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Director's Notes - Episode 223: "Big Rico's Pizza Band"
🕑 Added 2023-03-01 14:00:03 +0000 UTCIt’s been a while since I’ve been to Night Vale. Of course, I tune in to the Community Radio every couple of weeks, but it’s been months since I physically set foot on the intersection of Somerset and Main and had a look around for myself (there’s a new stoplight, btw). Apparently, I haven’t written a guest episode since August. Somehow it’s March already. That’s at least two meteorological seasons. But time is weird sometimes, and seasons are a state of mind. If anyone knows that, Night Vale listeners do.
I’ve had the general idea for this episode for a long time, though I never really knew the story of it until I started writing. Like many of you, I think a lot about 1980s pizza parlor animatronic rock bands. I’ve wanted to bring one to Big Rico’s Pizza for a while now, but I didn’t know what their deal would be. Would they be evil monsters? Too obvious. Would they be benevolent heroes? Too boring.
It turns out, like so many things, the answer is in the middle. It’s hard to say. It’s both. It’s neither. Everything’s a spectrum. Sometimes things appear frightening even though they mean no harm (hey, spiders), and sometimes things do damage even though they mean no harm (hey, human beings). And sometimes things do damage deliberately for personal short term gain (hey again, human beings), but that’s another story. That might even be the dominant story, but it’s not this story. Like I said, evil is too obvious. It’s fine for the real world but way too simple for something as complex as a fictional narrative.
I will admit I’m embarrassingly afraid (like phobia-level afraid) of most animatronics. But I also have a strong fascination with them. It’s almost like I want to be near them just so I can look away. There’s probably a German word for that. If anyone knows what it is, let me know.
I really hope you enjoy this episode, whether you’ve ever wept in terror at a Chuck E. Cheese/Showbiz Pizza birthday party (hey, me) or gleefully applauded those freaky robot animals for an encore (hey, you?). Or maybe you’ve never been confronted with this phenomenon at all because it’s so generationally and geographically specific. Which is even better, because now you can experience it for the first time, Night Vale style.
See you at Big Rico’s.
- Brie Williams
March 1, 2023
Comments
Rob Cottingham
I couldn’t even hack the It’s a Small World ride at Disneyland — creepy on every level. (And that was as a nominally adult 50-something.)
Leah Tedesco
Thank you for mentioning Brockton, MA! That's where I lived until I was seven. One of my birthday parties (I'm not sure which) was at the now defunct Brockton Chuck E. Cheese's. I got stuck in one of the rides because I was too big for it.
Ollie of the Beholder
I am fortunate (?) in that the only two times I ever went to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, the band was out of order. (I was more a Discovery Zone kid myself.)
Katie Jones
Also Team Wept in Terror at a Chuck E Cheese Birthday Party, can't wait to let this trickle gently into my ear parts. 🍕
