Once any creation makes its way from the creator to the people meant to experience it, things will inevitably change. People will look at movies in ways that filmmakers never considered, and theme park attractions will become something unlike what they were intended. Something like that has already happened with Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. The popular Epcot roller coaster has barely been around for a year but many guests have already created a recurring joke that many people seem to find hilarious, but others clearly hate.
For anyone who has yet to ride Cosmic Rewind, the issue comes during the pre-show. Guests are welcomed into the Xandar pavilion by Glen Close’s Nova Prime, then they enter a queue room where Terry Crews appears as a Nova Corps member who attempts to welcome everybody for what is supposed to be a trip to Xandar. But Crews doesn’t know what to call an assembled group of theme park guests. Epcotians? He asks out loud what these people call themselves, and this is where the crowd pipes up. Some might yell “Alcoholics” or “Day Drinkers.” It’s either funny or ridiculous depending on your point of view.
Epcot is known as the park where everybody drinks. It was the first Disney park to allow alcohol, something even Disneyland is about to expand. And with the World Showcase giving guests opportunities to try libations from several different nations, drinking is, to be fair, a lot of fun in that park. Certainly some drink too much at Epcot and take things too far, but most just enjoy a drink and move on.
Much like walking into the Haunted Mansion and hearing somebody, or in its worst case, several somebodies, reciting the Ghost Host narration out loud like they are the only ones in the room, this is the sort of thing that might not bother most vacationers, who could only go on the ride once. However, for those of us who are regular, if not frequent guests, this joke is already old.
This was clearly not intended in the creation of the attraction's script. Somebody just thought an “alien” getting confused about what to call these other “aliens” would be funny. The fact that Terry Crews makes an appearance is in itself pretty awesome too. We really don’t need these added jokes. Whether you think Guardians of the Galaxy are really funny or just corny, there is plenty of humor in the attraction, and this joke’s just not that funny.
There’s an entire Reddit thread dedicated to the frustration with the bit, and others, like my friend MainStreetMagic, have also voiced their displeasure on Twitter and received a lot of like-minded responses. It’s clear that a lot of fans think the joke is just dumb, and yet, it seems all but impossible it will ever stop. There will always be somebody hearing the joke for the first time who thinks it’s hilarious, who will then repeat it on their next ride, and the cycle will repeat forever.
So if I may be so bold, do us all a favor. Whether you’ve heard this joke on Cosmic Rewind or are reading about it ahead of your first exposure, do the rest of us a solid and just don’t repeat it. If it was ever funny, it isn’t anymore.
