Dook LaRue

Dook LaRue is the drummer for The Rock-afire Explosion. He often played a smaller role in showtape scripts. Despite this, he has retained a fan following as a popular Rock-afire character.

History
Dook's origins date back to the Wolf Pack 5, as he was based on the character "Dingo Starr", a play on the Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr. In this stage, he was a small, drum playing, Beatle-esque dog. When Dingo was transformed to become a member of the Rock-afire Explosion, his size was increased, and his name was changed to Duke LaRue, based on the new voice actor that was hired to portray him, Duke Chauppetta.

In 1981, the spelling of his name was officially changed to "Dook LaRoo" (possibly for trademark purposes). However, since the change, the latter spelling of his last name has had only one documented use. Therefore, the fanbase has commonly referred to him by a combination of the two most commonly used spellings, Dook and LaRue.

His earliest design incorporated the appearance of Dingo. He wore a flannel shirt, gold chain, pants, and a hat. This design was quickly changed to a spacesuit. The sparkly-silver spacesuit, gave him a weird, yet striking appearance.

In the mid 1980s, plans were made for an updated 2nd Generation version of Dook. The updated Dook animatronic had new arm and wrist movements, which gave him the ability to play a full set of drums. He could swivel at the waist, and play drums that surrounded him, raise his arms to hit crash cymbals above him, and even reach one arm across the other while playing.

He often stuttered and stumbled over his lines during skits, and sometimes found himself to be the butt of certain jokes. Dook was commonly portrayed as being slower witted than the other characters.

Besides being a vocalist, Dook was known for declaring his own "trademarked" tidbits during showtapes. This was done several times, some examples being "A Christmas classic, by Dook LaRue", "How to celebrate Christmas in Mexico, by Dook LaRue", and "What is this thing on my head, by Dook LaRue". This recurring gag ended up being one of the most prominent uses of any character's full name.

As with many of the other characters, Dook was revamped in the 1990s. He was included in The New Rock-afire Explosion shows, and his smaller (mijjin sized) robot was adorned in bright pink overalls with a green shirt and backwards hat.

Concept Unification
During Concept Unification, which took place at most ShowBiz Pizza locations between 1990 and 1992, Dook's animatronic was converted into Pasqually, with his ear mechanisms being removed. His drum set was moved to Billy Bob's former stage along with the platform his drum set sat on and was kept intact to be Pasqually's drum set.

It should be noted that, on the prototype Concept Unification Stage, Dook's animatronic was originally going to be reconfigured to become Helen Henny and would be reconfigured to play the keyboard instead of the drums.