Why on EARTH Does Chuck E. Cheese Serve Alcohol?!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ย. 2024
- Today, I take a look at the state of Chuck E. Cheese in 2022, as well as its history of questionable business decisions, viral scandals, and alcohol-fueled disasters. I hope you enjoy!
Imagine how selfish you have to be to fight at a Chuck E. Cheese. It's your child's birthday, and you're gonna ruin it by physically fighting with somebody else. Literal brainrot
Because fighting another adult at your kids birthday ruins their birthday, right?
It's called being black.
I imagine most of the fights were started by adults who didn’t have a birthday kid. If only because there’s usually 6+ kids for every birthday kid.
In fairness, there's a lot that I see there that wasn't present in the 80s.
It's funny... destroy the memories by slowly stripping the stage of the band, down to a cheesy (no pun intended) single Chuck figure, and fill the place with rows and rows of long tables that nobody can walk around....
And then there's the -people- idiots that sit at those tables...
They don't look anything like back then either.
@@MadScientist267You forgot : Remove all the fun video games.
Last time I went with a friend to his son's BDay at Chuck E Cheese's it only had machines to win tickets. No more fun arcade games at all, well except for one Terminator game that looked worse than a PS3 game and ran at 20fps (in 2018). Where did all the fun video games go ? Sure, those ticket games can be fun and skiiball is always enjoyable but half the fun at Chuck E's was playing shit like Hydro Thunder or the SEGA Jurassic Park game and then playing some Street Fighter.
I remember one time the Skee-Ball ticket dispenser had an error and it spit out all the tickets inside, and the staff let me keep them!
What?!?!
How does it feel to live 7 year old me's dream
Younger me is extremely jealous.
Omg yes this has happened to me too lol, I remember staff was giving me free coins too, because the machine was essentially eating my coins.
one time the machine kept stealing mine and my cousins coins so the guy that worked there opened it up and just handed us a giant handful of tickets.
We felt like we had won the lottery. That guy ruled. He totally hooked us up. I think he gave us some tokens too. True bro.
Ok but mad respect to Chucky, he’s an orphan who never found out his legal birth date, and instead took that sadness out by making sure he created an establishment where every kid can have the best birthday possible
You completed your search
"Best birthday possible" is a bit of a stretch!
@@MatthewTheWandererwhere would you take your kid(s) to have the perfect birthday?
@@TheDennys21 I don't have any kids, fortunately, but if I did, I'd take them to someplace less chaotic and less lame than Chuck E. Cheese.
@@MatthewTheWanderer yeah i'm 28 and i don't intend to have kids either, there are already too many humans roaming the world. 100 years ago there was 3 billion people around the world and now it's over 8 billion, at this rate we will hit 10 billion pretty soon which is the max Earth can support, after that shit will hit the fan. I mean since 2020 the situation around the world is getting worse and more chaotic by the day what with the pandemic, wars in Ukraine and Israel, natural disasters caused by climate change and so on.
I actually used to work at a CEC in MS. Firstly, I will say, the children were very, very rarely ever an issue. It was almost ALWAYS the parents. Either starting fights, causing scenes, breaking things, or even stealing things. Not to mention the several full on abandonments we had to deal with.
I couldn’t tell you how many families we’ve had that were always trying something stupid. I remember this one family that kept saying they never got their food, and accused us of racism when we asked them about the 4 previous pizzas we brought them when they said it before.
My manager once refused to serve beer to one woman after she asked to have it served in a paper cup, instead of the transparent ones we served it in, because she didn’t want her daughter to see her drinking. She proceeded to scream, and throw a full on tantrum. In front of her daughter.
One of the worse abandonments I remember was this little 4 year old girl. Her parents just straight up left her there. She came up to one of our showroom girls, asking for food. They gave her some water, I made her a little pizza, and once we realized what happened, the manager called Child Services.
Another, and the last story I’ll tell was this one mother who told the manager that she was just going to drop her daughters off, and come back later. He pointed to the sign on the check in booth that said that unattended minors would be reported to Child Services. It basically also said we were not a babysitting service.
Well, at one point, she managed to slip out past him. She dropped her daughters off at 9am. Both her daughters came to him around 2pm, asking for food, because they had no money. Manager asked where their mother was, recognizing them, and they told him she’d left to go shopping. Police, and Child Services were called, and took the kids.
Mom came back to pick her girls up at 10pm. We closed at 9pm, at the time.
Manager called the police, and she fought them when they tried to question her.
When I came into work the next day, one of the front door windows were shattered from said fight.
Ahh human nature
That breaks my heart that people would just straight up abandon their children. Especially at a Chuck E Cheese
I don’t want to be that guy but I’m going to be that guy. Was it mostly minorities starting these issues
@@RobRamirez456 come on dude
@@RobRamirez456 ah yes, casual racism. Classic
I took my son to Chuck E. Cheese’s on his 5th birthday. I hadn’t been myself since I was a kid back in the early 2000’s. I was shocked when there were no tickets, gold coins, animatronic shows, no Chuck himself walking around offering hugs and pictures. They got rid of everything that made Chuck E. Cheese different from your run of the mill arcade. This place was my absolute favorite place in the world when I was a child. Now, my son barely even mentions it. Shame.
If you look around the world is getting so much worse.
@@LandonEmma we’re talking about Chuck E. Cheese chill 😭
Depends on location I guess, I recently took my son to one that had everything with the exception of replacing coins and tickets with a game card which in my opinion is easier to handle.
@@KingOfGaymes u must be gen z lol world IS getting worse and worse cause of ur generation
@@parlaygod how? the oldest zoomers are barely into their 20s
The idea of a booze-fuelled Yakuza-style brawl taking place in a Chuck E Cheese is too funny for RGG to not make an actual game event at some point.
Imagine Ichiban Kasuga going into a CEC 😂
Am sure majima will be there.
RGG could do the same thing for Waffle House.
Saturday is, "No Hold's Barred" Fight Night at Chuckee-cheese!
Somehow making a parody of Round1 would work out for RGG.
Funny thing is I remember when Chucke used to have a policy of no alcohol at all, because it was a kids place. Then they started to serve it, then offered IPA's and wines. Worst bit is many adults would just leave their beer cups unattended on tables for any kid to grab.... Honestly really seems like a bad idea.
When I grew up, in the early/mid 80s we had the flipping best and gigantic CC, and they were known for serving beer, it's why we were all allowed to have our bday party's there. This was in Chicago and I doubt if there was ever a brawl
People just don't know how to act right anymore.
Back in the 80's you can buy beer by the pitcher. And it came out of a little beer barrel sticking out the wall. They also had other beer taps. In those days family entertainment ment fun for the whole family not just for the kids. I remember playing the tapper arcade game there before they changed it to soda.
because it IS a bad idea
There is a lot wrong with it and it should never be allowed anywhere. @arthurmorgan8978
Went to Disney in France, booze was available everywhere and yet no issues. Maybe it's an American issue? I personally really enjoyed being able to have a couple beers after an intense morning of theme park going.
I used to be a door person at CEC. The pizza scandal was never true. Turns out from what I was told by my old boss, a guy on the internet (Shane Dawson) purposely put different sized pizza on a platter and then ran with the accusation of recycled pizza. It caused a huge issue for the company and they make sure to make completely fresh and perfect pizza for every order
I can't say I'm surprised it's Shane Dawson. How anything that comes out of his mouth can be believed, I do not know. My only guess is that news agencies are desperate for stories these days.
@@arthurfine4284 same
Yay now I can finally end the argument with my friends about how the pizza isn't recycled. I'm the only one on the "is no resycole!!!" Side
Former gameroom attendant and kitchen worker from my local CEC here. The amount of people that believed Shane Dawson was insanity, and I always made sure to explain to anyone who asked if it was true that it wasn't. Honestly, the reason the crust seems uneven at times is because CEC happens to be one of the only pizza joints that cuts their pizza all the way through (seriously, get pizza from any other pizza place and count how many times you have to pull it apart to finish the cuts yourself). That, on top of the garlic spread on the crust, makes the slices slide around on the pans or in the boxes when they're being served. Thank you for coming to my ted talk
The same guy who banged his cat?
Fun fact the guy who voices Chuck these days is apparently the lead singer of Bowling for Soup. You know, just to add to the insanity.
Bro WHAT?!
I KNEW it. I swear I recognized his voice from 1985.
…who didn’t know that? That’s been pretty obvious for a decade
@@xplatypus516 to be fair a LOT of stuff kinda took precedence
Charles Entertainment Cheese
I know that because of those Caillou gets grounded videos
Charles Entertainment Cheese
@@NicoEdgy don’t remind me of those
true
A powerful rat.
Chuck E. Cheese tokens became an in-joke with one of my friendgroups. Like a little urban legend. They work on a sort of monkey's paw principle. If you flipped a token and wished on it, you would either get exactly what you asked for instantly, or something horrible would happen to you (related to the wish) instead. The problem, though, is that the tokens look the same on both sides. So you wouldn't be able to tell if you won or lost until the change actually happened.
I like to think that they switched to the card system after enough people discovered their true power.
you just reminded me that i have a huge ziplock baggie of Chuck E Cheese tokens tucked away somewhere lol.
nothing will ever beat the disappointment of thinking you found a dollar but it’s actually a Chuck E Cheese token. Canada is such a meme that their currency looks like arcade tokens and Monopoly money XD
I like the way you think
I love this comment so much
@@SykoMuffinmy dad used to save them and throw them into the toll machines. It’d think it was a quarter 😭
That's a really fun in-joke. Thank you for sharing!
The thought of some soul-sucked manager at Chuck E. Cheese being like "Yeah, yeah... just call the police _again"_ just has me 💀 damn, those poor bastards.
Work any retail/food service job and you'll lose a bit of your soul after a while.
@@darienb1127if you have even a little bit of hope left for humanity, if you work in retail you will see just how horrible humans can be.
@@TheDennys21 I worked in retail for two years. Trust me, I know.
They serve beer for the African Americans
@@darienb1127 this is why you shouldn't work at anyplace food and politics related
I'm honestly surprised they're still in business after losing so much
awesome vid!!
Bro I am ur biggest fan!
Ha, no way! Thank you very much sir!
OMG VAIL
No life
@@LimeLoaf stop talking about yourself
During the covid lockdown they had a takeout deal. Large pizzas, cheese bread, and a few other things were $5. Mozzarella sticks were 2 bucks. Call me a psychopath but I ordered it a few times. It was pretty depressing picking it up because all of the games were off and it was as quiet as a graveyard, but the food was actually pretty decent for the price
To me its more heartwarming than depressing that theyve had success as a pizza joint. Thats all that i looked forward to apart from skeeball and maybe the VR rollercoasters when i was little if i were invited to a party there. If its a good price for what it is then id much rather have it than at a bad price for what it's not.
@Antonio Reconquistador 12 I think it might be their only surviving avenue for the future
Damn, I felt that way about a pizza place called Peter Piper Pizza when they started to phase out arcades.
Yeah, the pizza actually isn't bad! Is it my go-to pizza? No, of course not, but for what you get, it's not bad.
Ok I’m glad I’m not alone lol the deals they had really were nice. Luckily i ordered for delivery so i wouldn’t have to see the dead CEC
I think the most depressing thing to me and my memeories of CEC is how brightly lit and open floor planned they are. The dimly lit maze like layouts and different rooms was a big part of the excitment of exploring them as a kid. I also think it the newer exposed layouts just invites more conflicts that plague them these days.
I dont remember the maze like layouts. unless you mean with the arcade machines being the walls and such. But that was still open floor. What do you mean?
Sounds like a trick of perspective imo. Assuming your talking about your childhood, you were most likely much smaller than you are now, so it made all the arcade machines feel like walls and hallways. But now, once again heavily Assuming, your much taller and everything doesn't look nearly as cramped.
@@candacefullrv9291 I think i agree. When I was young it definitely felt like a maze.
@@candacefullrv9291 no. in the 80's they were typically set up with multiple rooms and hallways. It wasn't the arcade games being arranged in maze like layouts. The shops themselves were set in a way you explored and wandered into different areas and large rooms
A bit of a correction, Showbiz Pizza actually wanted to keep their original characters because THEY were the ones who received better reception in customer surveys and the press, particularly Fatz the gorilla.
They wanted to continue to use those characters, but they didn't own them, they were owned by Creative Engineering Inc, the company who produced the animatronics for Showbiz.
For financial reasons, Showbiz decided to use the Chuck E Cheese characters from then on, as they owned them
Thank you for bringing this up!!
They tried to get Aaron to give them the rights for free and he said no. So they changed over everything and retired Showbiz.
Exactly!
The animatronic engineering of Showbiz Pizza's mascots was also considerably more advanced and entertaining than any of Chuck's original mascots, so they were keen to use that selling point when advertising.
Kinda.
Chuck regularly placed in the top 10 of "favorite characters" in nationwide marketing surveys, placing around or above Mickey, Ronald, the Flinstones, Barbie and Snoopy, etc.
Even in markets that never had a CEC prior, but only Showbiz. His name recognition was untouchable.
They used to highlight these studies in the annual reports during Concept Unification.
Though, you are right, it was mostly a financial decision, it wasn't completely that. CEC was going to be brought in, the question was what would they do with the rest of the characters. Fatz was the most popular of the CEI characters, so odds were if things hadn't gone south, the band would have stayed the same except Billy Bob would have been replaced with Chuck (is my guess).
You know Chuck E. Cheese is going in a bad direction when they're retiring the "Where A Kid Can Be A Kid" slogan they've been using for 3 decades
There retiring that slogan??
@@kyleeholben1698 they already did. the new one is "play your heart out"
@@hedgethewedge I don't like that new slogan sounds kinda dark
@@cheeseburger555 play until you DIE
I'm calling it they're gonna rebrand into five nights at freddys or some stupid BS
It’s only a temporary thing.
Former employee here. At my location, most of the employees were teenagers and the managers strictly prohibited us to handle alcohol without a manager present (aka an adult). However during the weekends, it gets so busy that so many adults order alcohol and yell at the poor cashiers (who are teens fyi). Even though a manager is like, “oh yeah I’ll be there in a minute!” They never come out of the kitchen. Literally it was a nightmare working there….
Man, F this job.
Thank you for your service
Glad to hear U managed to escape shit sounds rough
Retail is shit but I'd rather b broke than work in service industry
I remember once winning both jackpots on a chuck e cheese spinwheel game, those 1500 tickets took quite a while to come out of the machine.
Having a bunch of tickets thrown at your feet just feels much more rewarding than just "Congratulations, you get ____ points!" on a screen
Yeah waiting excitedly while the tickets keep pouring out is an irreplaceable feeling
So true
I never got the jackpot but I'm so happy I got to experience winning a bunch of tickets. :)
Those points get slowly counted on the screen depending on the game, so its still just as time cknsuming/ rewarding
I remember winning a Simpsons coin rolling game, and just sitting on the ground for like three minutes as all the tickets came out. I also remember this glare of pure envy from another girl across the room.
Chuck E. Cheese brawls are some of the weirdest things in humanity. It's like they combined Freddy fazbears pizza, a saloon, and Mortal Kombat all into one event.
the perfect video game
Remove the saloon part and you get willy wonderland
That sounds awesome. Too bad every Chuck E Cheese smells horrible. I wouldn't go there to witness chaos.
Literally Freddy Fazbears' Fight Club 😭😭
@@RipRLeeErmey foxy's is going to give someone a left hook
I grew up in a town that didn’t have a chuck e cheese and my parents weren’t keen on driving two hours to the closest rat themed pizzeria, but we did have cable tv. I remember seeing ads for the place and wanting to go SO BAD. I explicitly remember watching an ad where a kid did a bunch of chore’s for his mom to convince her to take him to Chuck E. Cheese, and trying that myself. I didn’t really understand why we couldn’t go and would honestly get really upset whenever my mom said “no” by the time I was legally allowed to drive there myself needless to say the place lost all of its appeal.
Sorry to hear that, man.
I grew up in a small town that didn’t have a Chuck E Cheese’s, the closest one was two hours away but I did go there two times when I was a kid. The first time was with my kindergarten class and the second time was with my cousin.
I went there once and instantly the place lost all the ad-built appeal
I'm pretty sure Chuck-E-Cheese's singlehandedly caused an entire Disney Land attraction to go out of business, which I guess just goes to show rats > mice, or something.
How?
@@justice8718 th-cam.com/video/msbBGwXb9Zs/w-d-xo.html I think Purple Haze is referring to Club Disney
@@cameronminor8690
Yep, I watched that Defunctland video!
Honestly I think Club Disney could've stuck around with a few adjustments.
@@DrawciaGleam02 I love defunctland!
@@DrawciaGleam02 I went to club disney. I loved it. the coolest five story arcade ever, they had like every arcade ever!
I was aware of the fact that my dad was pounding beers while I was trying to figure out the Initial D Racing cabinet. Looking back I kinda understand. The man was tired, and probably took a day off work and rode the bus with his wife and two weirdo kids to a noisy arcade that sold subpar pizza. But hey, his kids had good memories, and he got to drink beer. So why complain?
Damn, I wish the Chuck E Cheeses that I went to had Initial D cabinets. I've only seen the Fast and the Furious ones
Yep, I'd drink beer too, if you ask...
"Child that cracked themselves in the head after a wildly inappropriate overhand throw" had me crying laughing.
...I was that kid with the overhand throw
The Pasqually's gambit is actually brilliant, I respect it
I watched a news piece on their local CEC restaurants in their city. They found that prior to getting rid of alcohol license the police had to respond to an average of 5 calls to each CEC a year. After getting rid of the alcohol the average actually went up to 6 calls.
I'd believe that. Most of the fights are not due to the booze. It's baby mama drama or fights over high demand games....
I can't tell you how many fights started over the damn photobooth.
I don’t need alcohol to disturb the peace
I remember as a kid my favorite game was one that involved scooping as many cute little bees into a net as you can. It was so fun and I miss having that cup of coins. I think I still have an old Chuck E Cheese coin. It was so much fun back in the day.
I live in the Netherlands and i played a game like that too! Did the one in your location also include a honey scent dispenser?
In my case, it was in a sort of arcade with all the games that you can win tickets with just like Chuck E. Cheese's, just without the restaurant.
I remember that one! I used to do that one a lot, unfortunately I don’t think the CEC near me has it anymore
Ohh I remember and love that game too!
Instead of removing the band entirely they should instead turn them into a hologram projection. That would allow them to keep the band without requiring maintenance or upgrading to the animatronics. Each location would just receive a new video sequence each time they updated it with new songs/videos. They could actually do a lot with it and make it really cool.
I think holograms are too expensive
@@davifernandopereiraborges5168 You can literally make a hologram with just a projector and glass. Way cheaper than a fully mechanical band and with way less upkeep and maintenence.
@@fracturedfingers wow it seems really cool,it would surely atract people to the restaurant
Vocaloid
It would also free up some space for when fights break out
Pasqually is the pizza chef character from the Chuck E. Cheese franchise. So it’s not totally out of pocket.
Does he actually exist or is he made up?
@@runningdecadeix4780 he’s made up but he is part of the cast of characters in the Chuck E. Cheese franchise. So he existed as a character for a while before the pandemic.
@@badmoose01 is he still a character in the franchise or have they retired him?
@@runningdecadeix4780 They never axed Pasqually out. He's one of the main cast of Chuck E Cheese characters since the beginning in the Pizza Time Theatre days, and he still is even to this day.
@@retrofan4963i dunno man, in the five nights of fun poster, instead of pasqually was bella b. (the brown bunny)
I work for a performing arts theatre. Having seen the sales figures, kid shows are the 2nd most alcohol selling shows per customer only beaten by rap shows. This means if mom and dad bring two children with them, mom and dad drink as if they were five people at a rock concert.
In 2010 I used to take my son to Chuck e cheese and the location here still used coins, the issue was some parents would take their kids to chuck e cheeses with no money and would have the kids walk around without any coins all day, and those kids started preying on the younger kids and just reaching into the cups and stealing handfuls of coins. The employees would replace the coins when paying parents would complain but said they knew but were not allowed to kick people out for theft. We watched those same kids steal drinks and slices of pizzas off unmanned tables. It was disappointing.
Can you blame those kids?
what color were they
bet I can guess
What shitty parent would take the kid there with no money?
@@cathuria5818 wow
Just wow
You say wow how manh Jews steal at chucky cheese?
I gotta say... It's sad that so many adults have to be drunk or maybe even on drugs In order to spend time with their children. Sad.
14:52 "Yes, you have an incredibly slim but still slightly possible chance of being shot there." Isn't that everywhere in the US these days?
The following is a true story:
Years before I was born, my parents made Chuck E. Cheese a hang out spot for the cheap pizza and beer. One time my dad drank an entire pitcher. After that, he started running to the exit and before he made it, he projectile vomited pure foam all over the floor 🥴
We still make fun of him for that in my family
Your dad is a legend
Why do you sound proud of this? Break the cycle. Lol
@@Darkwingmpc “we still make fun of him for that in my family”
@@Darkwingmpccry about it
I worked at CEC in the late 90s. We served beer and wine. I was a party hostess, but regularly got called to the register to pour beer because I was one of the few non management working there who was 18. I worked there for over a year and don't remember ever having the police come. I was surprised to find that the location I worked at started hiring off duty police officers to hang out on Friday and Saturday nights.
Burger king use to serve alcohol too.
And pizza hut.
hell i'd work off duty at a chuck e cheese, that sounds fun as hell
I wonder if they ever stopped serving alcohol
@@MustacheDLuffy think McDonald's
Use to serve alcohol.
I'm watching the parents fighting and I'm chanting, "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"
I was born in 1988. During my teen years, there was this gigantic place in central Indiana by the name of United Skates. It was a classic roller rink with an arcade off to the side. One trip I remember is a young boy, maybe 9 at the oldest, was wandering around the arcade. He said "Tokens for the poor?" He was being REALLY sweet & he was nice to me earlier. I decided to be the cool, older kid & gave him 3 tokens from my stash. God speed, lil dude.
Imagine being that kid at 4:28 up in the bubble that got to see the brawl from that gorgeous aerial view
Can’t Chuck E Cheese just be like the SpongeBob or Bluey of pizzerias where it’s wholesome for the kids, yet still fun for the adults?
Not anymore at least :(
In a parallel Universe, it could've worked but sadly, in our Universe, it's impossible.
It was before. 🤷🏻♂️
Used to be it was during the late 70s when the chain was new and trying to find its audience
The arcade machines are there for a reason pal
Fascinating watch for a Brit where we not only never had Chuck E. Cheese, but just had no equivalent whatsoever. I think that for some of us, FNAF was our entire introduction to the idea of a restaurant animatronic, to the point where I’ve found it eye opening to see them… actually exist? Kinda wanna see one of these before it’s too late
Yeah. I live in Britain and CEC was basically unheard of before 2014
Mate you don't remember Charlie Chalk though?
FWIW they weren't able to move freely around the restaurant; they were fixed to the stage.
I personally never saw any problem with them changing their name for delivery apps during the lockdown. It's not like they changed their name to "Domino's" or some other reputable business. Other restaurants did the same thing. I've ordered from "It's Just Wings" and "Tender Shack" and later found out that they were operating out of "Chile's" and "Outback Steakhouse" respectively.
And apparently pasqually is a character from the Chuck E. Cheese extended universe
It's true. I guess it was just how sneaky it felt that threw some people off at first. I know I wouldn't mind if it were me haha.
The "it's just wings" in my area is run out of a dennys, and it's a double edged sword because on one hand the wings are good, but on the other hand now dennys is only open like 2 non consecutive hours and never when you actually want dennys
@prylosecorsomething3194 Really? That's weird. Denny's and Chile's aren't owned by the same company, so I'm not sure why an It's Just Wings would be operating out of a Denny's.
And pasqually is literally on the stage with Chuck. Pretty much anyone who actually went to a Chuck E Cheese could be able to guess and its definitely not intentionally misleading.
something about you calling and saying "do you guys sell alcohol at your establishment" made me laugh so hard
The reason the pizzas look "recycled" Its because kitchen staff are not allowed to use knives instead they use this weird seesaw thing that is very hard to make neat and precise cuts.
Yeah I've used blunt knives and stuff before and lemme tell ya, you really can't cut shit with them and it just mangles the food.
No wonder Chuck's slices look all fucked up lmao
Bruh, that's literally a pizza cutter. 😂
@@DarkwingmpcA terrible outdated one lmao
It sounds like they don’t have proper pizza cutters🤔
@@sporeham1674 No. Regular circular pizza cutters actually kinda suck, very few restaurants use them. They're slow, hard to clean, have moving parts that can break, and they don't cut very cleanly. I used to work in a bakery/pizzeria. I did the pastries, but I could see the pizza being made, and they used the big seesaw type thing. I've also seen that in videos of pizza being made in restaurants. Maybe it's harder to learn, but it's way better once you're good at it. Circular pizza cutters are mostly just for fun.
3:12 There are more recordings of borderline-riots at Chuck-E-Cheese establishments than there are years in the average human lifespan. I'm not sure whether that's morbidly hilarious or existentially horrifying, but it's definitely at least one of the two.
This was honestly the first time in awhile i wish a video was longer. As someone who grew up with memories of skater chucky, but not of the band, it's sad to know how kids in the future & now won't experience what the 70s-2010s kids did. Great vid, man!
The one I went to the most as a kid right about 1980 was a *massive* difference to what I've taken my kids to.
Soooooooo much better in every way. The full band, a jungle themed "maze" of sorts, more games than anyone could ever play in one visit, and even decent pizza.
Now the pizza sucks, the band is gone (usually just Chuck by himself), the game section is rather small, in favor of miles of end to end tables (this the replacement for the "maze"? It's hard to find the way out, I'll give them that)... Just sucks all around.
The place is a shell of what it once was. Commercialization and bean counters destroy *everything* 🙄🤷♂️
@@MadScientist267 to be fair, the pizza always sucked. As a kid you just couldn't tell/didn't care
as someone who grew up in a country outside of the US, I feel the exact same despite being a kid in the 2000s, I have absolutely no idea what a Chuck e Cheese is like
The recycling pizza scandal reminds me of how it became a viral myth that movie theaters recycle their day old popcorn. As crappy as my job at the theater was, we never did that. It was freshly popped every day, and we were tasked with removing and throwing out the popcorn from the concession stand every night. We'd sometimes donate bags to Little League teams and community events, also freshly popped less than an hour before it was picked up. Say what you want about big theaters, but we never sold old popcorn.
It was apparently faked-one of the top comments on this video mentions Shane Dawson of all people faked the recycled pizza scandal.
Sadly, I never went to Chuck E. Cheese's because me and my family would always prefer Cici's or Peter Piper Pizza. Even though we have pizza bought from Little Caesars, Pizza Hut or Domino’s, it's sad to see that Chuck E. Cheese's file for bankruptcy due to its rebranding and the COVID-19 pandemic which closed all restaurants in 2020. I gotta admit that place was awesome and I remember PBS Kids always sponsoring that place from the 2000s.
Truth be told, I never went to Chuck E Cheese (except for 2 points) in my childhood, as I always went to Peter Piper instead
Nothing against CEC personally, but I was always scared of the Studio C animatronic.
Though looking back now, I can’t help but feel guilty that I took those moments for granted 😔
@@akganimationstudioproducti3779
I saw a comment from someone about them going to CEC as a kid.
They left soon after arriving because of the loud noise and because the Chuck costume scared them. 😆
So you're not the only one scared away from CEC due to things like that.
I was at both Cici's and chucke cheese, and honestly my local Cici's fell off faster than Chuck e cheese
There’s two locations in my town still open
Hint: try to input Cici into Google Translate, and set the translation from Hungarian to English.
Dude, my Dad used to take me to Toys R' Us and Chuck E. Cheese on my childhood birthdays, and when Toys 'R Us closed back in 2018, I visited it AND the restaurant to revisit my childhood memories.
I remember being disheartened to see that the arcade games were so SO bad -- they were basically upscaled mobile games, they used to have the TMNT and XMen Arcade games AND the Simpsons Pinball game, they could have at least kept those.
Overall, it just wasn't the same.
The North American arcade game scene in terms of the games available is grim. Your best option these days is to find a Round1 or small-time arcade that's imported Japanese machines.
Freddy fazbear sure gets a little crazy after 3 beers
The sad thing about the changes to the restaurant? There are kids who never even SAW the animatronic band in person who insist that the interactive dance floor is better because "no creepy child-mangling robots." FNAF has utterly tanked the reputation of this place.
They could at least have a CG band on a giant display, or heck, why not do a Pepper's Ghost hologram? There are some pretty inexpensive ways to keep that part of the business alive without just completely scrapping it.
Those things were terrifying kids way before fnaf. It was only a matter of time before someone realized. I cried my entire birthday party in horror because of the robots.
My mom told me that she wishes she hadn't taken me to Chuck E Cheese because I was terrified the entire time. For reference, I was born in 1994
I'd say FNAF was was a byproduct of kids being terrified by the real animatronic band, not the other way around. I think kids finding them scary was a pretty common experience. I didn't necessarily find them "terrifying" as a child, but I definitely thought they were on the unsettling side. Though I also found them interesting because I liked mechanical things.
Modernizing them with CG and a hologram would be awesome! Takes away the uncanny valley effect of the animatronics, and would probably have much cheaper maintenance.
Dude nah that band was always fucking creepy. Fnaf is based on the creepy vibes CEC and Showbiz Pizza gave off. That, and the actual fnaf animatronics are nowhere near as visual freaky as the real life CEC band.
FNAF did nothing lmao. Chuck E Cheese and all child like entertainment places have been going bankrupt because of the rise of the internet. Kids don’t like going out or socializing cause they can do everything from home. Cope harder, old man. By the time that game was made the company was already going under, constantly rebranding, and filled with controversy. That’s why FNAF did so great, they took a pre-existing fear and ran with it. Tell me what other arcades are even around anymore? Everyone has consoles and PCs and nobody wants to eat at family diners, people prefer delivery. The times have changed but go ahead and make this one little videogame out to be some evil big bad set out to ruin your childhood.
Edit:
If I remember correctly, FNAF even made people talk about Chuck E Cheese when its sales were tanking so if anything the game HELPED the franchise. It’s not Scott’s fault the company couldn’t take advantage of that push and went right back to flopping
They could've AT LEAST kept the tickets. I remember a point when the cards replaced just the coins but the machines still spit out tickets. Still remember one time this kid came up to me asking me to swipe my card for him. Absolutely heartbreaking they are done away with the tickets too.
I loved the ticket eater and still have tokens (it's been a while since I went there lol)
I remember I use to go to this pizza place with a arcade inside (not Chuck E. Cheese) and I played one of those slot games and won the Jack pot. All the kids were hyping me up and it took a solid few minutes for the tickets to print. It was one of my favorite memory’s ever
12:26 The Mcdonalfication of truly 90s establishments is so sad to see
I work at a "fun center" like this, and the climate of "fun" has definitely changed over the years. Chuck locations that were mentioned in the early parts of the video seem to be location issues. Most places will have the normal scuffle every now and then, it just depends on how security and problems are solved and handled. Most places now start to have security during peak hours or days only, some just have cameras with staff who were barely even shown how to do their job
15:02 Thats the Chuck E. Cheese that used to be by where I live in Springfield OR, I can tell because you can see part of the arches of the old iconic Gateway mall. Sadly the Chuck E. Cheese has been gone for years, and a couple years after that, they turned Gateway, which was an awesome mall, into a trashy strip mall. Theres something really nice though about randomly seeing the exact Pizza Rat establishment that I frequented for so many of my own birthday parties, in this equally random TH-cam video. Although it was most definitely just a coincidence that you used an image of the one in my hometown, thanks for the mini blast of Pizza Rat and mall escalator nostalgia.
Ha, no way! The Chuck's we visited in the video is still open, but for how much longer, I don't know...
@@slow_start The Rat better start counting down the pepperoni's, for you can only recycle so many pizzas before you taste your last marinade.. lol
@@slow_startMississauga
Sometimes I forget Springfield is a real place
2:07 It's sad grown adults are starting brawls at a goddamn arcade. This looks really sad.
As much as Chuck E Cheese still has a lot of work to do on their image, I don't really think that the fights can be blamed on them. Like honestly, what is the company realistically supposed to do about that besides hire more security? The ones that cause most of the drama are adults. You can't really control full-grown adults that can absolutely fight back.
the hand sanitizer / sucker punch joke was a nice touch. 😂
‘80s kid, here. I remember playing the ticket games, having fun in the ball pit, the sky tubes, watching the animatronics show, and playing the arcade games such as Midnight Resistance, Bad Dudes, Spy Hunter, NARC, The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, and more. I still have great memories of CEC. We never had any fights or alcohol problems when I went there.
After the early ‘90s I outgrew it, though I did go to my niece’s and nephew’s birthday parties there years later. The restaurants were never the same when I went back for those events, (fortunately they weren’t as bad compared to their much later days).
The frustrating card interface is a real bummer. Why are they making everything like cellphones when, if anything, that's what I feel they should be pushing against! Make it as different from what every kid has access to every day, not more like it.
I think it has a lot to do with creating more sustainable solutions. Cards probably solved a lot of problems that coins and tickets created, but at the expense of our nostalgia :/
This went from a video essay to a Chuck E. Cheese vlog. Instant like.
Except there's no essay.
The crazy part is... it isn't the kids..it's the damn parents/ADULTS!
4:16 as a man who has installed CCTV, I can assure you that 4K footage at 60 FPS is achievable by modern day security cameras. The 240p joke is a early 2000s joke
I would love to see a video about the “Discovery Zone” franchise that was huge for the 80s to mid 90s era. I remember it being a ton of fun, but I don’t know if it is still around, been rebranded, or just quietly disappeared into the void…
If you're referring to what I think you are, those days are long done.
it rebranded in the late 90s to dz /dz kids and then faded away as far as i know that place was awesome i had a friend who worked at both chuck and discovery zone
I had one in my area too, loved it.
Really wish they still kept a lot more of some of the classic or retro games, at least to mix up the formula of old and new games available. Nothing can beat the nostalgic fun of the old Jurassic Park and Lost World machines; those used to be everywhere.
I basically never played anything except the beach invasion turret game.
It's wild how Chuck E Cheese went from a wholesome kid place to now its become a bar filled with children. As a Zilemmoal myself I can remember when Chuck E Chesse demanded right when I was entering high school.
Zilemmoal lives matter. Demander it.
No offense, but I absolutely despise your portmanteau.
I've been sneaking alcohol into Chucky Cheese since the 70s
@@dangerousdays2052 this comment is rad as fuck for some reason
alcoholic
1:39 Chuck E Cheese should be a Super Smash Bros stage with all the brawls that occur over at that resterant.
12:16 They're STILL using reworked Showbiz Pizza animatronics designed/produced by Creative Engineering in the "80's. The keyboard says it all...
I live right near the Brandon Chuck E. Cheese (3:00). It seems like something will always being going on over there, to a women starting a shooting or A FREAKING CAR SMASHING INTO THE BUILDING. Every time I hear this on the news, I always think that it was a great move to start going to Dave & Busters for now on.
Interesting note: in Pennsylvania only dedicated beer distributors known as "beer stores" are actually allowed to serve beer, which means Chuck-E-Cheese there actually never server alcohol. Making that 17 calls store very funny.
Nope. I drank at chucks in Pennsylvania many times back in the day. Outside Pittsburgh served beer. I'm guessing they had the same license as a bar?🍻
Alternate reality where Showbiz Pizza took off and Chuck E. Cheese's is a near forgotten relic
What about an alt. reality where Chuck and Billy Bob were co-stars in the animatronic show?
Alternate reality where a young Rich Evans is photographed next to Chuck E. Cheese instead of Billy Bob.
Could of been a reality if they decided to change their restaurants to show biz and if Aaron , who created the Rockafire , wasn’t such a big baby and maintained his band, the band would probally still be in stores at this point.
Makes me sad to hear they are slowly taking away the live automated band from these establishments. That was an iconic memory of going to these when I was a kid in the 90s and early 2000s.
It’s to drink away the sorrow of knowing the Chuck E. Cheese’s from our childhood is gone.
Still can't get over the "Pasqually's" thing, like they really did just get a snazzy logo and pretend to be another place
Worked for a bit there!
and they used one of their existing characters
So I guess this is the week I discovered the little corner of TH-cam catering almost exclusively to my particular sense of nostalgia, chronicling the life and times of various fixtures from my childhood. Until now, I never really could've assigned a specific date to when these things stopped being a part of my life, they just sort of diffused into a nebulous cloud of nostalgia; now I see that the cutoff happened somewhere around 2003 for Bionicle, probably a little earlier for Chuck E. Cheese.
Well done. Maybe consider exploring the history of licensed tie-in toys for Men in Black, Spy Kids, Wild Wild West, etc., released by McDonalds and Burger King (i.e., the PEAK era of "happy meal"-style toys).
wow this is surreal... i had a friend send me this a couple days ago because he recognized the location you went to... i worked at that exact location when you visited, jeez, I even recognize one of my old coworkers at some point.
anyways, I'm glad you had a good time when you came! yes, knowing the manager who worked there at the time it was definitely an issue on their part rather then too many people buying beer lol. actually at that location we also sell different wines and seltzers too funnily enough.
I love how the news anchor did a big exposé on exposing a 16-year-old high school aged Chuckie cheese employee making less than minimum wage.
Really lady? Is it that big of a story that you got some young girl fire from her job for trying to help you?
Confession time: I actually never visited Chuck E. Cheese's for my birthday growing up- that was usually reserved for Disneyland or Hometown Buffet when I was a kid. In fact, I've only visited the closest Chuck E. Cheese's a few times, the last time being 2020 before lockdown occurred where my life coach and I had the slices of pizza (but we didn't get alcohol nor did we play any of the games). What fascinated me more about Chuck E. Cheese's is not only its association with controversies (brawls and recycled pizza, I see you), but also with the animatronics' origins from Garner Holt Productions.
Disneyland or Hometown Buffet... the two most magical places on earth! XD
Wait Hometown buffets are like a franchise? I thought it was just some random buffet that got closed down in my town specifically lol
Alcohol at an establishment for kids, full of kids. What could possibly go wrong? 🤦♀
NOTHING!!
I'm actually surprised they lasted until the pandemic. I've personally never had a bad time there, As a kid and in my early 20s for my lil bros birthday. The later was in a more impoverished area and my mom was worried. Rightfully so a dude got killed at the checkers by it a week before but we had no issues at the party. Also I rarely drink so can't speak on the beer.
Your video, ironically, has functioned as an effective ad for me to bring my kid to Check E. Cheese at some point. The nostalgia PLUS craft beer? Shit I'm in for at least one visit.
The firefighter game brings back so many memories! I used to love the alien bike game, Jurassic park, the bike that made you go up when you pedaled, the playground, a haunted house game with a spinner, then this one roller coaster simulator. I remember being so disappointed the last time I went to Chuck E. Cheese with my little sister around 2018-2019. I had either just gotten older or it just wasn’t as fun anymore. I’ll always remember the fun times back in the mid-late 2000s and early 2010s.
7:34 70’s Chuck looks like a member of the mafia asking “Who wants ta know?” And 80’s Chuck has seen some shit
11:53 brave firefighters was literally my entire trip to Chuck E Cheese back in tue day. Core memory unlocked
In the late 90s there were a string of fights (as I remember, one was over breadsticks) at the El Cerrito location. It's been gone for a long long time but I'll always remember that.
In 2001 I found a Sanrio money box full of tokens from what must have been my birthday party there when I was in preschool. It was like finding secret Aztec gold. My mom thought it was hilarious and said we should go spend them all. And we did! We drove out to another CEC in Fairfield and spent every damn token on a sugar fueled afternoon. It was the first place I ever saw Brave Firefighters. My god. We were drunk with power. That was loads of fun.
i liked the tokens as a kid, would look under the arcade machines, the carousel, the ball pit, checking everywhere i could think of to find those coveted lost tokens to get a few more games in to squeeze out some more tickets that i never banked up when i was younger. as i got older i did start to save the tickets and saved up enough for a little plasma ball to set up on your desk
Fushigi ball:....I guess this is life now....
Holy shit, I was not expecting Brave Firefighters to be brought up. I heard that game is pretty rare, so it's surprising to hear that your Chuck E. Cheese had one.
I remember the hose being really heavy, although I was around 7-8 years old.
Lucky, my local Chuck E Cheese still has Brave Firefighters, so that's a W
I feel like I had a core memory unlocked
I remember playing this weird sit down riding game with a horror theme. There was any guns, it was more like a ride that jerked you back and forth to match the screen. You were chasing this weird dark haired witch lady or something. I remember it giving me nightmares
I have only seen Brave Firefighters at Chuck E Cheese & Gameworks (owned by Sega). The Chuck E Cheese location modified the cabinet to hold the hoses for the kids.
Brave Firefighters is rare due to the hardware. I own an Air Trix machine that runs on the same hardware. The graphics chip over time separates in the connections and breaks the game. I personally have not found anyone that can repair this. Thus, it's easier to throw out. Pod Racer has the same issue.
it’s such a shame so many restaurant establishments in general abandoned animatronics; i’m OBSESSED with them. when i was younger i unfortunately never went to an establishment with the full make-believe band but i vividly remember seeing exactly one chuck. e animatronic on this stage thing and just, staring at it in marvel (and minor fear 😭)
In my short stint of doing being a DoorDash delivery driver, one person did, in fact, order a pizza from Chuck E Cheese’s. What makes this more psychopathic is that it was a very far drive when she could have ordered from the millions of places in Houston that were much closer to her.
8:10 Actually, not really. Showbiz Pizza's Rock afire characters being replaced by CEC's characters is for a different cause. Back in the 80's Showbiz Pizza is actually doing better financially than Chuck E Cheese Pizza Time Theatre. That's why Showbiz is the one that bought CEC, and CEC experienced bankruptly at the time. Both Showbiz Pizza and CEC faced financial problems in the video game crash, but CEC is suffering worse of the two. And for Billy Bob being replaced by Chuck E in Showbiz case, it mainly has to do with problems between Creative Engineering(Company who owns the Billy Bob and his friends) and Showbiz Pizza. You see, Showbiz Pizza does not own the Rock afire Explosion characters, Creative Engineering owns the license of the Rock afire characters and they collaborated with Showbiz to make Showbiz Pizza possible. During the merge of CEC and Showbiz Pizza, Showbiz wanted to own the Rock afire Explosion and want to cheat out Aaron Fechter(The owner of Creative Engineering) by not giving him any cent to buy them out of him. Aaron decline the offer and he took the rights of the Rock afire Explosion with him, thus Billy Bob and his friends are axed off out of Showbiz and Showbiz only has the CEC license, thus the Rock afire Explosion ended up being replaced by Munch's Make-Believe Band in Concept Unification. There's a Rock afire Explosion documentary film that explains all of this. But overall, it has nothing to do with Chuck being more popular than Billy Bob.
i’m pretty sure if aaron had a choice, showbiz would still be its own restaurant because he actually HATED the cec characters. but i mean- aaron has done some pretty crazy things since it closed.
I vaguely remember Chuck E. Cheese, as I was scared of chuck e and how he looked around his stage and never surrendering his smile. I only remember goofy clock ride thing, coins and silly picture warmers. Now, I’m way too old for chuck e. Man, I wish I did more. I only went about 2 times as I could remember.
That's really f'd up with the whole beer and whine thing. Poor kids celebrating their birthdays while their parents get crunked.
One drink takes the edge off of chaperoning a children's party... any more than that and you're treading into the danger zone haha
Every single birthday I ever had involved the adults drinking, I didn't know that was weird
It's not that deep bro
@@prylosecorsomething3194 it isn't.. people nowadays have become extremely sensitive I know it's a thing that's been said for years but once it gets to the point where people start connecting abuse to drinking at a Chick E Cheese it's hard not to feel that way
Super underrated channel and amazing video; you deserve way more subs! (I died laughing at “Ballpit RKO” 😂)
As someone who was pretty bummed about the whole power card system replacing tokens and tickets too, I quickly realized it created it's own brand of fun, particularly in regards to the all-you-can-play time, which is just a better deal than buying credits by a longshot. Why? Cuz this lets you tap the card once every 30 seconds.
This creates a game of musical chairs almost, where you can either continue to tap the card every 30 seconds during a game's downtime (Which if you master it, can be done during play considering how many games only require one hand at a time) OR you can jump back and forth between games every 30 seconds in order to optimize the amount of plays.
It's definitely not the same, but idk I had a lot of fun doing that with my niece and nephew the last time I went. Feels good to get a flow going. Scan Mario kart, don't hit start on it, run over to the big bass wheel, scan it, pump it, run back over to Mario kart, reach over to the basketball machine nearby for other people to play while you're playing, etc. You just gotta go in with the right strategy.
I went to these as a kid and I actually take my kids to the local Chuck E Cheese upon request. The pizza isn't bad and they live stand up arcade games. It's honestly funny but they like it. Pizza is still pretty solid unless you order a single 1/2 -1/2 pizza. I feel a few places do combine leftovers.
I'll never forget the few parties they had at our areas version, Celebration Station. I think it was one of those showbiz sites because I distinctly remember the animatronic band looking just like theirs. In the early 2000s it was already starting to fall apart and you could barely hear the music over all the children, but it was still pretty cool to see all that machinery at work. I remember the cabinet games not being quite as fun back then because the go-karts were where it was at. Go-kart, put put, eat, and maybe hit a few baseballs, that was the place to celebrate
I grew up in Florida and we had celebration station, there was also laser tag at my local one. I was trying to remember the name of the place for the entirety of this video so thank you
The CEC i worked at for six years was the only one to not sell alcohol, but fights occurred in front of me more than once. I only worked there part-time to boot. However, when we changed the restroom trash liners, we heard alcohol bottles clank together after busy days.
Man you deserve way more subs and views with quality this good.
Thank you! I'll keep working hard!
Why not make games based on teenagers and stylized it around that more? There's so many innovative arcades from Japan or in general (I love the Kung fu panda one.)
They could even make their own arcades if they got help from the indie game scene. There are some arcades that make their own games.
Godzillamendoza also covered this in a video and gave really good advice.
just found you and had to subscribe, your content is beyond good keep on doing what you do, its a fresh breath of air not being force fed ai content
My parents took us to Chuck E Cheese rather frequently since we got a lot of "buy 50 tokens get 50 free" and "20 free tokens with the purchase of a medium pizza" and similar coupons and it would keep us entertained for a while. If it was a really special occasion, my dad would get "an expensive chuck e cheese beer." It wasn't a big deal, my dad and grandparents responsibility drank around my brother and I all the time, so I thought nothing of it (just that gross drink adults like for some reason).