Oompa-Loompa Bartender

Submission 32,002

Part of a series on Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience. [View Related Entries]

About

Oompa-Loompa Bartender, also known as Meth Lab Oompa-Loompa, refers to a viral photograph of an actress dressed as an Oompa-Loompa at the controversial Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience event that took place in Glasgow, Scotland in February 2024. The image, originally shared on Facebook, received viral spread online as it became a meme and was paired with humorous captions about glum experiences.

Origin

On February 24th, 2024, the Willy Wonka Experience event took place in Glasgow, failing to live up to attendees expectations due to false advertisements and a low overall quality of production.^[1]

On February 26th, British tabloid Daily Mail^[2] reported on the failed event. The article included a photograph of a glum Oompa-Loompa actor working at a chocolate lab station amid a cloud of smoke, originally posted on Facebook by an unidentified attendee (shown below). The Oompa-Loompa was played by British actress Kirsty Paterson.^[3] Another Oompa-Loompa seen in some images was played by actress Jenny Fogarty.

Later on February 26th, as the news about the event went viral on social media, X^[4] / Twitter user @Vietpride218 shared the photograph, captioning it, "Here's the Oompa Loompa. Did I mean to say 'a'? Nah. Apparently, there was only one." The post (shown below) received over 1,600 reposts and 9,000 likes in two days.

On February 27th, 2024, X^[5] user @BeardedGenius posted four photographs from the event, including the photo of the Oompa-Loompa, with the tweet gaining over 23,000 reposts and 282,000 likes in one day.

Spread

The photograph saw viral spread in the following days as more users used it in their posts about the Glasgow event. For example, on February 27th, 2024, X^[6] user @disappoptimism made a post about the photograph that gained over 6,600 reposts and 101,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). Later that day, X^[7] user @_mrpussy made a post that received over

The photograph received further spread in memes as it was edited and paired with humorous captions about glum situations. For example, on February 27th, 2024, X^[8] user @alex_abads captioned the image, “Welcome to Lush!,” with the post gaining over 5,500 reposts and 82,000 likes in one day (shown below, left).