Disney Adjusts Cosmic Rewind Pre-Show to Remove Audience Interaction Pause

Fans of bad comedy are having a bad day. Mariann Bell and her family rode Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind this afternoon and noticed a change to the pre-show dialogue after Tal Marik, played by Terry Crews, delivers this line:

“What do they call themselves? Epcoters? Epcotians? Citizens of Epcot?”

There’s no longer a pause for audience participation. They didn’t reshoot the scene or add a cut. Instead, the gap has been replaced with static made to look like an issue with the transmission.

What Imagineers intended as a funny moment had devolved into some guests yelling “alcoholics” or “day drinkers.” A few people might still laugh, but the rest of us are over it.

I was over it the first time I heard it, and not just because it’s bad form to yell stuff like that in a theme park, although it is. My biggest problem is that it’s not funny. Maybe it is if you’ve had too much to drink in World Showcase. But that’s a low bar for comedy.

I’m surprised it took Disney this long to make the update. Now, if they could just prevent people from reciting the Ghost Host’s lines in the Haunted Mansion’s stretching room.