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Directors Notes Episode 263 - Hysteria Land
🕑 Added 2025-03-01 14:00:15 +0000 UTCA couple years back, we were on a European tour with a day off in Copenhagen. Our merch manager, Lucia, along with me and Cecil, went to Tivoli Gardens. If you’re ever near Copenhagen, I can’t recommend Tivoli Gardens enough.
It’s an old amusement park, and it’s gorgeous. It’s fun, too, though I’m telling you that from the point of view of someone who doesn’t really do roller coasters. The rides they have there are all pretty tame when compared to say Cedar Point or really any Six Flags. More of a Disneyland vibe in Tivoli, in terms of rides.
Anyway, one of them was this small alpine-themed coaster that was all-ages. Fun, fast, simple, and not that scary. Anyway, Cecil and I ended up first in line for the next roller coaster car to pull up. We wanted to sit in the front row, so we waited by the marker that indicated that row.
As the cars pulled up, we began to step into our seats, when a 8 or 9 year old British kid ran in front of us shouting to his mother (in a very posh accent): “Mummy, I want to sit in the front row.”
At this moment, Cecil held out his arm, blocking the kid’s path. Cecil said quite firmly: “No. We are sitting in the front row.” And then Cecil stepped into the front row seats and I grabbed my spot next to him. Lucia was going to sit behind us, but she allowed the boy and his mother to sit there.
As the ride began, I heard the boy behind us say, “One day, mummy, I shall sit in the front row. I have always wanted to ride in the front of a roller coaster!”
Afterward, Lucia teased Cecil relentlessly for denying this child his dream, for crushing his hopes. It was very funny thinking of Cecil dashing this kids intentions, but to be fair to Cecil, he wasn’t wrong. There’s a line for a reason. And this kid tried to run around him to get something Cecil wanted. And honestly it’s good for kids (especially boys) to hear “No” every so often.
I hope this child has had a chance to ride shotgun on a coaster since then. I think about him a lot. He seemed very sweet.
I didn’t include this child or this scene in this episode, but it was still the inspiration for wanting to create some kind of Night Vale version of Six Flags. It was one of those episodes where the jokes just kind of flowed out, and those kinds of episodes are really really fun. Way more fun than the rides themselves.
Jeffrey Cranor
March 1, 2025
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Comments
Shawn Havery
Joseph, Jeffrey & Brie: Was the midroll ad after the weather truly necessary? It really took me out of the episode, and honestly ruins the listening experience. Ads before and after are one thing, but once the story starts, the only interruption should be the weather. I feel like this is a sacred element of how WTNV has always been experienced, and it was extremely jarring to hear it broken up in this way. Yes, I know that we have access to ad-free episodes here on Patreon, but most listeners don't (and for particular reasons of convenience I still download and listen to the regular releases and deal with the ads). I feel like you are going to lose more listeners by destroying the listening experience in this way than you are going to gain in funding by allowing these midroll ads. Just my two cents. May we please have a discussion about this? I have been an avid listener since the very beginning in 2012, and I feel like this is a major negative shift in the listening experience, to the point that I fear for the podcast's future sustainability. Is there any way to avoid having to do this in the future, and if not, can you please outline the reasons for why it was necessary to mar your creation in this manner, and what this means for the future of Night Vale? Thank you.
WonderlandGrrl
I was laughing so hard during this episode. My husband is an automation/mechanical engineer and he has had to figure out how to create rides from a concept drawing on occasion. One time a drunk client tried to give him “specs” the client had just come up with and had written on a bar napkin and was like “Dude, this is what you should totally make for us…”, so a Denny’s placemat isn’t too far off from that
Beth Ann
Thanks to random number generator horror podcast number nine, I can now read everything Jeffery writes in his voice/cadence
Journey Brown-Saintel
AHHHHHH!!!! I’m having a listening party for the ep in a few hours with my friends but I listened early and—still sobbing! My studies heavily relate to theme parks and coasters and my heart is always with Night Vale so I’m just beyond words??? Literally designing a tattoo as we speak. (Literally not metaphorically!) Thank you for all the heart and care and fun and fear put into this episode (and every episode—since I was 11!). There’s this out of body experience/magic that comes about when Night Vale’s conflict heightens—and then this catharsis when it resolves in such a fun way and with it’s signature (special) Night Vale humor 😭 and I’m so happy to get to experience it again (and I’m sure again and again!) I’ll end here so I don’t make a monster paragraph of a comment! And hey—thanks. 💜💜💜💜
Ollie of the Beholder
That may have to go on my list of "best things ever said on a roller coaster by the person behind you". It's up there with my mother, who also hates roller coasters, spending our entire time on a two-minute ride on a kiddie coaster that never goes more than eight feet off the ground screaming "THIS IS NOTHING LIKE THE GREAT TRAIN RIDE" in genuine terror or the chaperone for a church trip, whom I had assured the coaster we were on did not go upside down (which it didn't - a couple turns that tipped you to a 45-degree angle at worst, but not even any twists or rolls) saying quite casually as we pulled into the station at the end of the ride, "You know, you go to hell for lying to your Youth leader." I realize that's not the point of your story, but it's now lodged in that part of my mental catalog
