Jimmy Kimmel's chat show spoofs Glasgow Willy Wonka experience

Glasgow’s notorious Willy Wonka Experience has been spoofed on one of the US’s most popular late night chat shows.

The sketch went out on US TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live! on the ABC network and was recorded in Hollywood.

It featured Freddie Highmore, star of Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film from 2005, reprising his role as Charlie Bucket.

He jokingly debuts the trailer for Part Two of the film, in which Charlie gives two ­children a tour as a green screen behind him falls down to reveal a sparsely-decorated building similar to the Glasgow event.

Referencing parents who compared the Scots warehouse venue to a meth lab, an actress resembling Kirsty Paterson’s glum Oompa Loompa asks the children: “Do you fancy some yummy methamphetamine?”

Commenting on the garbled advertising that was blamed on using an AI programme, the sketch says that “everything here is created by ChatGPT”.

Highmore sings: “Candy is good, candy is mouth, sweet is fun, And we love to ­imagination.”

He also meets the character The Unknown, who featured in the Glasgow Willy Wonka ­Experience and was played by a 16-year-old called Felicia.

The spoof used photos of the Glasgow warehouse before the sketch ends with the credit: “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Part 2… in abandoned theatres everywhere.”

The sketch coincided with the news that Glasgow’s Willy Wonka experience has inspired promoters in Hollywood to stage their own version.

Oompa Loompa Kirsty, 29, in real life a yoga teacher, has been hired as special guest at a ­“nondescript warehouse” in Los Angeles where attendees will be offered “two jelly beans”.

The April 28 event, hopes to replicate the shambolic nature of the Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience, which saw police called in by angry parents.

The use of over-the-top generative AI in its advertising has led to a backlash against the emerging industry.

Simon Ward, of Inspired Thinking Group. said: “Wonka should serve as a wake-up call about the risks of using AI ­recklessly, leaving customers with a bitter aftertaste.”