Matt Hochberg Isn’t Afraid of Dinosaur

Matt Hochberg, host of the WDW Today podcast and owner of www.studioscentral.com, has been made fun of in the past because he’s admitted to having a strong dislike of the ride “Dinosaur” in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

People have called him such things as: wimp, girly boy, crybaby, and Len Testa wannabe.

Is it fair to belittle Matt because he is afraid of some fake dinosaurs? At first I said “of course,” but then I decided to try and find out why one would be afraid of fake dinosaurs. So I did what I do. I looked into it.

Something that I found to be odd was the fact that Matt hates Dinosaur but is ok with the Universe of Energy (I refuse to call it Ellen’s Energy Adventure. It’ll always be the Universe of Energy). As many of you know the Universe of Energy has dinosaurs in it. That eliminates the idea that Matt is afraid of all dinosaurs.

So what could it be about Dinosaur? It took a lot of research but I found out the source of Matt’s fear.

When Matt was eight years old he was obsessed with Barney the Purple Dinosaur. He loved Barney, watched his videos everyday, memorized the words to all of his songs, and owned every kind of Barney merchandise you can imagine.

One day Matt’s parents took him to see Barney in person. Matt was so excited he couldn’t contain himself. He was the first kid in line. When the employee running crowd control turned his back Matt snuck by him and ran over to the door that Barney was going to come out of. Just then the door swung open, smacking Matt in the face and knocking him to the floor. Barney ran out, didn’t see Matt, tripped over him, and fell on top of him. Barney trashed trying to get off of Matt which only made matters worse. By the time Barney’s handlers were able to get him off of Matt, Matt was barely breathing. He had been smothered by Barney.

From that day on Matt would start crying when he saw Barney. He would also freak out if any dinosaur appeared to be running towards him. As an example, Matt started crying and curled into a fetal position the first time he saw Jurassic Park because in multiple scenes the dinosaurs appear to be running at the audience.

In time it was determined that Matt was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder also known as PTSD. After years of therapy including numerous electric shock therapies, Matt has made great improvement. His only noticeable remaining symptom is crying like a little girl when he rides Dinosaur.

If you couldn’t tell the above story is factious. Matt Hochberg was never assaulted by Barney (that I know of). He has never received electronic shock therapy (I hope). He didn’t break down and cry while watching Jurassic Park (as least no one can confirm it). However, Matt does HATE Dinosaur.