Wednesday, September 4, 2019

VIDEOS: "I'm going to Nigloland!"

Yes, folks, there really is a "Nigloland", a theme park in Dolancourt, in northeastern France. In the official video, which invites you to "Vivez des sensations fortes à Nigloland!" it looks pretty much like your average amusement park.



You got your roller coaster, your runaway train ride (like Indiana Jones), your flume ride and many others designed to make you scream and throw up, if that's your idea of a good time. It also had a quieter ride -- the kind I like -- an African river cruise, like they used to have in Disney's Adventureland (if my memory serves).

The Nigloland (got the name figured out yet?) cruise is a little more realistic... or less politically correct... than the Disney version. Here's a clip.



For those who don't speak French, the character with the red tarboosh, carrying a bunch of bananas, is an African. The one about to get his nether orifice reamed out, is a European colonialist. He's yelling, "Stop talking, Bounama, and help me climb onto this branch before my trousers start looking like a sieve!" The black character replies in a heavy African accent and calls the white character "boss" several times.

For some reason, this scene enraged some visitors to Nigloland -- admirers of Rousseau's "noble savage" ideal, perhaps -- who started a Twitterstorm accusing the park operators of colonialism, racism, yada yada yada -- the usual stuff. The theme park was quick to post an apology on social media, saying "We apologize to the people we were able to encounter with one of the scenes of the Africa Cruise. We are listening to our customers and sensitive to the quality of our park, we change the scene in question this weekend. Thank you for your understanding."

That's OK then. Forget about it. And for our readers who were planning on visiting Nigloland, forget about that too. No "sensations fortes" there any more.

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