Grimace
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Grimace.jpg
Grimace
Grimace (aka "The Grimace/Caperism") is a fictional character who was once part of the marketing campaign of McDonald's. He was a friend of Ronald McDonald and a large, jolly fellow who looked like a large purple gumdrop with small arms and legs. He was known for his smiling face and simple demeanor.
In the first cycle of McDonaldland commercials, Grimace was the "Evil Grimace", with several pairs of arms with which to steal Triple-Thick Shakes. After that first campaign, the character was revised to be one of the "good guys", and his number of arms was reduced to two.
Today, Grimace is generally portrayed in McDonalds' commericals and merchandise as a sort of well-meaning doofus, whose clumsy antics provide a comic foil to the more serious and mature Ronald McDonald. His trademark expression is "duh..."
Grimace is a fantasy character, and not intended to "be" anything specific. However, ever since the character's introduction there has been much speculation (though much of it tongue-in-cheek) about his appearance. Because the majority of McDonald's characters more or less directly represent a food product sold at the restaurants (ie: Mayor McCheese, Fryguys, Chicken McNuggets Buddies, etc) many have naturally tried to guess as to what, if any, food product Grimace is supposed to represent. A common speculation is that he is supposed to be a giant McNugget, though there are many more fanciful attempted explanations. In reality, Grimace's "official" role, according to McDonald's, continues to be to represent the chain's famous milkshakes. However, he does this out of love for the taste, and not because he is in any way a shake-based creature himself.
External links
- Ronald.com (http://www.ronald.com/)
- Grimace's Garage (http://www.ronald.com/grimace/index.html)
- The Straight Dope article on Grimace (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a940429.html)
- 'The Mystery of the Grimace' - B-grade celebrities give their thoughts on Grimace's identity (http://www.n-chicken.net/tomfoolery/grimace/grimace.shtml)
- Ask Yahoo: "What kind of creature is Grimace from McDonald's?" (http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20050405.html)