.tchncs.de
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      9 months ago

      I get the feeling that most of these "experience’ things I’ve been hearing about lately are low effort cash grabs.

      • LemmyFeed@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I went to the office experience in Chicago a few years ago and it was awesome. They literally recreated the entire office layout with all the props and everything.

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        9 months ago

        From what I understand the Jurassic world one was actually really good and they put in the effort

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        The Harry Potter one back in the day that I think gave these a kickstart was honestly comparable to most museums I’ve been to, tho obviously smaller and not as interesting, they did have the actual props and costumes there from filming tho which was dope.

        • EvilLootbox@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I went to a Game of Thrones prop and costume exhibit that was pretty good about a decade ago. It was free timed-ticket entry, but if you wanted a picture sitting in the throne there was a fee. Didn’t find out how much, the line for that was soooo long.

      • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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        From what I understand the Jurassic world one was actually really good and they put in the effort

    • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Or like the Friends experience that is a yearly occurrence in Manhattan. I’m a huge fan of the show and lived in NYC for 5 years, but I never went there. The first time I saw it, my girlfriend and I walked by the place it was at, and it was a shitty re-creation of Central Perk. There were like 100 people lined up on the sidewalk just to go inside and sit on the orange couch and drink coffee. James Michael Tyler (who played Gunther, the barista) was also there.

      • jo3shmoo@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        There’s a bit more to it than just the Central Perk part. They’ve recreated the apartments and a few other major scenes and have a lot of props from the show. We had just finished a rewatch of the show and found it pretty enjoyable on a rainy day in the city. I think we spent about an hour in there and came out with some cool staged scene pictures. I still thought it was overpriced, but didn’t feel ripped off.

        • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yeah, they added a lot over the years. My above experience was from like 8 years ago when I’m pretty sure it was just Central Perk.

    • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
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      9 months ago

      Ick. To a very specific audience - prop makers - that $30 is a great deal to get up close looks at costumes and props whose details don’t always show up on screen.

      Sucks if they advertised it as more, though.

  • tipicaldik@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Sure, AI can whip up fantastical imagery and low-effort dialog — but if audiences call BS, the blowback can be extraordinarily embarrassing.

    I see AI generated bullshit on youtube all the time these days. To the point where I can tell by the thumbnail before I even watch it. I’ve gotten in the habit of checking out new-to-me channels in a private window first, before deciding whether I want to subscribe or even keep watching. The instant I detect any AI… either in the voice or the nonsensical writing, I’m outa there. I do e-learning multimedia for a living, and we use a lot of stock images, and those sites are being loaded up with AI generated garbage. It’s getting harder to find stuff that isn’t AI, and using it to generate your own is a total crapshoot as far as results go…

      • ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I’ve recently been using the home page on YT (in addition to my bookmark, which takes me straight to /feed/subscriptions) and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. It seems like the algorithm is generally pretty good at finding similar videos to the ones I enjoy. That is unless I scroll waaaaay down, where it just runs out of ideas. I would recommend trying out your home page, with some light pruning as needed (“Not interested”, “Don’t recommend channel”).

    • ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Same here, generally, but I think there are a tiny few people who have a legitimate reason for using TTS. For instance, those whose English skills are lacking, or who have an accent which some might find distracting. Or a person who is self-conscious about their voice but still has something to offer, or maybe those who legitimately can’t speak at all. Hell, I support anyone who could narrate but doesn’t want to put their voice out there for privacy reasons, or to keep it out of the public space where it will inevitably be used as training data.

      I’d still rather listen to the human, because I can’t stand any of the “AI” voices, especially those that are used on every fucking tiktok (I stay away from TT, but unfortunately the voices are pretty ubiquitous). It might sound silly but I’d prefer good old Microsoft Sam to the any of these new voices.

      One channel I found recently for coding-related topics uses TTS but before I got annoyed enough to close it, I realized that the script was probably hand-written, just narrated by a machine. The video was highly informative, and I walked away having learned some new information. For the curious

      Something that sucks about this new wave of TTS is that we get some odd errors in pronunciation that probably wouldn’t be there if it was spoken by a human. A missing comma or other punctuation errors will pass a spell check but end up sounding really strange due to the broken inflection. Uncanny Valley stuff I suppose.

      AI thumbnails are utter garbage though. All polish, no substance, no love for the craft.

    • NutWrench@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yup. I think the worst offenders are the videos that are just Wikipedia pages with still images and an AI text-to-speech robot voice. It’s the world’s laziest form of “content creation” and I always downvote them.

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Down voting is engagement. They don’t care if you hate it as long as you watch it. Block the channel.

        • AtmaJnana@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Same with comments. For their purposes, a comment that says “i want my 10 minutes back, I hope you die.” is basicallly the same as “best 20 minutes ever! (I watched it twice)”

  • set_secret@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    this isn’t so much a failure of AI generated anything. it’s a failure by the organisers to have the budget needed to do it. this was 100% human fuck up. So weird the article tries to spin it that it’s somehow an AI fail.

    • cmhe@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      The AI part is what makes this fuck up special and international news.

      We are used to human fuck ups, but a in person event where the organizers where so lazy that they used AI to create the content and that it sucked is something novel.

      AI generated pictures, blogs and books are old news, generated in person events is new.

      • negativeyoda@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The head guy self published something like a dozen AI generated books that he’s selling on Amazon too

  • Garyx23x@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    The best part about this event was the new Wonka lore of The Unknown, an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Therqpist: “The evil chocolate maker in the walls isn’t real, he can’t hurt you!”

      Me: gestures to this article

  • ArmokGoB@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    This whole event reads more like an artist trying to showcase the dangers of machine learning models. It’s honestly hilarious to see how people just fell for some pretty pictures that were clearly generated with AI and ended up at an oompa loompa meth lab.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      People going in expecting a fun adventure with Willy Wonka and having a horrible time because it was created by an asshole trying to teach them a lesson…sounds like the plot of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

  • MrsDoyle@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    This feels like an episode of The Apprentice. Lord Sugar (appropriate!): “Willy Wonka? More like Willy Wanker.” Cut to sweaty Project Manager about to be fired.

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        9 months ago

        Dennis uses it to play a sexy Wonka, Dee gets attacked for use of ‘orange face’, Mac has a nightmare experience in the haunted tunnel, and Charlie and Frank accidentally end up cooking meth for kids.

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    9 months ago

    So the script called for some of the Wonka’s to use vacuums, but they didn’t have vacuums, so they had to improvise.

    But they managed to pull out a chemistry set.

    What the fuck is happening.