Defunctland: The Awful Wiggles Dark Ride
In this minisode, Kevin explores the Wiggly history of the defunct Wiggles dark ride, The Big Red Car Ride, at Dreamworld in Australia.
Special Thanks to ReviewTyme for consulting on the episode!
https://www.youtube.com/@ReviewTyme
Sources:
Ben Roach, https://ourworlds.au
Richard Wilson, https://parkz.com
Dreamworld’s Golden Years, https://www.facebook.com/dwgoldenyears
Theme Park Ogre, https://youtube.com/@themeparkogre
Altzone, https://www.youtube.com/@Altzone
Devoted to Disney Down Under, https://www.youtube.com/@DevotedtoDisneyDownunder
The Red Coaster Channel, https://www.youtube.com/@TheRedCoasterChannel
Nzzaney, https://www.youtube.com/@nzzaney
Jodie Guerrero, https://www.youtube.com/@JodieGuerrero
Progress City, U.S.A., https://progresscityusa.com/
David Gladwell, https://www.youtube.com/@davidgladwell5582
ThemeParkHD, https://www.youtube.com/@themeparkhd
LMG Vids, https://www.youtube.com/@lmgvids
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I had just presumed the wiggles were just a bunch of random actors that were hired for a childrens tv show. Mad respect that these guys started this because they wanted too and not because they were forced to for a paycheck.
wanted *to
i’m ashamed to admit, i watched a lot of wiggles…. never made the connection that they’re australian. i thought they just talked Funny
Still, three year-old me said, “Shut up and take my money!”
@wren does nothing kinda like Australians? 😛
Same. No idea of their history
As a Kiwi who grew up in the 90s, hearing the phrase “Wiggles lore” in a YouTube video is just… unbelievably surreal. Put a smile on my face to be reminded of these guys and their songs. Haven’t thought about them in 20 years.
It might make you happy to know they’ve recently had a resurgence in popularity here in Australia, amongst adults. They’ve sold out plenty of adult shows and performed with other artists such as Kid Laroi
@iammehowru that’s wild. Good for them. I wonder how wild an adult wiggles show is
@Frog Friend I haven’t made it to one personally, but they certainly seem pretty wild. It’s the original 4 too!
The purple wiggle has been pretty popular on TikTok. It’s wild over there
Considering how much content The Wiggles have with TV shows and movies and other stuff, I’m not too surprised to hear that term.
As a long time fan who is Australian and who lives at the Gold Coast and visits the theme parks here regularly, this was an absolute dream of an episode. Would love to hear more about Australian parks! These days, after the accident at Dreamworld, most of the locals choose Movie World instead, and the general consensus is that Dreamworld is not as great these days. All of our parks are sadly very dated now, but I wish someone would start a new one, completely redo the existing ones, or even do a disney park here. It would be hugely successful. Our parks have never felt on par with the international standard, but I hope they will be in the future.
For the wiggles, they were a huge part of my childhood. I was born in the 90s, and I knew they were big, but I had no idea they were so successful internationally. There’s not a lot Australians have to be proud of, culturally speaking, but they are definitely something that is close to many Aussie kids’ hearts. Greg leaving was definitely a very sad moment, he was iconic and I always saw him as “the leader”. As always, your comedic timing and editing is absolutely hilarious and I especially loved the zoom in on the dad’s exaggerated face on the poster for the ride. Loved this one, thank you Kevin!!
Wait until he does episode on one of Sea world rides..
Mate if you think your parks are dated try Rainbows End in NZ 🙁 at least movie world has a coaster better than a basic arrow corkscrew
Before someone says anything yeah it’s kinda cool having a classic ride like that, but it’s also pretty rough now, and I’d appreciate it more if we had like a single modern launched coaster, giga coaster, suspended coaster, anything!
Ayy fellow gold coaster!
@BonezyBoy yep.
“This level of wiggling was simply unsustainable.” You can tell Kevin had fun writing this one. Great video as always!
Sounds to me like if you can’t handle the wiggling get out of the pit 😂
i notice that too.
Everytime I heard “Wiggles Lore” I chuckles.
I lost it at ‘why’s she looking at me like that’…
“chu chu chugga chugga big red car” x 100
As an Australian it’s fascinating hearing you explain The Wiggles in such a methodical and external perspective. It’s great. It makes sense. I’ve just never had someone explain The Wiggles back to me before in such a matter of fact way because everyone here just automatically knows about them from birth before they even learn to recognise their own parents.
Hey, some of us Yanks also grew up with them (like me). However, not everyone knows their story, and I had forgotten some of the side characters and big hits until seeing this video. I wonder if Australians are reminded of them more often as they get older.
3:26: For people unfamiliar with Australian folklore/history, that guy in armor is presumably Ned Kelly or someone from his gang. They really did dress up in armor like that. Apparently, it was bulletproof.
Until someone shot him in the leg!
I thought it was a Templar knight with a six-shooter.
I thought I saw the Black Knight from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” 😂
Ned is so hilarious to me. I almost bought metal statue of him when i was in Australia (no space in my luggage, unfortunately)
As someone who grew up watching The Wiggles in the 2000’s, hearing they once had a dark ride is both surprising and on brand for The Wiggles at that time.
This is the Clip u All looking for :
https://youtu.be/mCfYi7634rU
@im sacred spam
@jedimattc Report them, don’t reply to them, I know it’s for a “joke” but still. Bots will be bots.
I don’t know how it would be “on brand” but okay. It is a children’s show I know, but what are you getting at? Is there a darker side to The Wiggles than what is on the surface? Could this be something worth investigating like say a channel called, Blameitonjorge, or say Night Mind even? That’d be interesting and I would watch it too. I saw the Wiggles in the same era, I remember when they replaced some of the crew, I stopped watching it after that and also, I was well passed moving on then as I was a bit older anyways. I remember the songs but only one comes to mind every time I think back, Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy. That was also a backmasking era as well, “Stairway to Heaven”, “Fruit Salad” and many many more like “Another one Bites the Dust” and Ozzy’s “Iron Man.” I was but a wee lad back then I am a fully grown adult now exploring the AOL internet at the time what a waste of time that was, Dial up. Jeeze was it utter trash. I know I say “lad” and Bri’ish terms at times THAT is just to keep things vague and ambiguous. Remember anyone can be anyone on the internet or over the phone like in the movie, “Boiler Room.”
Honestly same LMAO, I’m not surprised but slightly envious that I did not get to go to it as I live in the US LMAO
Not content to simply pay homage to all the best parts of Disneyworld, evidently Australia also decided they needed their own version of Superstar Limo.
Mad respect to the Wiggles, however. All this lore was new to me as a person that had long aged out of their target demo by the time they made it big in America, and it’s always heartwarming to see people that genuinely believe in and are passionate about children’s entertainment be rewarded with success.
Except Disney put Superstar Limo out of its misery immediately, Big Red Car was left slowly dying an agonizing death that no one noticed.
As an Aussie and born in 1994, I grew up in the peak Wiggles era. They did an 18+ (aus drinking age) tour in Syd a few years back and toured all the local RSLs. Tickets sold out in 30 secs. Literally a bunch of grown adults a bit drunk singing ‘toot toot chugga chugga big red car’ at the top of our lungs. Iconic.
No way! I wish more of our childhood shows would do this 😜
Our kids (and abashedly, the wife and I) were huge Wiggles fans. We would sing the songs and dance around the house. They made that phase of our kids childhoods that much better and will be fondly remembered. The years always catch up with us eventually unfortunately. Wished them many fruit salads in the future.