Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty
If you’ve ever stepped foot inthe United States of America, chances are you’vecome across a Chuck E. Cheese. What you may not have come across, however, is the origin story behindthe chain’siconic mouse mascot — and let us just warn you, it’s not the fun-loving tale you’re probably expecting.
Siddhartha Mahanta, an editor as Business Insider, recently took to Twitter to share a screenshot of Chuck E. Cheese’s Wikipedia page, which lists Chuck’s official backstory as “an orphaned mouse who does not know hisown birthday” who hosts parties for kids to make up for the hole in his own childhood. Mahanta captioned the post, “Is this origin story … widely known?”
The post went viral on Twitter, with many commenters answering Mahanta’s question with a firm “no” and plenty of horrified confusion.
Soon after, Buzzfeed found a digital copy of a children’s book calledThe Story of Chuck E. Cheese, which the restaurant published to its website in 2012. The contents of the book confirmed the statement on Wikipedia.
According tothe story, which can still be foundonline, Chuck E. Cheese grew up in an orphanage called St. Marinara’s. Because he was an orphan, Chuck did not know his own birthday, but lovedcelebrating the birthdaysof the other orphans in the orphanage — he loved music and games, and he especially loved singing “Happy Birthday,” even though he’d never heard it sung to himself.
On his first night up on stage, Chuck was too afraid to sing and kept getting booed. Long story short, he saw a boy with a birthday crown and couldn’t help but sing. The crowd cheered and the pizzeria became the most popular spot in town forevermore — perfect forfamilies and birthday parties.
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We know, it’s… a lot.
And though it may be a tad bit darker than we would expect from the mouse that we grew up with, the last line of the story assures us that Chuck is doing just fine, despite his previous setbacks: “Chuck E. Cheese hasn’t stopped singing (or smiling) since.”
Childhood ruined? You be the judge.
source: people.com
