(NEXSTAR) – Folks who grew up eating at McDonald’s or seeing commercials for the restaurant on TV were often greeted to images of Grimace, the company’s large purple blob of a mascot.
Grimace is still featured in McDonald’s campaigns from time to time — like when he reappeared during promotions for his “Grimace Birthday Meal” — but his reappearances often raise the same question among viewers: Just what the heck are we looking at, here?
What the heck is Grimace?
Grimace, by McDonald’s own admission, is an “ambiguous” being. Introduced in 1971 as “Evil Grimace,” the character was first depicted as a villain — with four arms — who was singularly focused on stealing McDonald’s milkshakes, as seen in early TV commercials.
Grimace eventually lost his mad lust for milkshakes over the years (along with two of his arms) and became best buds with Ronald McDonald. But Grimace was always a bit different from his fellow McDonald’s mascots. Ronald McDonald, for instance, is clearly a clown, while the Hamburglar is some kind of humanoid burger thief. And Mayor McCheese, as his name suggests, is the cheeseburger-headed mayor of McDonaldland.
But Grimace, with his pear-shaped body and lack of identifying features, is more of a mystery to the casual observer.
Nearly a decade ago, however, the team behind the McDonald’s Twitter account basically revealed what Grimace actually is. During a 2014 exchange, the company responded to a question about the character, confirming that Grimace was either “the embodiment of a milkshake or taste bud.”
Brian Bates, an award-winning McDonald’s manager from Canada, seemed to be under the impression that the latter was true in a 2021 interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, confidently asserting that Grimace is essentially a huge anthropomorphic taste bud.
“He is an enormous taste bud, but a taste bud nonetheless,” Bates told the outlet.
Mystery solved
After Bates casually dropped that nugget of knowledge, social media started sounding off with their shocked and sometimes horrified reactions.
“Ever since I learned that Grimace is a taste bud I have not known peace,” one X (formerly Twitter) user wrote.
“If grimace is a taste bud, then your mouth is a metropolis for all Grimace kind,” another theorized.
Despite the company’s earlier admissions, a spokesperson for McDonald’s declined to comment on Grimace’s corporeal form in recent years. And in a 2023 press release, McDonald’s further suggested that “we’ll never know” what Grimace actually is.
“Grimace is from Grimace Island and comes from a huge family (including his Grandma Winky, aunts Millie and Tillie and his Uncle O’Grimacey!)” wrote McDonald’s in the release, apparently hoping to satisfy any questions with a detailed description of Grimace’s lineage. “Our timeless bestie has become a fan-favorite known for his signature fuzzy purple look, friendly and playful personality, love for shakes, and of course – ambiguous nature.”
McDonald’s also once joked online that people trying to categorize Grimace aren’t being very considerate of his feelings.
“It’s always “what is Grimace” and never “how is Grimace,” the company once tweeted.
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