Comedian Will Ferrell had a hilarious reason for quitting his job at Disneyland after only one day that was as funny as any joke the wannabe Jungle Cruise skipper would have told on the Adventureland boat ride.
Ferrell shared the story about his brief time working at Disneyland on the “Good Hang” podcast hosted by fellow comedian and “Saturday Night Live” alumni Amy Poehler.
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During orientation, Ferrell found out he’d been assigned to work in the ticket booths at the front of the Anaheim theme park.
“I thought that I was going to be assigned to one of the really fun jobs like the Jungle Cruise operator,” Ferrell told Poehler.
@pagesix Will Ferrell had a friend give a fake excuse for leaving his job at Disneyland
Ferrell decided to quit when he found out it would take years to become a joke-telling Jungle Cruise skipper.
“I was too embarrassed to call up Disneyland,” Ferrell told Poehler. “So my friend John called on my behalf.”
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The Disneyland human resources department only had one question: What’s your reason for leaving?
“I have a tryout with the Dallas Cowboys,” said John, still pretending to be Ferrell.
Disneyland’s response: “Thank you very much.”
Fortunately, Ferrell wasn’t unemployed for very long thanks to a “rival offer” to work at a Newport Beach surf shop where his friend was the manager.
“Same pay, $5.50 an hour,” Ferrell told Poehler.
The hilarious story still gets laughs more than three decades later.
Although he didn’t say, Ferrell likely worked at Disneyland while he was a student at Irvine’s University High School or the University of Southern California in the 1980s.
“Growing up in suburbia, in safe, master-planned Irvine, there was no drama so we had to create it in our heads,” Ferrell said in a 2008 interview with the Orange County Register. “My main form of entertainment was cracking my friends up and exploring new ways of being funny.”
While Ferrell never played for the Cowboys, the high school football kicker famously tried out for the Trojans as a walk-on kicker, but didn’t make the USC team.
The comedian did not say which surf shop he worked at in Newport Beach — or if he lasted there for more than a day.
Three of the oldest surf shops in Newport Beach include the Frog House (1962), 15th Street Surf Shop (1961) and Jack’s Surfboards (1957).
Ferrell was part of the Groundlings comedy troupe in the early 1990s before joining SNL in 1995.
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He’s best known for his roles in “Elf,” “Anchorman,” “Megamind,” “Talladega Nights” and “The Lego Movie.”
Ferrell is currently starring in “The Hawk” on Netflix about a washed-up golf pro who refuses to retire.