YouTube/Shane Dawson
Unless you've spent the last 2 months in a sensory deprivation chamber, you have likely heard about the conspiracy theory, proposed by YouTuber Shane Dawson (watch his video here), that Chuck E. Cheese collects uneaten pizza left behind by guests and pieces it together to serve as fresh pizza to other patrons. In the video, Shane and his friends go to the restaurant, camera in tow, to order a few pizzas and test his theory. Shane initially thought that nothing would come of their visit and they'd just have some goofy clips to add to their video, but when the pizzas arrived at their table, jaws dropped.
Ew, right? The very idea is totally disgusting, but to me, it just doesn't make sense. Pizza is a cheap product to make, and Chuck E. Cheese is a huge chain. Realistically, the employees would be spending a lot of time trying to collect, match up, and re-heat uneaten pizzas, and that time wasted would be worth more money than the money saved by reusing slices. Not to mention they would be risking a massive lawsuit and maybe even criminal charges if any of their employees decided to leak if they were actually engaging in such gross practices. HKM.com is an expert on employment law.
Ex employees chimed in on Reddit debunking the claim and offering an explanation for why pepperonis sliced in half on the edge of a slice had no coordinating half on the adjacent slice:
Someone else, an employee of Little Caesar, admitted that while sometimes half-pizzas are placed together and sold as a whole, the pizza itself is fresh, and doesn't explain the problem of crusts and slices on similar slices not adding up.
Whether you buy into the theory or not, Shane's video is a fun watch if you're into conspiracy theories. I think they are fun to entertain even if I think they are complete bull (and honestly, I think this one is bull). Still, I thought I'd have a little fun and take a browse through social media. Since it's been several weeks since the theory was proposed, I wanted to see if Chuck E. Cheese was still serving up funky looking pizzas. Here's some images I found:
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Omg throwback to last week when we all went to Chuck E. Cheese? #chuckecheese
This one looks just fine... the edges and the cuts all line up nicely.
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At first glance, this is a questionable pie, but if you mentally scoot the pieces together, you'll see that things still line up.
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This is where things get hairy. Even if you line up the outer edges, there are pepperonis that are missing their other halves, cuts that don't line up, etc.
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First Chuck E Cheese and now Pizza Hut?? #recycledpizza #chuckecheese #pizzahut #lateaprilfools ?
Then you have the people that are being obvious trolls by switching out slices of their pizzas, that aren't even from Chuck E. Cheese, to join in on the craze.
But regardless of which side of the fence you're on with regards to this theory, it's a fact that the good ol' Internet has latched onto the viral frenzy and turned it into a big joke, likely increasing business for Chuck E. Cheese as social media exploded with mentions of the brand and people flocked to buy their pizzas to conduct their own experiments.
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The company did make an official response not long after the video was posted.
In a statement to E! News, the company said:
"The claims made in this video about Chuck E. Cheese's and our pizza are unequivocally false. No conspiracies here – our pizzas are made to order and we prepare our dough fresh in restaurant, which means that they're not always perfectly uniform in shape, but always delicious."
Then Dawson himself had a rather witty response:
"imagine if chuck e. cheese just leaned into this whole thing and was like “come try our pizza for yourself and see what happens ?”. I think we all would respect that hussle hahaha https://t.co/gtWfo320DC"
— Shane Dawson (@shanedawson) February 15, 2019
So while the initial wave of media attention over this conspiracy theory has died down, I wanted to put up a quick little post because I thought it was an interesting, fun (and yeah, gross) proposal and I wanted to make sure none of you missed out. Don't worry, you can always just try another pizza restaurant out there.
What do you think of this conspiracy theory? True or false? Let me know in the comments!
Madison Finchem
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