The phrase has the hallmarks of lost media – content that was once online but vanished. A Reddit post from 2021 on r/LostMedia mentions a “weird video where a guy tries to pick up a girl at an abandoned water park during a storm, and it’s called El Storm something.” The post got no replies. User u/ThemeParkArchivist later speculated that “PublicPickups” was a short-lived YouTube channel that uploaded two videos, then deleted them. Episode 0 was a placeholder.
Another plausible explanation: “publicpickups” might be a misspelled rideshare location, like Public Pickup Zone. “El Storm” could be a poorly transcribed street name (Elm Street). “Theme park pickup 0” might mean pickup point zero at a theme park’s drop-off loop. publicpickups el storm theme park pickup 0
For example, at Disney World’s Transportation and Ticket Center, there are numbered pickup zones (0–24). A driver searching for “public pickups el storm theme park pickup 0” might actually be looking for “Public pickup — El St. — Theme Park — Zone 0” — a nonexistent address. The phrase has the hallmarks of lost media
A deep dive into global theme parks reveals no ride, show, or zone named “El Storm” in major parks (Disney, Universal, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Europa-Park, PortAventura, etc.). However, there are similar names: It is possible that “El Storm” is a
It is possible that “El Storm” is a fan-made name for a custom scenario in a theme park simulation game like Planet Coaster or RollerCoaster Tycoon, where users upload “public pickup” challenges — i.e., picking up virtual guests and dropping them off.
Theme parks are unusual settings for “pickup” content because they are:
Nevertheless, some amateur filmmakers have used abandoned or closed theme parks for guerrilla shoots. A notable example is Six Flags New Orleans, abandoned after Hurricane Katrina. If “El Storm” refers to a real hurricane, the phrase could describe a public pickup attempt filmed in a storm-damaged, deserted park – with “0” indicating the first or only episode.