Dook LaRue

Dook LaRue was the drummer for the Rock-afire Explosion. He often played a smaller role in showtape scripts, but because of his amazing voice¹ - arguably the strongest and most refined of the entire group, he has retained quite a fan following as one of the most popular Rock-afire Explosion characters.

Dook's origin began with The Wolf Pack 5, as he was based on the character Dingo Star, a small drum playing Beatlesque dog. When the character of Dingo was reworked 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 be his voice, Gerald "Duke" Chauppetta.

In 1981 the spelling of his name was officially changed to "Dook LaRoo"² (possibly for trademark purposes). However, since the change, the updated spelling of his last name has had only one documented use³. Therefore the fanbase has commonly referred to him by a combination of the two most commonly used spellings - Dook and LaRue.

His earliest design, or his "beta" look, incorporated much of the same appearance as Dingo. He wore a flannel shirt, gold chain, pants, and a hat. This design was quickly changed to a spacesuit. This sparkly-silver outfit, complete with bizarre antennae space hat, gave him a weird yet striking appearance. This unique outfit was even talked about in the Trivia Night showtape⁴, as Looney Bird mentioned during one of his Letters to Looney skits that a fan had written in asking "what is that thing on Dook's head?". Dook goes on to explain that while he was waiting to go into space, he had decided to stick around and play drums with the band.

As mentioned previously, Dook had a beautiful crooner-like singing voice. Unfortunately his speaking was not quite so eloquent. He often stuttered and stumbled over his lines during skits, and often times found himself to be the butt of certain jokes. Dook was never quite as sharp witted as the other characters, but therein lied his charm. This was something that wasn't always explicitly scripted, but was instead just the way that Duke Chaupetta spoke.⁵ A lot of his own personality and quirks made their way into his performance of the character through the years.

Besides being a standout vocalist for the band (one of THE most featured vocalists in the early years), Dook was known for declaring his own trademarked "by Dook LaRue" 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 little ongoing bit ended up being the most prominent uses of any character's full name and may have been a direct result of a 1982 survey's recommendation to help improve Dook's recognition, as customers were less likely to identify Dook over the other characters.⁶

As with many of the other characters, Dook was given a drastic makeover in the 1990s. He was included in the New Rock-afire Explosion show⁷, and his smaller "mijjin sized" character was adorned in bright pink overalls with a green shirt and backwards hat. This new 'hip' version of Dook was often referred to as the "Junkyard Dog". Although many fans of the New Rock-afire Explosion are quite fond of these 90s versions of the characters, Dook in particular appears painfully dated through the scope of modern eyes.

While Duke Chaupetta continued to voice the character into the mid-1990s, there was an extended period where he was not actively recording new material for the character. Even during the Rock-afire Explosion's internet revival in the mid-2000s, Duke was absent from newly-recorded shows. Two exceptions being a short commercial produced in 2016⁸, and the MST3K Theme Song cover in 2021⁹. On June 26, 2025 it was announced that Duke Chaupetta would no longer be the voice of Dook LaRue, after agreements fell apart between Duke and Aaron Fechter in regard to Duke's involvement with a new custom show for Volo Museum in Illinois. Taking over the role of Dook would be vocal talent Brandon Shepherd¹⁰.

References
1 - 1983 ShowBiz Pizza Place Lunch Tours Promo (Long Version)
2 - 1981 ShowBiz Pizza Place, Inc. Company Memos
3 - 1982 Billy Bob's Busytime Book
4 - Showtape Review - The Rock-afire Explosion - Trivia Night
5 - ShowBizPizza.com Correspondence with Gerald "Duke" Chaupetta
6 - Customer Evaluation of Shows & Music Report
7 - CEI 20th Anniversary Promo Kit
8 - Ask Adam - The Rock-afire Explosion at Creative Engineering
9 - The Rock-afire Explosion Sings The MST3K Theme Song
10 - New Dook Voice Auditions * Meet Brandon Shepherd