Embarrassing places to work

When I was in high school, I worked for a while as an usher in a theater in Waukegan, Illinois. I got $.50 an hour and had to wear cardboard dickies and ancient jackets that looked like doorman uniforms but hadn't been cleaned for years. Truly humiliating.

Lileks pretty much nails Chuck E. Cheese's. His recollection of Judge Reinholt's role in Fast Times at Richmond High reminded me of the kids working at Krusty Burger. Then there was Jennifer Anniston's job in Office Space where she kept getting hassled about how much "flair" she was wearing. It seems to have been a right of passage for a lot of us, but imagine a job at a place where you not only have to embarrass yourself but your customers as well. This place is so determined to be FUN that it's scary. The food is great, but the atmosphere is such that you can't talk over dinner and you're in constant risk of being pulled out of your chair and pressed into making a spectacle of yourself for the amusement of the other patrons. "Have fun, damn you! We're not going to make asses of ourselves alone!" This is not a place for curmudgeons, or even people who just want to eat. Maybe it works better in states with liquor by the drink.