Traumafessions :: Reader Marchant D. on Showbiz Pizza's Fatz Geronimo
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By aunt john
When I was a toddler, my friends and I would often have birthday parties at an outfit called Showbiz Pizza Place. (Eventually they all got converted to Chuck E. Cheeses.) While we really enjoyed the arcade, the crappy little ticket toys, and the greasy pizza, there was also an animatronic musical revue. The majority of characters in this show were endearing. However, there was one character that terrified me. He was a keyboard-playing gorilla named Fatz Geronimo. I would generally cry and hide under the table whenever he appeared. I definitely wasn't alone in that regard. I can't believe the character designers ever thought it was a good idea to make him look like this:
  As I like to think we all did, I had a great mom and pop video store in New Jersey by the name of Showbiz Video in the 80's before it was run out of town by Blockbuster (who I would incidentally work for years later). One of my…
The scene with the melting policeman character (whose body Jason had been occupying for a while) scared the living shit out of me. This poor guy looked like he was in extreme anguish. Absolutely terrifying.----To top it all off I was about 6 when I saw it!
What is it with me and Traumafessions from 1977? First it was SASQUATCH: THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT, then it was ORCA, and now I come to you with ROLLERCOASTER. In the summer of '77, I was 8 - a great age for enjoying carnivals and amusement parks. My interest in…
Showbiz Pizza was awesome! It was sooo much better than crappy Chunk E. Cheese's! The Rock-afire Explosion group was cool; however, I can see where Fatz could frighten a two-year-old child. I predict that sometime in the future someone will submit a traumafession about the Rainforest Cafe. Check out this clip from YouTube.
jillcs
16 years ago
You are most certainly not alone in this trauma. I, too, was terrified of the gorilla in the leisure suit and couldn't stand to be in the dining room when he was on stage. He's just too overbearing compared to the other characters.
As a sidenote, I'm pleasantly surprised by how catchy that musical number is.
Nilbogette
16 years ago
Though this was more pure embarrassment than trauma for me, the song "Electric Feel" is NOW a trauma…because all that plays in my head, now, are those creepy animatronic characters….
Showbiz Pizza was awesome! It was sooo much better than crappy Chunk E. Cheese's! The Rock-afire Explosion group was cool; however, I can see where Fatz could frighten a two-year-old child. I predict that sometime in the future someone will submit a traumafession about the Rainforest Cafe. Check out this clip from YouTube.
You are most certainly not alone in this trauma. I, too, was terrified of the gorilla in the leisure suit and couldn't stand to be in the dining room when he was on stage. He's just too overbearing compared to the other characters.
As a sidenote, I'm pleasantly surprised by how catchy that musical number is.
Though this was more pure embarrassment than trauma for me, the song "Electric Feel" is NOW a trauma…because all that plays in my head, now, are those creepy animatronic characters….