What, exactly, is Grimace supposed to be?

Question

A purple manatee? A mutant gumdrop?

And what is his purpose within the McDonald's squad? You have Ronald, who's the ringleader; Mayor McCheese; the Hamburgler; Captain Crook; and Big Mack (the fuzz burger). Grimace does not have an occupation and serves no purpose that I can see...

FA: Have you tried Wild Turkey Rare Breed yet? 108 proof, holy lord.

Answer 1

Grimace is Ronald Mc Donald's autistic friend

Answer 2

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RE:
What, exactly, is Grimace supposed to be?
A purple manatee? A mutant gumdrop?

And what is his purpose within the McDonald's squad? You have Ronald, who's the ringleader; Mayor McCheese; the Hamburgler; Captain Crook; and Big Mack (the fuzz burger). Grimace does not have an occupation and serves no purpose that I can see...

Answer 3

According to Wikipeidia:

Grimace Large and purple with short arms and legs, he is known for his monotonous face and slow-witted demeanor. His most common expression is the word "duh". Originally 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 by two. His love of milkshakes was retained. Commercials and merchandise generally portrayed him as a well-meaning simpleton, whose clumsy antics provided a comic foil to Ronald McDonald. The character was retained after the streamlining of the characters in the '80s, but was dropped in 2007.

I buy the comic foil part. I guess they could have animated him as a big milkshake cup, but decided not to. Then again, if he had been, when he was stealing milkshakes, or drinking them, he would have been a cannibal. Not the best message for the kiddies, or the parents. I would suspect that is why the hamburglar was a human. I wonder if Grimace's shape was supposed to be a fanciful rendition of a milkshake top (the curl and swirl of Dairy Queen?). Just a personal rumination.

I think in later advertisements he was the "victim" of the Hamburglar?

Basically, having a stupid character made Ronald look smart, and his clumsiness made Ronald look cool, by comparison. They couldn't well have Ronald out-doing kids, but if he was a typical adult, he wouldn't have appeared cool to the kids. So he was able to show he was good at kid stuff without beating the kids.

As to the McDonladland characters, I was really surprised how interesting the morphology was:

McDonald's had originally hoped Sid and Marty Krofft, the creators of H. R. Pufnstuf, would agree to license their characters for commercial promotions. When the Kroffts declined, McDonaldland was created, purposely based on the H. R. Pufnstuf show in an attempt to duplicate the appeal.

In 1973, the Kroffts successfully sued McDonald's, arguing that the entire McDonaldland premise was essentially a ripoff of their television show. In specific, the Kroffts claimed that the character Mayor McCheese was a direct ripoff of their character, "H. R. Pufnstuf" (being a mayor himself). McDonald's initially was ordered to pay $50,000. The case was later remanded as to damages, and McDonald's was ordered to pay the Kroffts more than $1 million when the case was finally settled in 1977. As a result of the lawsuit, the concept of the "magical place" was all but phased out of the commercials, as were many of the original characters.

They're all being phased out now, so all those collectors of McDonaldland stuff will be vindicated. I'm sure the prices will go through the roof:

As the ongoing obesity epidemic in western nations has been increasingly noted by the mainstream media, McDonald's and other fast food chains have been under increasing pressure to revamp their products and advertising with healthier alternatives. As part of this campaigns, McDonald's has agreed to discontinue marketing to children under the age of twelve and the McDonaldland characters will be completely eliminated; Ronald has been recast as as a role model for healthier lifestyles.

Answer 4

Years ago, he was "The Evil Grimace", and he had four arms and larger eyebrows. I miss Mayor McCheese, he was much better than our current mayor.
And why doesn't Big Mac ever arrest the Hamburgaler? He's often caught red handed!

Answer 5

I saw one of those after several shots of Wild Turkey & lemon juice

Answer 6

he's one of the mascots at Mcdonald's. Most mascots are weird. it's something for the children. But i think he's some monster that reeeeaaaallllllyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! likes McDonald's.

Answer 7

he represents the arterial degradation brought on by mcmuffins and orange drink.

edit: i always like Birdie or Early Bird or whatever her name was. The Fry Guys were also badass.

Answer 8

A large purple blob of greed & stupidity.... that's my best guess.

Answer 9

I always thought he was like a Juju Bee or a Dot. He was what I THOUGHT was the dessert of the bunch.

Answer 10

this helps explain ig.