The Dumb Zone FREE - DZ 7-25-25 PREVIEW | Extraterrorestrial Alien Encounter and high school football with Greg Tepper and Mike Marshall

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

Subscribe to the Dumb Zone to hear the entire show! DumbZone.com or Patreon.com/TheDumbZoneWe relive the lore of "Extraterrorestrial Alien Encounter, the scariest ride at Disneyland" ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hey now! What you are about to hear is a free preview of one of this week's premium episodes of The Dumb Zone. If you would like to hear this program in full, along with the full archive... Ah, shit. If you would like to hear this program in full, with the archive of all of our past episodes, you can subscribe at DumbZone.com. Okay. We have this auditorium. We can do the alien thing in here. And so that's where they came up with the idea

that they would scrap the alien franchise affiliation and they would call it Extraterra Restrile, which was the name of the ride. And it pretty much is how I remembered it, which was the main thing about this ride that was crazy was the experiential element of it, where you're in this auditorium and obviously something goes wrong

and there's an alien on the loose. But for 1995, the fact that they could use the sound and like pan it around the room, you would be like, it's behind me. And you would be like, oh, it's over, people be yelling, it's across the room. And then when it would be eating someone in front of you, you would feel mist or condensation in your front.

When it was moving behind you, you'd feel it on your back. It would breathe on you. And it was the most terrifying thing I'd ever experienced at the time. Maybe to this day. My mom had a meltdown. My mom's not someone who likes to be scared. Anybody who listens to this show, probably not surprised.

I'm a giant pussy. I don't like being scared at all. Didn't like it more back then. And I had a nervous breakdown right there. And again, I heard from a couple of people. You know the Clinton years? Yeah, absolutely. Dan says, I'm nine, family beach for summer vacation,

and mom and little brother went to hunchback in Notre Dame, so dad and I are like, we're going to go ride the cool guy rides. And he said, we did it that day, but then a year later, they talked his mom into going back into it. And she started crying. His little brother started crying. He said, it seems like there's typically

somebody crying at the end of this ride. And he brought up an interesting part here. He said, I started freaking out, but you're f effing trapped in the over-the-shoulder harness bars So that's it. Yeah, sit down in this auditorium chair and they are like put your hands on why is that always a British lady, too? Come on rest here. And then the second that happens, it's And now you're like from your collarbone down locked into this thing you can't move And then he said yeah, like some fake scientist is like, oh no, we might have an escaped alien situation on our hand and then the Alien spit causes a full-on panic. There's no code name for it. Oh

No guys, we got the escaped alien situations going on right now You can't shorten it. Yeah So here's a little bit of a video that Disney used to put the, I'm sure they still do. They probably just use kids now. But back in the day when Disney wanted to do like marketing from an internal standpoint, they would just get a guy. And this guy who's hosting this is hammered. He does appear to be an actor I've seen before, but it's just a guy who's hosting this is hammered. He does appear to be an actor I've seen before

but it's just a guy who's drunk and they have him go do the ride. And. I worry from London, England. All right, so you are an alien. Yes. Man, this guy is trashed. I know you're all a little nervous

but I'm sure there's nothing to worry about So now you can see they're lowering the chair restraints So So, Alien is in the middle canister capsule looking thing. I'm already afraid just looking back on this. Oh it breaks open! Holy shit! Now the alien's on the loose. What are we gonna do? I mean, it's great, but it's not okay. I've had enough of him.

There's something loose in here. Yeah. So he ruined everyone's experience doing this like a camera narration the entire time. Yeah. That's a killer Hawaiian shirt too. So Greg went on this attraction and here's some things that I've forgotten about this that maybe you have as well. So the guys is that you're at some, it's called Excess Tech. You know how they have a great-

They're like a laboratory. Yes, it's like a fake tech company, and they're there to show off what they can do for the future, right? And they've got, there's some comedy on the front end where they're advertising some other excess technologies and then you get into the auditorium and it's, hey, today there's a guy on a screen, an alien,

and he's an English fast talking alien, and he's like, we've got this transportation technology, but rather than transport one of you here to where I am, why don't I transport myself to where you are and I can meet you all? They transport the wrong alien. Oh no. So here we have, now we've got-

A little bit of an Australia situation where they drop off their bad guys, right? or a situation where Where doge did control F for trans and accidentally like dinged the transmission workers of America? Just an oversight it happens. Look both so So the other thing too is they walk you in So the other thing, coo is, they walk you in,

and they have a scene at the beginning where they have a C-3PO looking character, and he's gonna show off the technology. So they've got a little canister. George Lucas had to get his, you know? Basically, and it looks like a little alien, a cute one, and they try out the technology, and it fries him to death. It burns the little alien. And they have given interviews

where they said we had to make that part as scary as we could to thin the herd. Like they were trying to let people know this is not a kids ride. But it was. Like you could go on it when you were six. You're tall enough you could go. Yeah, small counterpoint, Disney Corporation. You're at Disney World, so I would assume that everything here is for kids. You would think, right? Including the bars.

And even you see extra-terror restrials and you're like, come on, it's Disney. What are we talking, a Stitch-type situation here? So, it did stay open for about nine years. It closed in 2004. So this was not the sort of thing where, hey, it was open for a couple months and it shut down. They did say that they had to keep tweaking it because they had dialogue during the show

that was sort of supposed to prompt you as to what was happening, like the idea that the alien could fly. So they'd set up the speakers to where you as to what was happening, like the idea that the alien could fly. So they'd set up the speakers to where you would feel like it's flying. And there was a line where people would say, hey, it has wings, but no one could hear it because everyone was crying. Too much crying.

They're like, we had to make certain points of the story more clear to people because we realized there's screams of terror, they were missing the plot points required. We had to break through that trauma wall, you know what I mean? To get the narrative going. So it stayed up for about nine years,

and the actor who was playing the alien, the English guy who was attempting to transport himself, he was played by a famous Hollywood actor, and I think this is in the audio, but we'll skip around and see. So the change makes sense from a marketing standpoint. When you consider that Alien Encounter didn't have a movie tie-in, and there had recently been a welcome addition

of a cartoon alien to Disney's character lineup. They added it and replaced it with a stitch, a Lilo and Stitch ride, where the alien does escape, but this time, instead of ripping carnage everywhere and spitting entrails on your face stitch burps. It's whimsical. It's much more. Yeah. Perhaps the most interesting reason for its closure is Jeffrey Jones. You guys know who that is? No! Yeah. Nine times? Yeah. So, Jeffrey Jones was, of course, the principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off,

and he's run into some problems. No. Yeah. On the last quarter century. So, yes, this ride was terrifying. Yes, they had Stitch coming out. Yes, it was a lot of complaints, but ultimately, this was probably canceled

because the principal from Ferris Bueller's Day Off was the star of the attraction and he diddled like a dozen kids. It's like it's like kiddie porn or yeah something like that yeah yeah yeah the redheaded dude yeah that was also in Beetlejuice yes yeah yeah we don't mention that name in this family Beetlejuice I don't do that again I don't like being scared, but yeah. Cartoon alien to Disney's character lineup. Perhaps the most interesting reason for its closure is Jeffrey Jones.

Yes, now that is important. He stars in the footage throughout the attraction as Clench. In 2002, one year before Alien Encounters' closure, Jones was arrested for child pornography and luring and photographing an underage boy. This is a huge no-no for Disney. Yeah!

That's an understatement. It's a core value. Listen, we stand for three things. I don't know where you think this place stands on pornography of the child variety, but we'll close your ass down over that. Yeah, so in theory, or in practice, in my head, it's like, oh, it's too scary, man.

They had to shelf this thing, so it was just too much. No, they don't care about that. And it's just like, God, we can't have pedophile actors. Somebody do one damn background check on these guys before they start doing voiceovers and shit, please. So yeah, there's the story of Extra Terror Restrile, the alien encounter, which is no longer with us.

Yeah, for them, that's a hard pivot from Extra Terrorestriol to Lilo and Stitch. Yeah, you still have the alien element to it, and I did check in on Jeffrey Jones, and it's- Oh, okay. Going great? No. No, okay.

Mm-mm, mm-mm. There's a little work. There's a little bit of work. He was in Deadwood. Is he out of prison? Oh, that's a good question. He must be, because he, I mean, like I said, he did Deadwood.

He's on Dancing with the Stars, so. Oh. All right, let's do the news, Blake, and I'll look into the release of this fella. Here's Jake with the Dumb Zone News. What was he in jail, man? Oh, he didn't do real time. Five years probation, counseling, and had to register as a sex offender.

Now one thing that we are actually quite interested in here in the Dumb Zone News Desk is sentencing. And we had a story yesterday of a piano teacher at Country Day or one of the big ones in Fort Worth, private school, who had whipped it out in front of several students. Like a 29 year old guy, he got 10 years. What's enough? That felt right to us. 10? Yeah. That feels like a fat part of the bell curve. Unless you want to get into conversations

about neuroscience and diseases, things of this nature. It's very hard with trying to have criminality, criminal justice, science in it, whatever. But my point is, Jeffrey Jones did no time. And this is, by the way, a lot weirder than you probably remember it being. The Jeffrey Jones thing? Yes.

He was arrested for possession of sexual abuse material and soliciting of a 14-year-old boy. He photographed the child and paid him to pose nude on multiple occasions wearing a cowboy hat with stuffed animals and dressed as a Native American. Do you think that's two separate outfits like he did? We'll do cowboy and then we'll do Indian? Well, yeah, there's no continuity there.

It's also just disrespectful to indigenous cultures, right? Do which I there's definitely somebody who listens to NPR where that's the line. Yeah Okay You made the kid dress up like a appropriation yeah, or he was he's the one photographing him he's photographing the kid the way you said it first I thought the kid was the cowboy and Jeffrey Jones was the Indian. I think it's, I think he's, I don't know. He might have been.

And I was like, yeah, he introduced natural conflict. He's clearly got a, this is acting out a role again. You'll never catch me. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, OK. He was arrested a couple of times for failing to register. But that must just be, I feel like if I were a sex offender it'd be top of my list, but as many guys get arrested

for letting it lapse, it seems like a real nuisance. You know what, why don't we just figure it out, we can handle this right now. Give us your list. If you were a sex offender, what's your priority list? That's definitely number one. Like, definitely, right? I feel like they let you know that. you know that yeah number two is like mapping out

playgrounds No, I think you're missing the goal is here is for me to quit being a pedophile No, I'm saying so you know where not to go that seems like a good idea. What am I supposed to wear all the liquor stores? Stay away where not to go unless you know where to yeah, it's not good point therapy listen We're trying to be problem solvers. I did I did appreciate that Disney Gave you some clearing houses there with like the scary frying of the alien right like that's that's smarter than yes There was a I feel like whenever Remember when escape rooms were becoming a big thing yeah I do but I've never been yeah I figure you didn't

you're too cool for those so Saroi Saroi dragged me to like four or five different escape rooms you know just to kill a seggy on on the Cirque every once in a while that's happy hour yeah he loves it's it's magic it's magic. It's magic adjacent. Just guys being dudes. Yeah. It is magic adjacent. It's in the same category, subcategory on the website. But there was one where it was like a zombie escape room. And it ended up being really bad ass.

But I remember the beginning, they're sitting you in there in this room, and they're introducing the scenario. Your cell, whatever the hook is, is an alien, he's gonna come visit and you gotta sit down in the auditorium, whatever, and it's this experiment that's gone wrong and we've been getting letters back and forth

from the doctor such and such. And as they're building the storyline, it just gets more and more woke as the storyline. And I was like, what the fuck is going on here? 100%, dude, because yes, that's also escape room clientele. Yeah, and then I get, and it keeps going, and I'm just like, what are they prepping me for? Like, what am I being prepped for?

And we step in there, and it might've been Austin, me, Saroy, Austin, maybe Kraytray under there. Under the head zone. Yeah, it was a group of us, us and Kraitra got out real quick tag real quick but we step in there and we're like what are we up against here like I know it's a zombie escape room but how does this work we walk in and it's this little tiny blonde lady chained to the wall it means really like we're gonna fuck you up like you ain'tning today lady you are not winning today. I love the idea of DEI escape room though I can't get out unless you draw no infractions

You can't like if you get like if you get Arab or Indian wrong That'd be nice we stepped in and we just like she's like trying to they open the door, you know They're like done and open the door and you know, it's about to be like a zombie looking person. It's like this little lady, and me and Soroy just openly laughing in her face. Could've been HIV positive though. Yeah. And you didn't know.

Didn't know. But asked. Yeah, she didn't catch us though. We had a home invasion in Fort Worth overnight. Okay. Three men, ski masks and all, break into this home in Fort Worth overnight. Okay. Three men, ski masks and all, break into this home in Fort Worth. The homeowner shoots a suspect

and escapes through the window. Which makes me think. Scoreboard is, yeah. Yeah. This dude, this person, I'm not saying that they were like, knew they were gonna be robbed. He's expected.

But I think if you're able to pull the John Wick move of out of the window, plus you fended him off, two of the suspects still on the loose, at least as of right before the show, because Fox Four was on the scene. I think, do I have audio from this or not? They tried to talk to the guy that got shot, maybe? Or he did.

The guy who got shot was found on the street by the police a couple blocks away when they arrived. He'll probably talk a lot to get that bullet out of him. Again, we know the shooting all started as a home invasion. Police say they responded to reports of a home break-in a little after 3 AM on East Maddox Avenue near 287 the homeowner told police several men broke into his house wearing ski masks and carrying guns Now police say the victim shot at men to defend himself and the suspects returned fire neighbors in this area

Witnessed the entire situation unfold. They sure did folks didn't they? Absolutely did. Hold on. Boom boom boom boom. So the guy ran, ran, come out of the vacant lot over there. Do you know what rules is just being hammered in your neighborhood and the news shows up? Yeah I saw it, it was wild. All right, here we go. Yeah, because the dude just, it's like six o'clock in the morning when I saw this. Yeah, yeah.

The sun's just coming up, he looks like he's been up all night. The robbery happened at 3.30. He's like, yeah, boom. We heard all the shooting, boom, boom, boom, boom. So the guy ran, ran, come out of the, faked a lot of them. Yeah.

Came out of what? The robbery house? Faked a lot, faked a lot. And, uh, had, uh, minor injuries from cutting his leg on the glass that he jumped through. Mm-hmm, that'll happen. Damn, dude. People forget about that.

Three people. Too many for home breaking? If the wet bandits have taught me anything, two is the optimal number. Yeah, that's interesting. You know, bank, you need four. Yes. We all know.

Yeah, I think that. Well, you always gotta bring along somebody's nephews really wanting to get their first run on the job. Damn, that's dangerous. Get them a layup of where they start taking mid-range, you know? Yeah. No, three feels like a crowd for a home break.

Depending on how big of the house and what you're trying to get done Right, I don't know what they're doing. Are they just stealing refrigerators? Yeah, no, I think maybe this has to be They came in arm dope related. Yeah, if they came in armed that feels Dope related here to borrow a schadenheimer phrase intentionality. He's very go. Yeah one day We are on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Thug Motivation 101. Speaking of trap houses, which Mike and I went to go see with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

We did. In Atlanta. We did. We did that. My friend went to that, too, and she said it was like a religious experience, essentially. Yeah. Yeah. did that my friend went to that too and she said it was like a religious experience essentially yeah Yeah, it was I mean at some points. I was like we don't someone in black should have this ticket That was just me. I was just you I'd earned it

It was seriously like a black excellence night they were the nicest clothes it was the black They were the nicest clothes. It was the black super Wibble drop-offs and then us but at some point like the show going on in the stands was as entertaining as what was happening on the stage Like it was I was like, oh, yeah, we're at a cheesy show I need to look at the stage every once in a while and like pay attention to that cuz it was It got wild dude. A lot of people came in there and it it was very cordial. They were so nice to me and Jake. Oh yeah, we were definitely like little zoo animals. People would come by, taking pictures. Wow, look at you!

Exactly. We saw George Foster. We did. We stood right in front of him. George Foster was sitting in the row right behind him. We stood right in front of George Foster. NFL and comedy. Yeah, George was great.

I told him, Twitter's own. Yeah, I had to talk to him. I was like, I saw him and I was like, dude, George, you're funny as hell on Twitter. And his wife goes, don't tell him that. Yeah. The Dungs, the Dungs, the Dungs, the Dungs.