Chuck E. Cheese Alias "Pasqually's Pizza"

About

Chuck E. Cheese Alias "Pasqually's Pizza" refers to a series of reports, jokes and memes about the arcade and pizza restaurant Chuck E. Cheese's being listed as "Pasqually's Pizza" on food delivery applications during the coronavirus quarantine.

Origin

On April 18th, 2020, Redditor ^[1] kendallneff published the earliest known reference to "Pasqually" online. They posted a text-message conversation between their Grubhub delivery driver in the thread "Tried to support local business via Grubhub tonight… Pasquallys pizza and wings ended up being an alias for Chuck E Cheese. Well played." They wrote, "It is good, but it's the Chuck E. Cheese pizza!my husband said that the chef character at Chuck E. Cheese is named PASQUALLY so I think they just made up this secondary restaurant for takeout now that they can't be open." The post received more than 570 points (98% upvoted) and 90 comments in a little over one month (shown below).

Spread

The following week, Food & Wine^[2] published an article about the post, reporting that the Chuck E. Cheese company launched a delivery service under the name. A spokesperson for the company responded with a statement:

CEC Entertainment, Inc. recently launched Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings nationwide. The inspiration was rooted in the desire to create a premium pizza while staying true to the CEC brand. Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings, named after another favorite member of Munch's Make Believe Band, shares kitchen space with the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, ensuring high-quality, fresh ingredients. Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings’ recipes use fresh, homemade pizza dough, just like Chuck E. Cheese, but it is a different pizza that features a thicker crust and extra sauce, giving consumers a more flavorful, more premium pizza experience. While Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings recipes are currently only available for delivery, select items might be added to the Chuck E. Cheese menu in the future.

On May 17th, Twitter ^[3] user @paulbensonsucks tweeted, "Yesterday I found out that Chuck E Cheese realized people didn't want to order takeout from Chuck E Cheese so they changed their info in Grubhub apps to Pasquales Pizza and tricked a bunch of people into ordering Chuck E Cheese (Pasquale is one of the characters in the rat band)." The tweet received more than 336,000 likes and 42,000 retweets in less than one week (shown below).

Following the post, people on Twitter began posting jokes about the situation. The following day, Twitter user @mrcoolmike_ tweeted,^[4] "Chuck E Cheese is selling their food as 'Pasqually’s Pizza' on food apps because no one wants to order Chuck E. Cheese pizza for delivery and I think this is nominated as the funniest part of this pandemic." The tweet received more than 155,000 likes and 18,000 retweets in less than one week (shown below, left).

Throughout the day, others posted jokes about people dressing up unconvincing disguises and relating them to Chuck E. Cheese (examples below, center and right).

Several media outlets reported on the name, including Business Insider,^[5] Delish,^[6] ABC,^[7] The Daily Dot ^[8] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References