Something has always rung true about the Fake Theme Park account on Twitter.
The anonymous writer’s posts have been sharp and on the nose, especially when it came to front-line worker issues and corporate strategies. Your gut says there’s some inside info or work experience going on there, and that the tweets were coming from somebody – or somebodies – with Orlando attractions on their resumes.
Your gut was almost right.
The Fake Theme Park feed is written by Jason Ginsburg, who spent about 10 years as a VIP tour guide at Universal Studios in Hollywood.
The account was started in 2010, a time when faux-but-for-fun accounts were raging on social media.
“There seemed to be nothing that was making fun of theme parks in general and Disney in particular, which seemed obvious,” Ginsburg said. “Disney has a huge cultural footprint and is so beloved and has such passionate fans.”
So he created a parallel theme-park universe that revolves around a fictional attraction that’s stocked with rides, shows, costumed characters and royals.
“Princesses are always there to be made fun of,” he says.
The Fake Theme Park posts have addressed many topics in the past month alone:
On construction delays:
On ride updates:
On park PR:
On superfandom:
On, perhaps, the cancellation of races at Disneyland:
On movie-making in the park a la “The Florida Project”: “In the park, we don’t allow filming, videography, photography, caricatures, note-taking, or memories.”
The account doesn’t directly call out park giants, instead using Ginsburg’s imaginary theme park as fodder.
“It made more sense to make up my own attractions and shows and characters. I can do what I want with them,” Ginsburg says. “My attractions can be on fire, they can collapse, they can be broken. I control all that.”
He went so far as to make up an address for the park (James Buchanan Parkway, even though no James Buchanan Parkway exists in the U.S.) and a location (Ash County, ditto).
The account has always been a one-person project. It’s not sponsored or part of a real job.
“It is a labor of love. I haven’t monetized it,” he says.
In real life, Ginsburg, 43, works as digital producer for a cable-TV network in New York City. He has a background in comedy – performing and writing – and his tweets give him a ready venue for his handiwork. Being anonymous gave it mystique, he says.
But that anonymity is “sort of running out of usefulness at this point. I feel like I want the credit,” he laughs.
Some social-media sensations have soared. A Twitter account morphed into a sitcom. Instagram accounts begat coffee-table books.
The performer in him enjoys the applause/feedback, folks who get it.
“I do enjoy getting people involved and playing along with me,” he says.
dbevil@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5477; Twitter: @ThemeParks
