This story originally ran on November 21, 2023. We’re republishing it now alongside the release of Episode 2 of Land of the Giants: The Disney Dilemma, a Vulture-Vox Media Podcast Network collaboration that looks at the many facets and ever-changing fortunes of the sprawling entertainment company. Episode 2 takes us inside Disney’s Parks, where imagination is quickly being replaced by IP. You can listen to it here, and follow the entire series at the Disney Dilemma hub.
Is Kevin Perjurer YouTube’s answer to Ken Burns? Honestly, yeah, probably. With over 1.9 million subscribers and over 217 million views, the creator behind the YouTube account Defunctland has gone from niche theme-park video essayist to prolific documentarian of the business, artistry, successes, and failures of American amusement. Since starting Defunctland in 2017, Perjurer’s ambitions have grown with the scope of his subjects, using original reporting, archival footage, and entire computer simulations to shine attention and affection on otherwise forgotten attractions. One of his most successful videos, “Disney’s FastPass: A Complicated History,†has 21 million views despite its feature length (one hour, 43 minutes) and niche topic (crowd management). Each of Perjurer’s videos finds a unique aspect of theme-park culture and preserves it, like strange SeaWorld rides or the worst Six Flags roller coaster. He even expanded to create DefunctTV in 2018 to analyze children’s shows from the ’90s and aughts, an era from which pieces of digital media can so easily be lost.
“It’s untapped territory and untapped analysis,†Perjurer explained to Slate last year. “People don’t analyze theme parks the way we analyze other forms of art. But I don’t think it’s possible to do enough analysis on how theme parks have affected American culture. From Disneyland to Disney World to Universal, all of these parks have changed the way we view ourselves, how we vacation, and how we engage with the media.†Perjurer has found a new way to document pop culture that doesn’t consist of just reading a Wikipedia page. He credits the folks behind things that go unnoticed or even unknown, such as the creator of the Disney Channel theme song. On the latest episode of Land of the Giants: The Disney Dilemma, Perjurer speaks about the ways that Disney mines nostalgia to fuel its theme parks and uses its theme parks to reinforce nostalgia, and wonders about whether or not the Figment is eating its own tail. If you want to catch up with Defunctland, here’s where to start.
Start here if you need a good cry:
Everyone (mostly water signs) needs to schedule a good cry now and then, and anything related to the passing of the great Jim Henson makes me sob like a little baby. In DefunctTV’s look at Henson, Perjurer highlights important moments of the puppeteer’s career, from his first public-access television series in 1955 to Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Perjurer cuts between Henson’s personal and professional final moments, including his funeral ceremony in New York and the last episode of The Jim Henson Hour, a memorial hosted by the Muppets. —Alejandra Gularte
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Now that you understand the importance of Jim Henson (and have let all of the tears out of your body), learn about the beginning of his career and see his earliest creations.
Start here if you want to get slimed:
Throughout Defunctland’s history, Disney has taken a front roller-coaster cart in its coverage: ahead of everyone else but unsure of where it might lead. “The History of the Nickelodeon Hotel,†however, was the first Defunctland episode I ever watched, and it got me hooked. Even though I grew up going to Disneyland every couple of years, Florida and all of its green slime was a mystery to me until I was almost an adult. Being able to see what the Nick Hotel was like at the height of its popularity without any of the goo was refreshing — plus, I got to find out what actually happened to the resort. What happened to the excess slime remains a mystery. —A.G.
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Perjurer chats with former Nick Hotel manager Kate Kelly about her experience working at the property. The two dive deeper into the creepy walk-around characters, the stress of the in-demand 4-D shows, and the not-in-demand honeymoon suite.
Start here if you miss the Disney Channel theme-song bangers:
Perjurer journeys to uncover who wrote the four-note Disney Channel theme by interviewing various behind-the-scenes team members and former Disney Channel stars. He also grapples with his own need for validation from an industry that seems to ignore his documentary work because it’s on YouTube. I mean, the man is making feature-length documentaries for free. —A.G.
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For a shorter video about a childhood theme song that slaps, take a trip with the Kratt brothers, the hosts of Zoboomafoo. On the PBS series, the zoologist brothers teach kids from the 1990s and today (they now have an animated show) all about animals. Cute!
Start here if you grew up in New Jersey:
One of the most infamous Defunctland subjects, Action Park in Vernon, New Jersey, was one of the most dangerous and scandalous owing to the many accidents, some fatal, suffered by its guests. Released three years before the 2020 HBO documentary Class Action Park, this video features Perjurer discussing the water park’s activities and the injuries that resulted from both its managers’ negligence and the park’s reputation. While the documentary outlived Action Park, which was rebranded as Mountain Creek in 2016, it highlights the nostalgia and the dangers of the original and how it was able to survive for so long despite its deadly reputation. —A.G.
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If unsafe water parks aren’t scary enough, check out the defunct Tokyo Disneyland’s Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour.
Start here if you have a Ph.D. in RollerCoaster Tycoon statistics:
In the past two years, a revolt has been stirring among theme-park influencers and journalists. Go to a blog run by Orlando moms or Disney-specific travel agents, and even they — the biggest Disney adults of them all — are grumbling about how crowd distribution at Disney Parks is, in a word, fucked. The implementation of a new paid-tier replacement for the FastPass system (an unpleasant, malfunctioning app service called Genie+) has chipped away at the goodwill of the top 0.1 percent of Disney Parks–goers, who have built an entire tertiary industry on theme-park coverage. Was it always this bad? How did it get that way? Perjurer answers those questions in his first feature-length Defunctland entry, a one-hour, 43-minute documentary for which he built out multiple advanced computer models to illustrate exactly why those in power made going to Disney World intentionally, mathematically less fun. It’s the rare theme-park vlog that urban-studies students could learn something from. —Rebecca Alter
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After learning about the mechanics of crowd distribution, learn about the Disney California Adventure Park ride that did a very good job of distributing crowds as far away from it as possible.
Start here if you’re a “You Must Remember This†head:
To truly understand Disneyland and every theme park that came in its wake, you must first learn about the history of Walt Disney the guy, Walt Disney the studio, and America’s relationship to leisure, amusement parks, and world’s fairs at large. On the third season of Defunctland, Perjurer does a deep dive into late-19th and early-20th-century American history, matching archival footage to firsthand accounts and old sensational newspaper articles. Also: lots of Robert Moses being dastardly. “The Craziest Party Walt Disney Ever Threw†is an especially fun Old Hollywood episode, like the Mickey Mouse version of Babylon. —R.A.
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You won’t believe how pervy this place used to be.
Start here if you’re a foodie:
In one of his funniest videos, Perjurer turns his attention not to a defunct attraction but a defunct theme-park snack: the “Handwich.†We all know about Dole Whip and turkey legs, but for close to a decade from the ’80s to the ’90s, Disney tried to make the Handwich happen at its Florida parks. Concoctions of conical bread with a sort of Hungarian Chimney Cake texture, Handwiches were stuffed to the brim with stuff like tuna salad, ambrosia salad, and taco beef. This would be funny enough on its own, but the real Perjurer touch is that he does the whole video in the style of cooking shows over the decades (’50s instructional, ’80s Yan Can Cook, ’90s Emeril), nailing the pastiche while actually re-creating Handwiches himself. —R.A.
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This minisode is about another bit of ’80s fast-food antiquity: Mac Tonight, the McDonald’s mascot that the alt-right reappropriated around the time of Trump’s election. It’s an example of a non-theme-park topic that nevertheless fits perfectly into Perjurer’s wheelhouse.
Start here if you’re horny:
Yes, this video is about Garfield. Yes, it begins with two minutes on the history of picnics. Then it tells the century-spanning story of a boat ride at the Pennsylvania theme park Kennywood. First, Perjurer shows just how literal its Tunnel of Love ride really was … to the point that, in the 1960s, staff members stationed throughout were “given a plastic bat and were instructed that if they saw the naked buttocks of any rider, they were to smack them with the bat.†Somewhere along the way, this ride became Garfield’s Nightmare, and the episode becomes a look back at Garfield merchandising mania. —R.A.
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Maybe you’re just diametrically opposed to all things Disney. Understood. If you enjoyed this more regional adult-themed ep, the history of Kings Landing’s Son of Beast is a perfect chaser.