15 of the Creepiest Chuck E. Cheese Characters

Chuck E. Cheese and the associated Showbiz Pizza Place (split off and eventually emerged in a battle that will be known to history as the Animatronic Pizza Wars) hit on a brilliant business plan in the latter half of the 20th century: casinos for children. We all have fond memories of celebrating our and our friends’ birthdays by pumping token after token into machines that did little more than spit out tickets in response, running resolutely past the salad bar without even a single perfunctory glance, and sitting down to murder some pizza while trying our best to ignore the robots singing lifelessly on the stage.

Because they were weird, right? Maybe it was the wide, unblinking eyes. Maybe it was the slow, stiff movements reminiscent of a reanimated corpse. Whatever averted you specifically (or aroused you, specifically), there’s no denying those bot stars were unsettling, sometimes inappropriate, and yes, occasionally racist.