Grimace: really...who is he?

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
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By Gad, I think Bup is right.

Picture of Seymour: See http://www.toymania.com/toyfair2000/living/krofft.shtml and scroll down about halfway to the eight action figures. Seymour is bottom row, second from the left.

The original Evil Grimace is Seymour minus two limbs, and with a color change.

So now we see the pattern. McDonald’s intended to borrow not merely the characters from Pufnstuf but the paradigm. Ronald and his comically inept assistants would fight a running battle against the forces of evil who try to steal their food. Hamburglar is cribbed from Witchiepoo and Evil Grimace from her henchman Seymour.

As the campaign unfolded, however, this scenario probably proved too dark for the very young target audience . . . so Grimace shed two more limbs and metastasized into a “fun-loving fellow” who enjoys, but does not steal, milkshakes. But he kept his name (sans “Evil”).

So what is the Grimace? He is:

(1) an anthropomorphic spider . . .
(2) changed in form just enough to stave off the inevitable lawsuit, and then . . .
(3) changed again to be less threatening and more fun-loving.

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Captain Crook the pirate, and The Professor - forgot about them. Captain Crook was definitely the fish sandwich lover. What was The Professor’s gig?

jklann said:

I don’t think “die” is the appropriate word. I think they just lost their usefulness and got relegated to the lower reaches of McDonaldland, never to be seen again. Until some other ad exec decides to bring them back.

mobo85 said:

No, Mac Tonight (the song by CosMc - the moon-headed guy) was, IIRC, advertising extended hours. Or maybe it was just a revamp. I seem to recall something about “upscale McDonalds”. I know for a while a McDonalds in my hometown had a big grand piano with mannequin CosMc set up. Talk about frightening.

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As it is 3 am, I thought I would take this time to chime in on this worthy debate. As a child who was weaned on happy meals, I would be remiss if I did not add my two cents.

Grimace-
A large purple delusional character most likely representing some drink (I always thought he was grape soda, but that’s a personal thing)

Fry Kids-
Mutant bushes with legs and oversized off colored French fries for leaves. Oddly, they also eat normal fries exclusively. It makes you think.

Captain Crook
Sadly, I have no recollection of this character. Then again, I hate the fillet-o-fish.

The McNuggets
More mutant foodstuffs. Talking chicken McNuggets, though unlike the fry kids they have yet to evolve appendages.

Mayor Mac Cheese
Obviously both a cheese burger and a poorly designed playground fixture. Let me tell you getting your head suck in the grill of this civil servants’ “teeth” was not what your average 5 year old sign on for. But it gave us character.

The Hamburglar
An unemployed kleptomaniac with a hamburger fetish, coupled with poor fashion and an odd speech impediment/mental retardation. Nothing more need be said.

Cos Mac
Has been correctly stated, used to advertise to ADULTS that McDonald’s was now open late. What sense does it make to create a childish moon headed character to tell ADULTS that a restaurant is now open late is beyond me, but then again I am not an ad exec (nor will I ever be)

Ronald McDonald
The warden of the asylum. He’s the happy magic guy who appears to be the only one of the bunch with ¾ of a brain. Or more likely, they the result of “Ronald’s” schizophrenic delusions and he really should not be allowed near small children.
I think I covered all the major bases, if I forgot any please forgive me it was about 10 years ago.

PS forgive the levity, but really how much lower can this thread sink?

:smiley:

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You’ve got the two confused. CosMc was an alien friend of Ronald’s. Mac Tonight was the swingin’ moon-headed man completely apart from the McDonaldland crew.

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ahh thank you my fellow straight-dopers…i appreciate efforts in assisting my path to fast-food enlightenment.

I didnt know anything about the characters being “stolen” (never even heard about the charaters mentioned)…but I dont think hes a spider because obviously they had to take the stolen character and tweak him a bit…(but the 4 arms issue…also another one i hadnt a clue of)…
I guess the ha to tie him in with the milkshakes…blob=shake
I think i was right…eh…maybe.