Brit here. Chuck E Cheese never came to the UK as far as I remember, so it was one of those surprising institutions when I came to the US (especially the Bushnell angle, but I digress).
The thing that immediately struck me is that the name Chuck E Cheese sounded like a euphemism for the act of vomiting inexpensive pizza.
And the old logo (above) really looks to me like the guy is recovering in the aftermath of a really huge heave, looking at all the semidigested pizza he’s just yarked onto the floor and thinking “wow, look at all that. Man I need a drink”
The new logo, though, looks way too thin and lithe, like they were trying too hard to suggest healthiness and just ended up with an uncannily verminous sewer rat.
The worst Chuck E Cheese, though, is the intermediary one used in the tv ads.
There’s something about it, the way it’s imitative of 80s/90s-era saturday morning toons but shockingly badly drawn, with all the weird shiny clothes, that makes me think it’s carrying some kind of semiotic plague. It evokes “your name the hedgehog”-style furry art where each detail looks suspiciously like it might be the artist’s kink.
All said, though, thank you for America’s best brawls.
