Grimace
Grimace is part of the marketing campaign of McDonald's. He is a friend of Ronald McDonald and a large, jolly fellow who looks like a large purple gumdrop with small arms and legs. He is known for his smiling face and simple demeanor. His most common expression is the word "duh". Grimace's name is pronounced /ˈgɹɪməs/.
In the first cycle of McDonaldland commercials beginning in 1971, Grimace was the "Evil Grimace", with two pairs of arms with which to steal milkshakes. 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 McDonald's commercials and merchandise as a sort of well-meaning doofus, whose clumsy antics provide a comic foil to the more serious and mature Ronald McDonald.
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 (e.g., Mayor McCheese, The Fry Kids, McNugget Buddies, etc.) many have naturally tried to guess as to what, if any, food product Grimace is supposed to represent. It is often suggested that he represents the contents of a milkshake. Grimace's "official" role, according to McDonald's, continues to be representative of the chain's milkshakes. However, he does this out of love for the taste, and not because he is in any way a shake-based creature himself.
According to the McDonald's website:
Grimace is a big, loving, fuzzy purple fellow who is Ronald McDonald's best friend. He's sure Ronald is the world's ultimate authority on everything. While Grimace loves all McDonald's foods, he's absolutely crazy about milkshakes. Grimace is very enthusiastic and eager to try new things. His joyous spirit helps everyone overlook the fact he's a little slow and clumsy sometimes.
Grimace also has a relative, Uncle O'Grimacey, a green-colored Irish-version of himself. O'Grimacey was a holiday-themed character used by McDonald's in the 1980s in celebrating St. Patrick's Day, in particular marketing its Shamrock Shake. In Brazil, Grimace is known by the name of Shaky. A record released with Happy Meals (McLanche Feliz in Portuguese) in the early '90s featured a song about Shaky called "Lá Vem o Shaky" ("Here Comes Shaky"). In the song, Shaky puts his shoes on the wrong feet, which causes a lot of confusion.
In the 1998 animated story The Legend of Grimace Island, viewers learn that "Grimace" is actually the name of his species as the McDonald's gang sails to his ancestral country, currently governed by King Gonga. The islanders range in color from various shades of purple to dark blue, frequently use the interjection "duh" (even in writing), wear vaguely Polynesian dress, and enjoy dancing with drum music. Centuries ago, the timid Grimaces were plagued by raiders and thus decided to cut their island loose from the ocean floor to drift away into obscurity. Nobody is permitted to visit for fear of leading thieves to the enclave, but apparently some inhabitants emigrated after the island took root again since Grimace was able to follow a map left to him by his great-great-grandfather. This video also includes a brief live-action home movie dating to Grimace's infancy. The islanders sent Ronald a surfboard in a later story, indicating they now keep some level of contact with the outside world.
In the UK, Grimace is no longer used in advertising or promotions. In the Province of Quebec, Canada, even though Grimace is a French word, the character is known by the name of "Grosse Douceur" which means "Big Sweet".
External links
- Ronald.com - official website for McDonaldland characters
