How Much Money Does Disneyland Lose Everyday By Being Closed?

Episode Summary

Main Topics Discussed

• Disneyland Operations and Restrictions: The conversation begins with a discussion about new rules at Disneyland, specifically discouraging screaming on rides.
• Financial Losses of Disney Parks: A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to speculating and then researching the substantial daily financial losses incurred by Disneyland and Walt Disney World due to pandemic-related closures.
• Impact on Workers: The hosts touch upon the dire economic situation for minimum wage workers reliant on these parks, highlighting the inadequacy of unemployment benefits.
• Personal Space and Boundaries: Topics include an aversion to handshaking, both pre- and post-COVID, and an extended discussion about unwanted physical contact and harassment experienced by comedians after shows, particularly female comedians.
• COVID-19 Misinformation and Reality: The episode concludes with a comparison between the initial exaggerated guesses about Disney's financial losses and the often-exaggerated public perception of COVID-19 death rates and the role of comorbidities.

Key Insights & Memorable Moments

• The hosts' initial guesses for Disneyland's daily losses (Rogan: $100-300 million, Guest: $50 million) were drastically higher than the actual figures researched by Jamie ($12 million for Disneyland CA, $25 million for Walt Disney World FL). This serves as a key moment illustrating the potential for exaggeration.
• The guest's candid recount of being inappropriately touched and even kissed by audience members after shows powerfully highlights the different challenges faced by male and female performers.
• The analogy drawn between the overestimation of Disney's losses and the public's overestimation of COVID-19's lethality provides a central analytical point of the discussion.
• The detailed breakdown of COVID-19 mortality, emphasizing the high average number of comorbidities (2.6+) in those who died, offers a more nuanced perspective on the pandemic.

Notable Quotes or Revelations

• "They're telling people not to scream at Disneyland... when you go on rides don't scream."
• Regarding Disney's losses: "It's like 300 million dollars a day or something crazy... I might have made that number I pulled that right out of my house." (Rogan)
• Actual Disneyland (CA) loss: "12 million per day... based on 2,000... coronavirus closures cost Disneyland 7.9 million per day and Disneyland California Adventure 4.1 million per day." (Jamie, producer)
• Actual Walt Disney World (FL) loss: "Walt Disney World in Florida lost 25 million per day." (Jamie, producer)
• "I've always thought handshaking was disgusting. I think we should all stop shaking hands for the rest of our lives."
• "I've had men kiss me on my mouth after shows... I've had people like grab my stomach after show." (Guest)
• "That's the difference between being a woman comic and being a male comic dudes have never tried to kiss me." (Guest)
• "A woman is not physically scary to me yeah where a man is physically scary to a woman." (Rogan)
• "When there's a person that ramps it up so high like a hundred million dollars a day... meanwhile we're both way off. Like that's in a sense like what in California everyone's like we're all going to die everyone's going to die..."
• "It's less than one percent and then you also have the problem of die from covid or die with covid because most people who die have an average of 2.6 comorbidities."

Overall Themes

• The Nature of Exaggeration: A recurring theme is how easily initial estimates and public fears can be dramatically exaggerated, whether concerning financial figures or health crises, often diverging significantly from factual data.
• Economic Realities and Vulnerability: The discussion underscores the massive economic repercussions of large-scale closures, impacting both corporations and the most vulnerable workers who rely on their income.
• Social Conduct and Personal Safety: The episode delves into evolving social norms around physical contact, highlighting the importance of personal boundaries and the gender-specific threats individuals, especially women, face in public interactions.
• Nuance in Public Health Data: The conversation advocates for a more nuanced understanding of health statistics, particularly in distinguishing direct causes of death from contributing factors like comorbidities.