Everybody has a laughing place. If you haven’t found yours yet, we found seven spots at Disney World where—no matter your sense of humor—you can kick back and have a good laugh. Some may surprise you!
1. Visit Gaston in Fantasyland
Image: Disney
When Beauty and the Beast came out in 1991, there probably weren’t too many people expecting fans to line up around the block to meet Gaston. Good grief, were we wrong.
Disney is full of charming character encounters, but none have proved as hysterical as Gaston’s meet and greet in Fantasyland. The man (the myth? The legend?) was already hilarious before the new Fantasyland expansion, but since the addition of Gaston’s Tavern to the park, Magic Kingdom’s Gaston has turned into a viral sensation.
There is no predicting what Gaston will do on any given day except do just be… well, Gaston. No one does push-ups like Gaston. Do one arm wrestles like Gaston. No one argues with small children and belittles rival suitors like Gaston… and if someone shows up dressed as Belle? All bets are off. Unless the contest is about calculus or reading (BAH!), no one outdoes Gaston. Just click the links. Everyone’s Disney day (except, perhaps, Belle’s) can benefit from a little more Gaston.
2. Watch loved ones try “Beverly” at Club Cool
Is your sense of humor piqued by a good-spirited prank? Look no further than Epcot’s Club Cool.
For those unfamiliar, Club Cool is Epcot’s monument to the industry and science of… soda. Okay, there’s no industry or science, but you can try a handful of unique sodas from around the world for free. Most are familiar enough flavors. After all, what is soda but carbonated water and syrup? However, one unique libation at Club Cool stands above them all.
Beverly.
Beverly is a non-alcoholic Italian aperitif with a powerful kick. A pungent dose of grapefruit rind in the drink gives it a punch-you-in-the-mouth variety of bitterness that defies explanation. Reaction videos of people trying the concoction have become surprisingly popular over the years, and you can both have a laugh and catch a lifelong memory in the making if you have your phone ready when your friends and loved ones take the plunge. Proceed with caution with anyone who has a weak gag reflex, but for everyone else, Beverly is an absolute must try opportunity that will surely result in some laughter… after all, if we didn’t laugh when drinking it, we’d cry…
3. Get harangued by Vikings in Norway
Image: Disney
If you’re still mourning the loss of Maelstrom to the icy winds of Elsa’s touch, a recent addition to Epcot’s Norway pavilion might just be your new laughing place. At random times, Vikings parade through the Norway pavilion. At first, they look silent and stoic—a noble addition to celebrate Norway’s seagoing heritage.
Then the tiny horn comes out.
The Vikings make an utterly unpredictable show out of haranguing guests in the pavilion. As far as we’ve seen, they stay in character and do not speak English (though they make quite a show out of learning a guest’s name). Instead, they interact with guests through grunts, drum-banging, horn-tooting, general shenanigans, and occasionally shouting at passing friendship boats. If you happen to be sitting at Kringla Bakery og Café when they make their appearance, you can expect them to wander through the seating area, inspecting guests and even occasionally stealing a grape or two.
Losing Maelstrom may have been a sad blow for fans, but the Vikings have ensured that Epcot’s Norway has maintained just a little bit of that old kookiness from the days of yore.
4. Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor
Overall, we tried to avoid attraction humor for this particular list. Once you’ve been on a ride enough times, certain humor elements lose their luster, and tastes vary widely on what is and isn’t funny in an attraction. However, if we’re talking about laughing places, Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor in Tomorrowland cannot be ignored.
The overall appeal of Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor might vary depending on your feelings on the original film—at first, the premise can come across as cheesy: guests have basically been chosen to provide electricity to the monsters’ world through the eliciting of laughter. However, similar to Turtle Talk at The Seas with Nemo, the unpredictable element of guest interaction makes this attraction surprisingly disarming. The Monster’s Inc team strikes the full spectrum of humor with a clever mix of canned jokes and hilarious comebacks that always make for a new experience on the ride. If you need a serious dose of the lolz, Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor is the place for you.
5. Watch Captain Phasma and the First Order accost fellow guests
Image: Disney
If you haven’t noticed yet, quasi-invasive character encounters are a repeated theme in Disney laughing places. If you want to see this concept taken to the next level, you need to catch a stormtrooper march in Disney Hollywood Studios.
Like Disney’s other streetmosphere acts, the regular stormtrooper patrols in Disney Hollywood Studios start off innocuous enough. However, on occasion, stormtroopers will fixate on a guest, especially on small kids dressed in Star Wars costumes. One of the most famous of these was an encounter where stormtroopers escorted a young boy dressed as Kylo Ren through the park, ultimately taking him to the front of the lines for Star Tours and to meet the dark one himself.
If you want to see this play out on a large scale, stake out a good seat for the March of the First Order. While the procession of a legion of stormtroopers led by Captain Phasma is impressive enough, watching the Captain harass various guests along the marching route (projected and amplified on giant screens in front of the Chinese theater) is truly hilarious.
6. Jungle Navigation Skipper Canteen
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega (@mykingdomforamouse Instagram)
While we had mixed feelings about this recent addition to Magic Kingdom’s table service dining lineup, we well and truly fell in love with Jungle Navigation Skipper Canteen. While it is possible to catch a taciturn server or host at this marvelously quirky restaurant, most of our visits have left us in stitches.
The premise is simple: the theme is that the restaurant is the local canteen for Jungle Cruise skippers. In a brilliant move, Disney literally staffed the restaurant with off-duty Jungle Cruise skippers. No matter your feelings about the Jungle Cruise ride, some of the hosts and servers are hilarious, and each one has their own take on the classic tongue-in-cheek humor of the Adventureland classic. Easter eggs and inside jokes fill the restaurant’s three dining halls (if possible, ask if you can be seated in one of the smaller ones), and even the entrees on the menu are named for humor. If you’re especially lucky, you may get to see the Great Wall of China.
It never gets old…
Where is your laughing place at Disney World?
