Bloaty's Pizza Hog | |
Name | Bloaty's Pizza Hog |
Located On | Earth |
Known Residents | Bloaty |
First Appearance | Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy Bloaty's Pizza Hog (actual) |
Bloaty's Pizza Hog is a pizza restaurant which seems to be based on Chuck E. Cheese's and Piggy's Pizza Palace from Rugrats.
The restaurant[]
The restaurant is based off of numerous animatronic-hosted pizzerias, most notably Chuck E. Cheese's and Showbiz Pizza Place, its former competitor before Concept Unification. The restaurant's name is similar to and may be a homage to Fox's Pizza Den, a pizza chain located in Pennsylvania. It is also possible that the restaurant's name could be a reference to Porky's Pizza, a pizza chain in Southern California, or even Porky's Pizza Palace, a pizza chain in Northern California (both of these are more likely to be referenced as both the creator and the writer for Bloaty's Pizza Hog are from California).
Like CEC, Bloaty's also hosts a playground/arcade for children and animatronic animal characters that cheerfully dance or sing to entertain the patrons (though, unlike the animatronics and walkarounds at CEC, their purpose is far removed from the effect they actually have, namely making babies cry and terrifying Zim).
The interior of Bloaty's was seen in "Bloaty's Pizza Hog", "Gaz, Taster of Pork", and for an instant in "Zim Eats Waffles". In all three episodes, the interior appears run-down, filthy, and greasy; the complete opposite of Chuck E. Cheese's and the company's commitment to cleanliness in all their establishments. The actual restaurant appears again for the first time since the TV series near the end of Issue 14 of the comics (Issue 5 featured an alternate dimension version of the restaurant, however.)
Despite their emphasis on dining in, there have been at least two instances in which Bloaty's has delivered: GIR ordered pizza from the chain in "Rise of the Zitboy", and later Dib also ordered from Bloaty's to Zim's house in "Zim Eats Waffles". The restaurant seems to be very understaffed and overworked, like many other businesses seen in the series.
Commercials for the restaurant have been seen five times, in the episodes “Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy”, "Bloaty's Pizza Hog", "Gaz, Taster of Pork", and "The Frycook What Came From All That Space" as well as in one of the stadiums in the non-canon game Nicktoons: MLB.
Like most other Earth food, the meals from Bloaty's make Zim ill; in fact, he doesn't even have to come near it for it to sicken him, as was demonstrated in "Rise of the Zitboy". The grease from the pizza also seems to have a very adverse effect on his skin, giving him monstrous blemishes in mere minutes. However, after acquiring an immunity to Earth's food in "Zim Eats Waffles", he might have had acquired a liking to pizza.
As depicted in Issue 14, once every generation, they hold a promotion for one weekend where you can get a pair of Bloatyshorts for free with the purchase of any meal. They are described as "gamer-friendly" shorts with 16 pockets for holding pizza.
issue 41 features a spinoff restaurant called Bloaty's Meat Dips, the menu of which is focused entirely on dipping sticks in meat of the customer's choice.
In Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, Bloaty's is one of the buildings destroyed by the damage done to Earth by the Florpus, with the giant pig head landing in the square where the climatic fight between Zim and the Membranes occurs. Bloaty himself appears earlier in the film in a commercial for a new pizza being released for Peace Day.
The characters[]
The restaurant's mascot is Bloaty, a morbidly obese anthropomorphic pig. He has both an animatronic and a wearable costume, which is often worn by a man somehow even more overweight than the character itself. The animatronic version is much smaller, the top half of his head completely detached from his lower jaw and body, moving up and down on a servo in the middle, similar to the Harlequin Demon from The Nightmare Before Christmas. He wears a purple propellered beanie and a purple bowtie, along with a purple jacket and darker purple gloves.
The restaurant also has an animatronic band, just like how CEC has/had Munch's Make Believe Band. It's unknown if Bloaty has a role in it, unlike how Chuck E. has a role within MMBB. The characters of the band are a squirrel (lead singer like Helen Henny), a female walrus (guitarist), a moose (unknown, likely bassist like Jasper T. Jowls, though one of the cabaret acts was a moose named Artie Antlers) and an octopus (drums, similar to Pasqually).
In Issue 5, an alternate dimension's version of Bloaty's lacks the moose, and has a potato as the band's bassist. Gaz comments their home version's bassist is Gerry Giraffe, though a giraffe is never seen in the series. It's possible this was a mistake in the comic's script, or that sometime between the show and the comic, the restaurant replaced the moose with a giraffe.
The squirrel is brown with brown-orange eyes and has an elongated head, his mouth wide open showing off his buck teeth. He wears a white-and-navy-blue sailor top and hat. The on-stage version does not have legs, his torso connected to a pole leading under the stage. The walkaround version has nothing covering his legs, leaving his lower endoskeleton completely exposed.
The walrus is a pink-brownish with beady black eyes and a large, blue-grey snout with two protruding off-white tusks. She wears a green bikini with yellow polka-dots, the bottom piece having frills that make it look like a skirt. She also wears a green-and-blue bow on top of her head fastened to a single tuft of brown hair. In the comics, she was given eyelashes. The on-stage version does not have legs, her torso connected to a pole leading under the stage. The walkaround version has nothing covering her legs, leaving her lower endoskeleton completely exposed.
The moose is a rich brown with dark maroon eyes. He wears a long purple coat with a lavender scarf with a black-and-maroon hat. The walkaround version has nothing covering his legs or arms, leaving his lower endoskeleton and arms completely exposed.
The octopus is lavender with dark purple spots and matching fin on his head, as well as bright blue eyes and large lips. He seems to only have six tentacles. The on-stage version's leg-area is obscured by the drum set and the potato, but he can be assumed he's also connected to a pole leading under the stage. The walkaround version maneuvers around on a single wheel going straight through the animatronic.
The potato seen in Issue 5's alternate dimension is a brown potato with tan "eyes" covering its body, and its actual eyes appear to be the same color. It wears a dark purple top hat with a magenta ribbon on it. It is the only animatronic to lack arms or legs, and has only been seen on the stage, so how it "plays" its bass or maneuvers around the establishment is currently unknown.
Also in Issue 5, Gaz mentions Gerry Giraffe. His appearance is unknown, and the only thing known about his character is that he's the current bassist of their home dimension's band.