Man Sues Museum of Ice Cream Over ‘Unfit and Unsafe’ Sprinkle Pool

August 14, 2024 10:21 AM

A man who claims to have fractured his ankle by jumping into the sprinkle pool at the New York City location of the Museum of Ice Cream has filed a lawsuit contending that the museum was “reckless, careless and negligent” in its operation of the facility.

The Museum of Ice Cream's 25,000-square-foot flagship location has drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors since opening in 2019 with playful, Instagram-ready installations that include a pink subway car, a milkshake lounge, and a sprinkle pool, similar to a ball-pit filled with oversized plastic sprinkles.

posted by bq (55 comments total)

Hmm. Sprinkle pool does not mean what I thought it meant.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:43 AM on August 14 [23 favorites]

On one hand I imagine if it were full of sprinkles to a depth of 5' or whatever, it would behave kind of like a pool full of the same amount of sand, and thus you would jump on it and not in it all the same. OTOH they could've at least put tiles with numbers painted on them to say it's 3 inches deep or whatever, without breaking theme at all.
posted by aubilenon at 10:45 AM on August 14 [2 favorites]

I went to the one in LA, they made a VERY big deal about telling us that there was only about 2 ft of "pool" and under no circumstance was it acceptable to jump.
Also, our sprinkles were much, much smaller than those in the article's pictures.
posted by ApathyGirl at 10:48 AM on August 14 [3 favorites]

On the other, other hand, don't be a fukken idiot jumping into a "pool" of anything you can't see the bottom of.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:48 AM on August 14 [28 favorites]

A friend of mine went to the SF version of this and was very unimpressed. It sounded like a place to take selfies, mostly.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:49 AM on August 14 [4 favorites]

That's exactly what these places are for. WNDR in Chicago is another one. There's no "museum" here at all.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:00 AM on August 14 [4 favorites]

It's always the ones we love the most who end up hurting us.
posted by phunniemee at 11:03 AM on August 14 [3 favorites]

Nobody loves the Museum of Ice Cream the most.
posted by aubilenon at 11:05 AM on August 14

Sprinkles bro.
It's why I keep mine locked safely inside a lidded, plastic prison. Lest they turn on me.
posted by phunniemee at 11:06 AM on August 14 [4 favorites]

I scream, you scream, we all arrrgh my leg!
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:13 AM on August 14 [44 favorites]

There's no "museum" here at all.

Unfair. Museum = literally home of the muses. Muse = source of artistic inspiration. Places like this are intended to be places you go to create online content.

Whether you or I think anyone's really being artistically inspired by a contrived ✨a e s t h e t i c✨ environment or a killer sprinkle pool is beside the point. Calling it a museum isn't some kind of crime. Just...don't go there if you don't want to. It's fine.

Personally if I jumped into the sprinkle pool and didn't turn into a soda I would sue for false advertising, ankle bones be damned.
posted by phunniemee at 11:13 AM on August 14 [11 favorites]

I got all outraged thinking it was a proper fountain pool or something and some poor museum that was being cursed by a litigious public into removing something amazing for the public but then I read TFA and noooooo. So this is just to say, plaintiff and "museum" seem to deserve each other.
posted by mygothlaundry at 11:15 AM on August 14 [4 favorites]

Some people need to wear a cone of shame over this
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:16 AM on August 14 [6 favorites]

On the other, other hand, don't be a fukken idiot jumping into a "pool" of anything you can't see the bottom of.

While this is my personal rule the popularity of foam pits would suggest it's an expected behavior.
posted by brook horse at 11:19 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

Sprinkles bro.
It's why I keep mine locked safely inside a lidded, plastic prison. Lest they turn on me.

I can't decide whether "sprinkle brutality" or "killer sprinkle pool" will be my next username.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:22 AM on August 14

> if I jumped into the sprinkle pool and didn't turn into a soda

Wow, yeah if you have CG videos on your marketing implying it's a full depth pool of sprinkles this is kinda on you.
sprained ankle more like sprankle
posted by lucidium at 11:26 AM on August 14 [6 favorites]

Did they at least have Oompa-Loompas come in and sing about him?
posted by PlusDistance at 11:26 AM on August 14 [59 favorites]

This is why we can't have nice things shallow instagram selfie moments.
posted by hydra77 at 11:42 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

Is there an equivalent Museo del Gelato in Rome?
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:43 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

> While this is my personal rule the popularity of foam pits would suggest it's an expected behavior.

You gotta be careful with those, too.
posted by onehalfjunco at 11:45 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

At least he didn't dive I guess
posted by gottabefunky at 11:50 AM on August 14

I would not dive in, but I would happily make a sprinkle angel.
posted by delfin at 11:50 AM on August 14 [3 favorites]

Did they at least have Oompa-Loompas come in and sing about him?

Oompa Loompa doopity doo
I've got another problem for you
Oompa Loompa doopity dee
If you are wise you'll listen to me

What do you get when you jump in a pool
Snapping your selfies you look like a fool
Chasing your likes on your Instagram game
Best check that depth or you'll get! a! sprain!

Oompa Loompa doopity daw
Museum of Ice Cream was your fatal flaw
Should have just left those sprinkles in view
Like the Oompa Loompa doopity do
posted by phunniemee at 11:55 AM on August 14 [33 favorites]

See the DashCon ball pit could have been worse.
posted by Lanark at 11:56 AM on August 14

Dashcon has the excuse of being organized by literal children.
posted by Artw at 11:57 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

Kinda disappointed at commenters vilifying the person for being a dumbass, litigious, ruining things etc. It’s not like everybody here has health insurance. If you get badly injured, there goes your ability to work, drive, exercise, and enjoy your life. Somebody has to pay for that surgery, physical therapy, and time off work, and in the absence of universal health care, guess who looks like they can afford it?
posted by toodleydoodley at 11:58 AM on August 14 [7 favorites]

They should make the sprinkles really deep. Really really deep, like grain-silo deep.
posted by The otter lady at 11:59 AM on August 14 [5 favorites]

Is there an equivalent Museo del Gelato in Rome?
bologna [gelatomuseum.com]
posted by HearHere at 12:03 PM on August 14 [3 favorites]

The museum should, at the very least, replace any "Have you taken the plunge?" signs with ones that say

NO DIVING
IT REALLY RUSTLES OUR JIMMIES
posted by aws17576 at 12:07 PM on August 14 [15 favorites]

Kinda disappointed at commenters vilifying the person for being a dumbass, litigious, ruining things etc. It’s not like everybody here has health insurance. If you get badly injured, there goes your ability to work, drive, exercise, and enjoy your life. Somebody has to pay for that surgery, physical therapy, and time off work, and in the absence of universal health care, guess who looks like they can afford it?

This seems to imply that lawsuits should be determined by which party has less money instead of the merits of the case, as you don't even suggest he is not a dumbass.

I think he might have a point. You can usually jump into a ball pit, I think it's on the museum for not labeling a non-jumpable one. There was a Twitch con ball pit a while ago that a bunch of people got hurt in because it was too shallow.
posted by hermanubis at 12:18 PM on August 14 [4 favorites]

I guess for any environment you might create that people can enter into, you have to give serious thought about what stupid things people might do in there and plan accordingly. Just a sign on the door that says DON’T BE STUPID! isn’t enough.
posted by njohnson23 at 12:18 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

It’s not like everybody here has health insurance. If you get badly injured, there goes your ability to work, drive, exercise, and enjoy your life. Somebody has to pay for that surgery, physical therapy, and time off work, and in the absence of universal health care, guess who looks like they can afford it?

Can insurance still do the thing they did when I was a kid, where if you accidentally indicated that you got hurt because of being an idiot, or in any way should have known this would go badly, they would call that a pre-existing condition* and just be like, "nope, no coverage for you!"? I wonder if some of these suits aren't essential to documenting things for coverage to be approved.

*In my case I said something like "ugh I'm always so clumsy" and it invalidated my parents' coverage for an injury I got in gym class! My parents would have killed me if I hadn't already been in a neck brace.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:19 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

Jumping into a ball pit is also dangerous, yes. It is a stupid and foolish thing for any adult to do and they deserve all consequences that follow.
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:20 PM on August 14

Jumping into a ball pit is also dangerous, yes. It is a stupid and foolish thing for any adult to do and they deserve all consequences that follow.

Considering the consequences (in the US at least) can include lifelong poverty and disability for which you will not be able to obtain treatment, that seems uhhhh disproportionate.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:22 PM on August 14 [6 favorites]

Every real pool has clear depth markings to prevent people from hurting themselves. The sprinkle pool is designed to look deep and has no such markings, but is in fact super shallow. That is deceptive. Call this guy a dumbass all you want, that doesn't make the ice cream museum any less negligible.

Remember the hot coffee lady. She was villified for being a "dumbass" but was in fact not.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:29 PM on August 14 [14 favorites]

Why would anybody expect to survive jumping into a swimming pool full of sprinkles? You can't breathe sprinkles and you probably can't swim in them. Just breaking your ankle instead of inhaling a couple liters of sprinkles is, it seems to me, a best case scenario.

(But yeah, more seriously, the whole 'frivolous lawsuits' thing was cover for giving corporations some extra protection so they can poison and/or kill you without having to pay your relatives a lot of money. It's probably okay to err on the side of letting people have their day in court.)
posted by Sing Or Swim at 12:35 PM on August 14 [5 favorites]

So, we are agreed: Revolution
posted by Artw at 12:36 PM on August 14 [4 favorites]

> While this is my personal rule the popularity of foam pits would suggest it's an expected behavior.

You gotta be careful with those, too.

Yikes! My kids do gymnastics; I've flipped into those pits for fun many times, and my daughter's friend once dropped off the climbing rope 20+ feet down into it without injury. That's some odd and oddly hard foam blocks.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:36 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

Is there an equivalent Museo del Gelato in Rome?

bologna [gelatomuseum.com]

Ah. Well, good to know, but that pretty much ruins my offhand joke...
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:41 PM on August 14 [2 favorites]

I had planned to check out the ice cream museum in New York City, but affogato 'bout it.
posted by emelenjr at 12:42 PM on August 14 [10 favorites]

You gotta be careful with those, too.

This is literally why I have that personal rule. My anxiety filed that specific incident away and said NOPE.
posted by brook horse at 12:46 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

Legally speaking, the sprinkles have to tell you they're a cop or it counts as grain entrapment.
posted by stet at 1:16 PM on August 14 [6 favorites]

In the spirit of the kind of warning sign needed at the sprimkle pool, here's some "fuck around and you WILL find out" warning signs.
posted by maxwelton at 1:27 PM on August 14 [2 favorites]

They should make the sprinkles really deep. Really really deep, like grain-silo deep.

A good story for all the medical mefites out there: Management of Massive Grain Aspiration (don’t worry, it has a happy ending, and some truly impressive lab values).

My skepti-sense always tingles when I hear these sort of stories. I had never heard of the Museum of Ice Cream, and on looking at the links I have exactly zero sympathy for them. For the following reasons:

1: They seem to be a bar that gives away ice cream and cheesy photo ops for a pretty big cover charge.

2: If you serve drinks you need to make sure your attractions are suitable for those with impaired judgement (which may or may not apply to the plaintiff). Or even those (like 60-year-old me with a sense of adventure) who might want to do a cannonball into the pool, as has happened there in the past.

3: They are way too pink! The Barbie movie probably rejected them as a location because there was too much pink. There is an excellent ice cream parlor near me called The Pink Dipper that has less pink and probably better ice cream.
posted by TedW at 1:43 PM on August 14 [5 favorites]

Wow, yeah, the thing about "stupid accidents" is that yes on the surface it seems like the person was an idiot. But here's the thing, no one sets out to be a moron, they act with honest intention based on the best information they have.

And likewise most companies don't set out to hurt someone. But things happen and it's always good to look at how and why.

Same as an air crash investigation, a lot of Swiss cheese holes have to line up before something bad happens.

That foam pit at the convention? What the hell kind of foam shaped rocks are they using? It's reasonable to assume they would have more than a quarter inch of give to it, since most of the foam pits we've seen have people flying into them from 20' up.

So why was this different? Did someone not know that foam is available in different densities? Why was that overlooked? And why didn't someone notice while setting it up? Was it tested? Was the feedback from the testing listened to? If there were warnings why were they ineffective on the injured party? Etc.

I wish we could get to a point of not viewing this from the point of view of who's fault it is, but more of a how do we make sure we don't make the same mistakes in the future. Otherwise we are just going to point a finger, pick someone to blame and call our work finished until it happens again.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 4:33 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

Even pre-COVID I would not go near a thing like that so I have no idea what kind of warning signs they may have had at the actual space, but look: the company using language like “have you taken the plunge yet?” and "ready to dive in?" on their social media posts is extremely dumb on their part. I smell a marketing team that didn't check with Legal.
posted by queensissy at 5:05 PM on August 14 [3 favorites]

Jumping into the sprinkle pool appears to be a very frequent occurrence, with varying results. The last two videos show pools equipped with diving platforms. I mean...
posted by Rora at 6:41 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

They should make the sprinkles really deep. Really really deep, like grain-silo deep.

That's a different lawsuit.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:26 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

metafilter: make the sprinkles really deep. Really really deep
































🍩
posted by HearHere at 7:54 PM on August 14 [3 favorites]

I cannot get over the dumbassery in the video of the woman that's linked to even comment on any other dumbassery. There are literally toddlers sitting on the bottom of the pool right next to her - even drunkenness doesn't make that make any kind of sense. How did she really think that was going to go??
posted by Saucy Possum at 8:24 PM on August 14

“This seems to imply that lawsuits should be determined by which party has less money instead of the merits of the case, as you don't even suggest he is not a dumbass.”

That’s basically how insurance risk pools work, yes.
posted by toodleydoodley at 11:28 AM on August 15

Um no that's not how they work.
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:35 PM on August 15

It is tho. The risk pool has enough money to relieve the injured person, even if they are a dumbass. Unless you subscribe to moral hazard theory for health coverage, which is inhumane.
posted by toodleydoodley at 10:52 AM on August 16 [1 favorite]

If the risk pool only has 4" of sprinkles in it, you shouldn't jump in it.
posted by aubilenon at 9:00 PM on August 16

Ah you mean paying even if someone is being an idiot, not that the one with more money pays. My bad, carry on...
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:41 PM on August 18