Chuck E. Cheese Trouble December 9, 2008 6:39 PM   Subscribe

A follow-up to last year's AskMe about Chuck E. Cheese.

Gawker discusses a WSJ article about violence at Chuck E. Cheese.
posted by k8t to MetaFilter-Related at 6:39 PM (32 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite

Good point, Burhanistan.
posted by k8t at 6:47 PM on December 9, 2008


Wow, people really hate Malcolm Gladwell.
posted by lunit at 7:08 PM on December 9, 2008


This is totally front page material. If you could find a video of a drunk guy beating up an animatronic mouse, it could even win the contest.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 7:16 PM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite]


Once I restarted Malcolm Gladwell's computer. If you know what I mean. And I mean Ctrl+Alt+Del.
posted by unknowncommand at 7:26 PM on December 9, 2008


sixcolors: So that's what one looks like? Oh, man, I've been doing it all wrong!
posted by turgid dahlia at 7:29 PM on December 9, 2008


I don't have the energy to find any cooler links than the Gawker article, the WSJ article and the original post. Please feel free to post it someone else.
posted by k8t at 7:44 PM on December 9, 2008


(.)

actually
posted by klangklangston at 7:50 PM on December 9, 2008


I had a friend who worked at a Chuck E. Cheese in high school. He put in enough time to get to put on the rat-suit, even.

None of us could understand why this didn't get him laid.
posted by bardic at 7:57 PM on December 9, 2008


Parenting causes brain damage. Case closed.
posted by pompomtom at 8:14 PM on December 9, 2008


I am sooooooooooooo organizing a meetup at Chuck E. Cheese.
posted by dhammond at 8:14 PM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite]


"I was correcting, my punctuation wankers."

FTFY
posted by turgid dahlia at 8:21 PM on December 9, 2008 [4 favorites]


I am sooooooooooooo organizing a meetup at Chuck E. Cheese.

One Jumbo Uppercut Combo and a Medium Chili Whup-Ass, and I'll take it right here!
posted by turgid dahlia at 8:22 PM on December 9, 2008


So... you realize that by linking the news article (which is very weak sort of anecdotal reporting, a fact the Gawker article pretty much calls it out on while reveling in the low-brow trainwreck rubbernecking) to that AskMe post - which has nothing whatsoever to do with behavior at Chuck E. Cheese - you're basically suggesting that a good explanation for the supposed preponderance of incidents of violence there is because there are more blacks and hispanics patronizing the restaurant. Right?
posted by nanojath at 8:28 PM on December 9, 2008 [3 favorites]


The original AskMe turned from a discussion of race to one of socio-economic status. Since the Gawker and WSJ articles lightly touch on the changing socio-economic demographics, I felt that it was an interesting follow up.
posted by k8t at 8:41 PM on December 9, 2008


Or at the very least, when I read it, I thought back to the AskMe post a year ago. I was quite interested in the phenomenon (I am a social scientist who studies socio-economic status) and thought that others may be too.
posted by k8t at 8:44 PM on December 9, 2008


This incident at a Chuck E. Cheese near where I grew up means I have always associated this chain with violence.

Also the rat is just scary. I'd get a little fighty myself if stuck in a tight corner with that thing.
posted by nat at 9:26 PM on December 9, 2008


I've got 50 links collected based on earlier reading but the soonest I'd be able to post is later tomorrow...would that be weird now that this conversation has occurred?
posted by batmonkey at 9:55 PM on December 9, 2008


He put in enough time to get to put on the rat-suit, even.

Round these parts, the new guys get the suit.
posted by niles at 10:19 PM on December 9, 2008


No, it would be weird because it would be FIFTY LINKS ABOUT CHUCK E. CHEESE
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:58 AM on December 10, 2008 [7 favorites]


From the WSJ: Officers have been called to break up 12 fights, some of them physical, at the child-oriented pizza parlor since January 2007.

What does that mean? The police get called now for yelling matches?

Also: I never realized CEC served booze.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 6:19 AM on December 10, 2008


I wanted to kick the shit of someone when I last went to Chuck E. Cheese's and realized that there are no more robots - it's pretty much all pre-recorded video screen garbage.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:39 AM on December 10, 2008


What does that mean? The police get called now for yelling matches?

Protracted screaming-matches-in-progress in a public place? Hell yeah; sometimes calling the police is the only way you can shut someone up.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:48 AM on December 10, 2008


I guess so. Maybe I'm just not used to screaming matches that don't quickly escalate.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 7:11 AM on December 10, 2008


My theory is that the people who get into screaming matches that don't quickly escalate do that because they know if it escalates then (a) they might lose materially and (b) oh noes someone might call the police. There's probably a lot of booze and/or general stupidity confounding the dynamic too when that sort of thing happens.

People are weird. And loud.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:16 AM on December 10, 2008


Can someone please post this to the front page already? I'm all bottled up here with insights, zingers and mots bon that I don't want to waste on you MeTa losers.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:26 AM on December 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


Hey! They are talking about the Chuck E. Cheese in Brookfield! I drive past that one all the time.

And now I feel the need to try and get arrested there. I figure I'll get a couple of friends, we'll dress up like Rock-afire Explosion (since it's my idea, I'm gonna be Fatz Geronimo the gorilla in the gold tuxedo, natch), and we will get liquored up and beat the ever loving shit out of that mechanical rat.

This will be worth if, for no other reason, than to see the mug-shots it will produce.
posted by quin at 7:50 AM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


Wow, I can't believe the WSJ article's byline is from BROOKFIELD. I used to work in that suburb, and it is upper-middle class - houses are $250-500K. It's the kind of place where cops have nothing better to do than stop you for speeding 5 mph over the limit. I'm really shocked.
posted by desjardins at 8:22 AM on December 10, 2008


"What does that mean? The police get called now for yelling matches?"

Metaphysical fights. See if you don't call the police when someone undermines the philosophical basis for your belief in free will.
posted by klangklangston at 9:36 AM on December 10, 2008 [5 favorites]


Great SM save me from ever stepping foot in a Chucky Cheese again, violence or no damn violence, but this sentence in the WSJ article jumped out at me:
Now some towns are asking CEC to step into the ring. Amid pressure from local politicians, some Chuck E. Cheese's have stopped serving alcohol and added security guards who carry pistols.


Now, am I the only one who envisions the Kafka-esque nightmare of being trapped somewhere with the combination of large numbers of children, screaming soccer parents and armed rent-a-cops? The soul recoils in terror.
posted by dejah420 at 12:47 PM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


What does that mean? The police get called now for yelling matches?

According to the article, it's supposed to be a restaurant for kids. Noisy, mannerless, unsupervised kids with pockets full of game tokens. If drunken idiot tag-along "uncles" and cousins get into a never-ending yelling match, I suppose that shuts down the hideous birthday parties and costs the restaurant current and future customers. And if you owned the place and it seemed the yelling could turn into a physical fight, especially a fight that (oh, if only) might harm a few of the customers, you'd probably (though perhaps against your better judgment) call the cops to prevent bloodshed rather than have to clean up afterward.
posted by pracowity at 2:04 PM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


I like their pizza, c'mon!
posted by not_on_display at 7:39 PM on December 10, 2008


"Wow, I can't believe the WSJ article's byline is from BROOKFIELD. "


Shut up. That was the CEC I was talking about just up there.


Milwaukee MeFi meetup at Chuck's?
posted by niles at 9:22 PM on December 10, 2008


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