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Ransom Riggs
Rockin’ Out with Animatronic Robots
by Ransom Riggs - May 28, 2009 - 11:30 AM

rockafire-1.jpg

Or should I say rockbots? Yesterday I wrote a bit about Al-Jazari, the 12th-century inventor of musical robots, and today I wanted to pay tribute to the modern-day descendants of his genius. I’m talking about the Rockafire Explosion band from Showbiz Pizza, of course, a life-sized “band” of animatronic animals which entertained kids while they were eating pizza from 1980 to 1991, and now, sadly, can only be seen in a few places around the country. There’s been a revival of late, however, in which owners of the few remaining Rockafires have been programming their robots to perform recent indie rock and hip-hop hits, which is surreal to watch, to say the least. Take a gander!

Neighborhood #1 by Arcade Fire
The contrast between this song’s bizarre lyrics and the Rockafire’s bizzare look almost makes my head explode.


Love in this Club by Usher
Watching Billy Bob Brockali the Bear croon “C’mere baby let daddy show you what it feel like” is definitely a skin-crawler.

Nine Inch Nails: 1,000,000
Say what you will, the Rockafire Explosion were designed to play happy Beatles medleys, not Nine Inch Nails.

Beatles medley
For a taste of vintage Rockafire Explosion, check this out:

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Comments (7)

  1. Thank you for the nightmare I will now endure having watched mere seconds of all of these song. I will have my psychiatrist bill directly to Mental Floss. This ranks right up there with “Meet the Feebles.”

    posted by nihil on 5-28-2009 at 2:12 pm

  2. Awesome! I had almost forgotten about Showbiz Pizza! My favorite place as a kid. I’ll never forget the time some friends and I peeked behind the curtain at the characters while they were turned off between performances. Talk about creepy. Worst part was one time while we were doing it the curtain came open and they started playing. Scared the bejeebus out of us! lol I can still smell the pizza in the air from that place and hear the kids screaming for their lives.

    posted by Cheezy on 5-28-2009 at 3:05 pm

  3. My mom took us there when we were little yahoo’s.
    Both of us cried our faces off in terror.
    Mom still talks about the day she ruined our childhoods.

    posted by holly on 5-28-2009 at 4:30 pm

  4. I just realized how Debbie Downer that comment was.
    Sorry!
    We weren’t that scared for life!

    posted by holly on 5-28-2009 at 4:33 pm

  5. Oh, I loved Showtime Pizza and the Rockafire band! We had one in West St Paul; it later became Circus Pizza, and now it’s a Chuck’e'Cheese. Last I saw, they still had the Rockafire band and were still using them. I’m not sure, though; I haven’t been there in years, and would not bring my little kids there. Not because of the droids, but because of the gangs — odd though it may seem, that particular restaurant has had so much gang violence that they now have a police officer there whenever they’re open.

    posted by Calli Arcale on 5-28-2009 at 5:03 pm

  6. I love this. Thank you.

    posted by mrsocial on 5-28-2009 at 10:25 pm

  7. Aww, man, the memories! I always wanted to have my birthday party at Showbiz Pizza, but by the time my mom said yes it was closed. Our Rockafire Explosion band also did “We Are the World.” You always knew when the set was over, since it was the last song played before the curtain dropped. Thank for the post!

    posted by Tamsyn on 5-29-2009 at 9:03 am

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