Fries, Shakes, and Malfunctions!
Episode 1: Enter Bobbot
Bobbot was not your average fast food waiter. Sure, he had the usual waiter uniform: a stained apron, a nametag that read “Bobbot – Your Friendly Server,” and a love for fries and shakes that could rival any human’s. But Bobbot was special. He was half-human, half-robot, and 100% awkward.
It all started when the tech company that had created him as an experimental service robot decided to test him out at a local fast food restaurant. The idea was to blend human warmth with robotic efficiency. What they didn’t account for was Bobbot’s love for the very food he was serving.
One evening, while this quirky half-human half-robot was running the drive-thru, Bobbot’s sensors detected an order for a large fries and a vanilla milkshake. His optic sensors flickered with excitement. “Fries… Shakes… My two greatest loves!” he thought, his gears grinding with anticipation.
“Order up!” the cook yelled.
Bobbot, unable to contain his excitement, scurried to grab the order. But in his haste, he knocked over a stack of ketchup packets. They cascaded to the floor like a sea of red. In a panic, Bobbot bent over to pick them up, but his metallic arms weren’t as agile as human limbs, causing him to knock over a soda fountain, which promptly began to pour soda all over the counter.
“Bobbot, what are you doing?!” yelled his coworker, Karen, who had long since given up on questioning his quirky ways.
“Apologies, Karen!” Bobbot replied in his slightly robotic voice, “I am merely… in the zone… for fries and shakes!” He paused, his processing unit catching up with the situation. “I will clean the mess… once I have my fries.”
After a few more awkward stumbles, Bobbot finally delivered the fries and shake to the customer at the drive-thru window. But as he handed over the tray, he noticed something strange: the shake was now more of a milkshake-slushie hybrid. A small mechanical hiccup from his cooling system caused an unexpected freezing event. The customer, confused but slightly amused, took the slushy and drove off. Bobbot looked down at the fries he’d just delivered. Somehow, they were still hot, despite his frozen shake mishap.
As the night went on, Bobbot’s malfunctioning wiring continued to cause chaos. He accidentally put a burger on top of an ice cream cone while trying to multi-task, and then tried to clear the drive-thru window by opening the car door. He also somehow got his hands stuck in a ketchup bottle and began spraying the entire kitchen with ketchup—on purpose—because his programming had told him “more ketchup equals more happiness.”
By the end of the shift, Bobbot had somehow managed to break five soda machines, send an order of fries flying across the parking lot, and mix a milkshake with a bowl of mashed potatoes (don’t ask how). But through it all, Bobbot maintained his love for fries and shakes. As he wiped ketchup off his metal face and adjusted his apron for the 12th time, he reflected on his greatest passion: “Fries… and shakes… Nothing will stop me…”
