About

Chuck E. Cheese's is a chain of American family restaurants and arcades. Since 1977, the company has expanded throughout North America, South America, the Middle East and Asia, offering primarily pizza and children's indoor playgrounds.

History

On May 17th, 1977, the first Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, opened San Jose, California.^[1] Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell founded Chuck E. Cheese, citing influence from the amusement park industry, particularly Disneyland. Later he said:^[2]

It was my pet project. I started it inside Atari. My objective was to vertically integrate the market. We were selling coin-operated games at about $1,500 or $2,000 a pop. In their life, they'd make $15 to 20k. It didn't take rocket science to say I'm on the wrong side of the equation. I didn't want to compete with the people I was selling to, but the game operating business is all about securing locations. So the way to not compete with them was to secure my own locations. The original genesis was to create a big arcade with food as a support structure, almost as an ancillary service.

In the mid-1980s, toward the end of Bushnell's involvement with the company, Chuck E. Cheese filed for bankruptcy, after expanding to more than 200 restaurants. It was acquired by a competitor, ShowBizPizza Place, and in 1990, the companies merged the brands.

Rebrand

In 2012, the company began rebranding the Chuck E. Cheese characters and food. That year, they released a music video, entitled "Say Cheese It's Funner," that featured a computer-generated variation of the Chuck character (shown below).^[3]

Impact

Five Nights at Freddy's

Five Nights at Freddy's is a point-and-click survival horror video game in which the player must survive five nights working as a security guard working at the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant, avoiding being dismembered by the animatronic animals wandering the establishment. The Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant is a parody of Chuck E. Cheese's.

Related Memes

Chuck E. Cheese Stare

Chuck E. Cheese Stare, also known as Awkward Look Mouse, is a reaction image and image macro series featuring photographs of an animatronic Chuck E. Cheese restaurant mascot looking to the side before staring directly at the camera. The images are often used online to convey feelings of shock or terror.

Chuck E. Cheese Alias "Pasqually's Pizza

"*Chuck E. Cheese Alias "Pasqually's Pizza"*":https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/chuck-e-cheese-alias-pasquallys-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.

Charles "Entertainment" Cheese

Charles "Entertainment" Cheese refers to the full name of Chuck E. Cheese. The frequent rediscovery of the character's middle name, "Entertainment," has been the subject of numerous social media posts (examples below).

Search Interest

External references