Okay–pretty much anyone who has a computer is going to be familiar with all the wonderful characters from McDonaldland. There’s the lovable clown, Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, the Fry Guys, and of course, the huggable purple…thing…Grimace.
Grimace basically looked like a giant bug-eyed purple gumdrop. Thing is, McDonalds never sold gumdrops. They sold hamburgers. They sold fries. They (indirectly) sold cheese. But no gumdrops.
What the hell is Grimace? What is the point of having a giant purple thing in McDonaldland when it ostensibly has nothing to do with anything that McDonalds sells?
Apparently, he was like the Hamburglar. But, instead of burgers, he stole shakes. Originally, he was a bad guy. But, now, according to this report, he is Ronald’s “special friend”. Hmmmm
Back in the day, there was conflict in McDonaldland. The Hamburglar actually stole burgers from the burger patch, The captain used his full name (Captain Crook) and he tried to hijack Filet-o-Fish from the lake, and the "Fry-Guys were called “Gobblins” and they specialized in liberating french fries from their rightful owners.
The Evil Grimace’s forte was, IIRC, shake related felonies. I believe that is why he is a rather amorphous character.
At some point something must have been added to the water in McDonaldland, or all the characters had that brain surgery perfected by Dr. Clark Savage that removed all anti-social tendencies. The world is a warmer and fuzzier place now, but something is missing.
(I have also noticed that there appears to be much more interdimentional leakage between the Mcverse and Earth Prime nowadays. Characters are able to interact much more freely with normal matter. I view this with concern.)
I think you’ve overlooked another of McD’s relatively recent changes. The “Fry Guys” are now referred to as “Fry Friends”. Guess some PC geek wanted a gender-neutral name for the little yarn-balls.
And this of course leads straight to the sordid Puf’n’stuff v. McCheese affair, now lost to the sands of time, or more likely my poor use of the SDMB search tool.
I suspect Grimace was quietly escorted off of the premises of McDonaldland when it was discovered that he was created as a result of hallucinogen use. That explains the perma-grin, too.
The last time I saw the gang of little walking pom-pons in a commercial (which has got to be about two or three years ago by now) they were called the “Fry Kids.” They seem to have been dropped. I haven’t seem Captain Crook in quite a while either. I’ve seen the McNuggets in some hockey-themed commercials recently.
*TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Six months, one week, two days, 2 hours, 55 minutes and 44 seconds.
7684 cigarettes not smoked, saving $960.61.
Extra time with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 5 days, 16 hours, 20 minutes.
