In a move which seems to bring The Simpsons satirical The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie show to life - minus the self-aware irony - long-running kids pizza chain Chuck E. Cheese is rebranding their iconic New Jersey rat mascot as a "hip, electric-guitar-playing rock star."

To that end, they have recruited Jaret Reddick of ska/punk outfit Bowling For Soup to play the new version of the mascot which we swear was invented with an exchange like this:

We at the network want a dog mouse with attitude. He's edgy, he's "in your face." You've heard the expression "let's get busy"? Well, this is a dog mouse who gets "biz-zay!" Consistently and thoroughly.[…] We're talking about a totally outrageous paradigm!

The pizza-and-game chain was founded by Nolan Bushnell, who also co-founded Atari. It is now run by CEC Entertainment Inc.