# Please spoil this Willy Wonka thing for me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338 "2007-06-25T16:44:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/21 "2007-06-25T19:11:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Isn’t that a … band name? The band named itself after the character. Another piece of movie trivia. In the 1971 movie, when they show the picture of the South American billionaire who supposedly found the last golden ticket - it’s a picture of [Martin Bormann](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Bormann). ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/22 "2007-06-25T19:12:33Z")
When I pledged a fraternity, the climax of the harrowing, weekend-long initiation rite was the “throwing-out ceremony”. A black-hooded tribunal had me convinced that I had failed the tests and had to leave, before revealing it was all a gag and that I had just become a full-fledged member. I found this somewhat reminiscent of the ending of the Gene Wilder version: After completing the tour, Charlie is told that a couple of small transgressions have disqualified him from the “lifetime supply of chocolate” prize. Earlier, he had been offered a large bribe by evil candymaker Mr. Slugworth for a sample of the “Everlasting Gobbstopper”. Each child is given one during the tour, but at the end, Charlie hands his back to Wonka–who had set it all up as a test–thus displaying his true althruism and winning the factory. Leaving this part out ruined the Johnny Depp version for me. I take it it’s not in the book. ---
**Author:** ![gulliver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@gulliver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gulliver)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/23 "2007-06-25T19:17:18Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] And I don’t think paying people in cocoa beans is considered legal in any state. [/QUOTE] Holy suspension of disbelief, Batman. These aren’t just people, they’re Oompa Loompas. And the labor laws of Great Britian probably differ a bit from those of the United States; therefore, cocoa beans as payment of wages may be perfectly acceptable. In any event, it’s a work of fiction. You’re cool with orange skinned midgets being made to work, but the fact that they get paid in cocoa has you up in arms? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/24 "2007-06-25T19:22:52Z")
[QUOTE=sqweels] When I pledged a fraternity, the climax of the harrowing, weekend-long initiation rite was the “throwing-out ceremony”. A black-hooded tribunal had me convinced that I had failed the tests and had to leave, before revealing it was all a gag and that I had just become a full-fledged member. I found this somewhat reminiscent of the ending of the Gene Wilder version: After completing the tour, Charlie is told that a couple of small transgressions have disqualified him from the “lifetime supply of chocolate” prize. Earlier, he had been offered a large bribe by evil candymaker Mr. Slugworth for a sample of the “Everlasting Gobbstopper”. Each child is given one during the tour, but at the end, Charlie hands his back to Wonka–who had set it all up as a test–thus displaying his true althruism and winning the factory. Leaving this part out ruined the Johnny Depp version for me. I take it it’s not in the book. [/QUOTE] That’s right, it’s not. Interestingly, when I read _Dune_ I became increasingly impatient with every page turned and no sign of the “zap them by speaking magic words” shtick. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/25 "2007-06-25T20:16:53Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] announces that he has put a golden ticket in every candy bar… [/QUOTE] Nitpick: every millionth (or somerthing) candy bar. [QUOTE=gulliver] And the labor laws of Great Britian probably differ a bit from those of the United States [/QUOTE] I remember when I was a kid thinking someone ought to organize that factory. Loompahs of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but those ill-fitting trousers! ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/26 "2007-06-25T20:24:59Z")
In the first movie, Willie assures us, with a hint of doubt, that all the children will be fine. None are presumed dead. And in the book & remake movie, while they are disfigured, it’s amusingly so & not horrifically so. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/27 "2007-06-25T20:26:23Z")
Funny, I just watched this movie yesterday. Well, the original one with Gene Wilder. It was made better when I added the [Rifftrax](http://www.rifftrax.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=67) with Mike Nelson and Neil Patrick Harris doing the commentary. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/28 "2007-06-25T20:28:45Z")
[QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher] Don’t ask. 😉 [/QUOTE] WHAT ARE THE SNOZBERRIES?! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/29 "2007-06-25T20:34:06Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] WHAT ARE THE SNOZBERRIES?! 🙂 [/QUOTE] Well, if you really must pry… Dahl liked to use “snozzberries” as a euphamism for a certain part of the male body, specifically in the groin area. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/30 "2007-06-25T21:01:01Z")
[QUOTE=saoirse] Nitpick: every millionth (or somerthing) candy bar. [/QUOTE] Nitpick of a nitpick: Only five altogether. No more, no less. That’s why there’s five kids. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/31 "2007-06-25T21:10:26Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] WHAT ARE THE SNOZBERRIES?! 🙂 [/QUOTE] About $1.29 a pound. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/32 "2007-06-25T21:44:12Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] WHAT ARE THE SNOZBERRIES?! 🙂 [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > LICKABLE WALLPAPER FOR NURSERIES, it said on the next door. “Lovely stuff, lickable wallpaper!” cried Mr Wonka, rushing past. “It has pictures of fruits on it — bananas, apples, oranges, grapes, pineapples, strawberries, and snozzberries …” "Snozzberries?’ said Mike Teavee. “Don’t interrupt!” said Mr Wonka. “The wallpaper has pictures of all these fruits printed on it, and when you lick the picture of a banana, it tastes of banana. When you lick a strawberry, it tastes of strawberry. And when you lick a snozzberry, it tastes just exactly like a snozzberry …” “But what does a snozzberry taste like?” — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Chapter 22 [QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher] Dahl liked to use “snozzberries” as a euphamism for a certain part of the male body, specifically in the groin area. [/QUOTE] Ewwww! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/33 "2007-06-25T23:22:10Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] Ewwww! [/QUOTE] Now you know why I said “Don’t ask.” 😃 BTW: a bit of looking via Google says I should have used the singular. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/34 "2007-06-25T23:30:23Z")
I read somewhere (maybe IMDB, so who knows) that Roald Dahl _loathed_ the Gene Wilder version, even to the point of throwing something at a hotel room TV when the movie came on. Have they ever made a movie about The Glass Elevator? I want to see the Knids! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/35 "2007-06-25T23:41:09Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Wonka uses Oompa Loompa’s as slave labor. He never lets them leave the factory so they can’t leak his secrets to other candy makers. In the original book, they were little dark men from Africa who Charlie speculates Wonka carved out of chocolate. That went over really well with the PC police :rolleyes: and in future printings they were white with orange and green hair. [/QUOTE] Indeed. in the copy I had, which my brother and I must have gotten around 1966, the Oompas were actually described as pygmies from Africa. I may still have that around somewhere. I agree on the political correctness–because when an alternative target is chosen, you have to ask, well what makes it acceptable to stereotype them? For instance, a current commercial for an internet hotel site shows hotel chambermaids, all white, all middle aged, and all with, apparently, Slavic accents. I don’t travel much, but I haven’t met an Eastern European immigrant hotel maid in my entire life… ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/36 "2007-06-26T01:34:51Z")
> [@](#): > > “And when you lick a snozzberry, it tastes just exactly like a snozzberry …”— Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Chapter 22 Holy Crap! “The snozzberries taste like snozzberries” -Super Troopers. I never got that till now. ---
**Author:** ![Soapbox\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Soapbox\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soapbox_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/37 "2007-06-26T03:02:54Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] I don’t plan on seeing either of the movie versions because they look too disturbingly surreal and grotesque for me, but I’d like in on the plot. What’s the story? [/QUOTE] You’re doing yourself a terrible disservice. Go rent the Gene Wilder version. NOW! ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/38 "2007-06-26T05:34:44Z")
[QUOTE=sqweels] Leaving this part out ruined the Johnny Depp version for me. I take it it’s not in the book. [/QUOTE] No, Willy Wonka’s final test for Charlie in the _Willy Wonka_ version of the movie is not in the book. The “Slugworth” name is briefly mentioned, but just as a rival candy maker who used to steal Wonka’s secrets. Nor is all the backstory about Wonka’s father from the _Charlie_ version of the movie to be found in the original book - like so many of the adult characters in Dahl’s children’s books, Wonka is just three steps beyond eccentric, and we never find out why. I’ve found that most of the people who claim one movie version is “sooo faithful to the book” (usually the more recent one) haven’t read the dang thing in thirty or forty years :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/39 "2007-06-26T12:25:59Z")
[QUOTE=flodnak] I’ve found that most of the people who claim one movie version is “sooo faithful to the book” (usually the more recent one) haven’t read the dang thing in thirty or forty years :dubious: [/QUOTE] I started a thread a while back where I compared the book - chapter by chapter - to both movies - IMO, neither of them is appreciably ‘closer to the book’ than the other. _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ does a better job of some things (the precise wording of the dialogue, for example), but does not do a very good job with the character of Willy Wonka, and messes up the ending quite horribly as a result. _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_ does a good job of portraying the eccentric character of Wonka, but breaks from the notion that Charlie is a deserving innocent (the fizzy lifting drinks thing), and deviates from the dialogue and action in places. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338/40 "2007-06-26T12:31:48Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] I don’t travel much, but I haven’t met an Eastern European immigrant hotel maid in my entire life… [/QUOTE] [hijack]Saw my first one just three weeks ago. Well, not Eastern European, but Nordic. We were staying at [the Lake Quinault Lodge](http://www.visitlakequinault.com/) in the Olympic National Park, and our cleaning lady was a middle aged Swedish woman. The others in the lodge were young caucasians and older Swedes.[/hijack] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-spoil-this-willy-wonka-thing-for-me/409338.md?page=3)