Defunctland: Kid Cities

In this episode, Kevin explores the history of kid cities, a series of fake miniature towns in which children can role-play as adults. Why do these exist, and who is behind them?

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0:00 - Part 1: La Ciudad De Los Niños
13:03 - Part 2: Wannado City
24:02 - Part 3: Similar Projects
35:20 - Part 4: Are You Having Fun?
48:46 - Part 5: Corporate Sponsors
59:34 - Part 6: The Great Recession

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[cometcat]

As someone who grew up visiting the original Kid City in Mexico this sure does take me back to the time were I went to court for "messing up some flowers" and I ended up bribing the judge with a nestle chocolate.

[SignoftheMagi]

My daughter went to a Kidzania. She asked for the job of 'Mob Boss'. So she tried to convince kids to rob stores for her. Which worked.

[Silbeezy]

Imagine clocking out of kid world and the ride home just depressed cause you lost it all at the kidsino

[tonymarshall]

That little boy screaming "girls these key chains have men HANDSOME MEN" as a sales technique made me pause the video to finish laughing

[thaliahobson]

I was a defense attorney at exchange city. The judge quickly realized her salary was paid by fines and decided to find everyone guilty. My salary as defense counsel was also paid by fines so I just stopped trying.

I’m an attorney now.

[wordlesolve]

The kids immediately realizing that manager is the best role because they do so little in most places is so poetic

[patrickyoshida]

"all you say is can you prove it" dude that kid is the best fucking lawyer every. That was young Saul Goodman

[marihoodwink]

All the quotes from the kids just cracked me up. Especially the "we have pictures of MEN! These men are handsome and they are in our key chains. MEN!"

[maeganmonster]

The fact that kids figured out how to commit robbery, bad checks, and kidnapping is hilarious.

[jackclark]

I was the Mayor of Enterprise Village. I had to wear a suit & give a speech at the beginning of the day but after that it was just me & my municipal underlings hanging out, ambling around town & spending my undeservedly high salary on McDonalds fries. I learned 2 important lessons that day: the people at the top don't really have to work at all & misappropriating taxpayer money is easy & fun

[ayem]

"And how much money do you make?"
"$450."
"And how much have you spent of it?"
"$550."

[TheBisDuck]

Fun fact about Kidzania, the Nintendo area is just playing switch games. That's what being a game developer is like right? it's definitely not crying yourself to sleep under your desk on a Saturday because you need to get the game out on time.

[kryptidkraken]

So many great lines from these children. “Business is pretty lousy… I’m worried about the bank loan.” “These men are handsome and they’re in our keychains.”

[zuntata]

god the idea of kids stressing out "ah fuck i owe randy 5 millions for loan how am i supposed to pay these" sitting at the park just hilarious

[fredreader]

The mock 'bad luck' card for the terrorist attack is so f-ckking funny. "The American way of life has been threatened once more. Please rebudget." Goddamn.

[ZessXXify]

I remember in 5th grade I was randomly selected as the mayor for JA. Didn’t have to campaign or anything. I think our teacher just picked me to make me feel better since I was so quiet and didn’t have any friends. The day we went everyone HATED me because I didn’t actually have to do anything at all and spent most of my time eating cookies from the bakery. Those cookies were all anybody wanted and people had to do menial tasks for so long just to get one without breaking the bank. My logic was “loans are fake, cookies are real.” Looking back on it, I wasn’t a good mayor, but I was probably the most realistic mayor JA could have had.

[TheFewAndOnly]

"Being a lawyer is so easy. All you have to say is "Your honor you weren't even there""

[Joy-zpbt]

“My little one’s a doctor! Which is yours?” “I think my kid is planting narcotics on a suspect for a harsher conviction”

[giga-chicken]

"Wannado city even opened up at night for adult-only events ... so they could get drunk and pretend to be giants"
I died. I am dead. I would do that.

[RoomRadersmilsim]

Hardcore wannado city kid here, visted 3 times. This brought me to tears. I called my father and we talked for 10 minutes about this pure nostalgiafest. Edit: I was always a Firefighter since my dad was one in the early 90's