# Tell me about Chuck E. Cheese **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 15, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887 "2018-02-15T18:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/61 "2018-02-16T20:28:41Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > You might not have gone personally to a party but the fact that these places have always had “Party Rooms” with the long cafeteria style tables should have told you something 😉 Oh sure, I think that by the time they hit my area in sufficient numbers to be considered, I was probably just getting outside the age range. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/62 "2018-02-16T20:47:06Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Nothing makes me hate a kid more than when he says he wants to go to Fuck E Fleas. :mad: Please! Watch the language around the little ones; proper name is **Cheesey Chuck’s**. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/63 "2018-02-16T20:48:20Z")
There’s Chuck-E-Cheese and then there’s (was) Showbiz Pizza. Very different animals, if you’d pardon the pun. There is a great documentary about the [Rock-Afire Explosion,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTmhS6hcY-A&t=3428s) the animatronic animal band that was featured at Showbiz Pizza and the creative talent that went into the creation of the shows and music. The guy behind it all, Aaron Fechter, is a friend of mine and a _great_ guy, and he and his company, Creative Engineering, had technical, artistic, and musical abilities and aspirations that _far_ eclipsed anything at Chuck-E-Cheese. What happened to the characters and animatronic shows they created, and ultimately the demise of the Showbiz franchise and a buyout/“reverse merger” where the Rock-Afire characters and shows were replaced with Chuck-E-Cheese branding, is a sad story of creative talent clashing with corporate interests. The documentary explains it better than I could. The good news is that Creative Engineering and the Rock-Afire Explosion _are still with us_ even if Showbiz Pizza isn’t, and Fechter continues to create new programming for the animatronics, which he puts up on YouTube. It’s awesome. [Here’s his YouTube channel.](https://www.youtube.com/user/therockafire/videos) Cee-Lo Green featured the Rock Afire animatronics in Las Vegas in [2013](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj02qmOp6vZAhUn0oMKHWPoDbQQFghJMAk&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.retrothing.com%2F2013%2F02%2Fcee-lo-green-rock-afire-explosion-live-in-vegas.html&usg=AOvVaw1RjEW1CKXmYydiVHfSHUZb) and more recently the characters (sadly, not in performing mode) had a cameo in Key & Peele’s movie _Keanu._ ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/64 "2018-02-16T20:54:03Z")
Also, [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXT7fOVpMVA&t=26s) is a really cool TV news feature from 1983 about Creative Engineering that goes behind the scenes to display just how much ingenuity, not to mention hard work, went into the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/65 "2018-02-16T22:20:54Z")
The food is absolutely vile. Everything is made of cheap plastic. Children are screaming and running around like mad. It’s horrible. ---
**Author:** ![palmer7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9f8e36/32.png) [@palmer7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palmer7)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/66 "2018-02-17T01:26:53Z")
I haven’t been there in years. However, I’ve heard it’s been called “a night club for midgets”. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/67 "2018-02-17T01:30:44Z")
> [@palmer7](#): > > I haven’t been there in years. However, I’ve heard it’s been called “a night club for midgets”. I don’t get it. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![palmer7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9f8e36/32.png) [@palmer7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palmer7)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/68 "2018-02-17T01:44:30Z")
> [@ioioio](#): > > I don’t get it. 😕 Neither did I. It’s one of those jokes they tell on cruises to Alaska, and I heard it second-hand from my brother. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/69 "2018-02-17T02:14:08Z")
Wow, folks sure are harsh. Sure it’s a noisy place with ho-hum pizza…but the pizza is still better then frozen pizza at home, and the kids love it. I used to take our kids with a friend or two on a regular basis. That’s the most fun part, when you see how much fun your kids have with their friends. Ours would even pool all of the tickets at the end in order to get a slightly better prize. In later times as they got older I would just take my iPad and hook up to the neighboring Panera’s wifi and do some surfing while they were all off having a good time. For frequent visitors, search online for coupons before you go and print a few–I have never not found coupons, and they often provide 10 or 20% cheaper prices. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/70 "2018-02-17T02:26:06Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Wow, folks sure are harsh. > > Sure it’s a noisy place with ho-hum pizza…but the pizza is still better then frozen pizza at home, and the kids love it. Yeah, I don’t have kids but last year I was visiting a friend who does and wound up accompanying them to a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. My friend apologized profusely in advance for this, but honestly it wasn’t _that_ bad, and I say that as an introvert. Chuck E. Cheese is just a brightly lit arcade for kids. The pizza certainly wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible. I talked to my friend and messed around on my iPad until the party was over. No big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/71 "2018-02-17T03:20:56Z")
Both my nephews got one birthday at CEC and I managed, thank God, to get out of both of them. I was honestly working both times, but the parties were both scheduled for less than an hour before the end of my work day, and I could have got off early if I’d asked. _Oh kids, I’m so sorry, Aunt Baker has to work then._ ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/72 "2018-02-17T03:32:18Z")
> [@dzeiger](#): > > Yeah, I’m 45 and I recall going to Chuck E Cheese and Showbiz a couple of times, but I don’t remember much in terms of large group parties. For some reason that reminded me – as of a couple years ago there was a semi-surviving ShowBiz that has gone through a variety of names. The first time we found it it was something like Billy Bob’s Pizza Emporium and I believe its now Billy Bob’s Wonderland. I don’t know if it was the heat, the location (WVa), or the fact that we had been running around Camden Amusement Park all day but the pizza we got was terrific. Nice fresh mushrooms and a really nice sauce. And it was almost empty of screaming kids. Maybe having the chain fold forced them to actually start doing things better. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/73 "2018-02-17T05:15:31Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > You’re not using the right blender. 😛 HA! This thread has some really good jokes going! > [@Jophiel](#): > > Maybe, but it’s not a new thing either. Chuck E Cheese opened in 1977. ShowBiz Pizza (same concept but with a hillbilly bear jamboree) opened in 1980. 17 and 20 I’d of been. Doubt my parents would have taken me to either at those ages. 😉 > [@madsircool](#): > > There was Farrells Ice Cream Parlour back in the 60s. > > [Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrell%27s_Ice_Cream_Parlour) Yeah, but I grew up in [West Bend, Wisconsin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bend,_Wisconsin), not Portland. Even the occasional trip to Milwaukee didn’t yield such delights for a kid in the early to mid-60’s. We didn’t get Chubby Cheeze Whiz, Bozo, or a rented bounce house. Just didn’t happen. And in West Bend even the poor kids were middle class. But we weren’t getting that stuff back then. My wife and I raised 3 children (all in their mid-late 30’s) and have 3 grandchildren. All that we love more than life itself. But get a group of more than 4 kids in a “party” atmosphere and you have yourself an asshole convention. Throw into it oblivious parents and a little alcohol and you have Chuck E. Cheese. OP: Run. Run! Run until you drop!!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/74 "2018-02-17T09:56:00Z")
I have severe social anxiety and managed to take my son there several times back in the mid-2000s without any issues, but it was always a solo fun thing for him to do and not parties. He liked playing skee-ball and climbing on things. I usually sucked it up and got one of their combos that included a “pizza” and a number of game tokens. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/75 "2018-02-17T16:05:53Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > 17 and 20 I’d of been. Doubt my parents would have taken me to either at those ages. 😉 Well, maybe if you had gotten better grades… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/76 "2018-02-17T17:12:47Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Well, maybe if you had gotten better grades… 😛 I was 19 when I got married. Maybe I could have had my bachelor party there. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/77 "2018-02-18T02:53:43Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > There was Farrells Ice Cream Parlour back in the 60s. > > [Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrell%27s_Ice_Cream_Parlour) Oh wow. When I was a very young child growing up in Thunder Bay, our yearly holiday was going to Minneapolis for the state fair and some shopping. (Later it upgraded to Valley Fair). It included a trip to Farrell’s. Thinking about it now and knowing my dad’s low tolerance for noise, chaos, and silliness it is a wonder we ever saw that place. Then again, my dad does like ice cream. We never saw a Chuck E Cheese though. Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2018, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/78 "2018-02-18T09:43:02Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Speaking of, they have machines that will suck up all your tickets and give you a receipt to take to the prize counter so don’t sweat keeping track of how many 3-5 ticket strips your have or what your total is. I had totally forgotten about those machines! They fascinated me as a kid. I was into any sort of machine. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/79 "2018-02-19T14:14:13Z")
**biometricks** , did you survive? ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887/80 "2018-02-20T14:54:41Z")
I may have admitted this before, but I worked at CEC half a lifetime ago. I don’t really think I’ve ever recovered: gang fights, attempted kidnapping, child abandonment, health code violations, armed robbery by members of staff… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-chuck-e-cheese/808887.md?page=5)