As I read on a box of McDonaldland cookies some twenty years ago:
There’s a special someone in McDonaldland who always has a shake in hand. He’s big and purple and fuzzy and hey, let’s hear it for Grimace - Hip! Hip! Hooray!
Yes, I am seeking medical attention
For those who have everything, you can get a 1978 Grimace doll starting at $9.95! 
No. He evolved into Barney. Stupid evolution.
ignatzmouse, I don’t even wanna KNOW how/why you remember that literary gem about Grimace after twenty years.
flymaster– the McNuggets RULE! I haven’t seen an ad with them in a long time. They always seemed so happy to be dipped in barbecue sauce even though they must have known what was coming next…
There was an extensive earlier thread about the history of McDonald’s cartoons in response to the Cecil column referenced above.
I don’t have much to add, except to lament the staid, boring place that McDonaldland has become – when it used to be filled with color and excitement.
Oh, and there’s this Mayor McCheese thread, which is also fun.
I’m sorry, but I cannot let this statement of Yankee cultural imperialism stand unchallenged. :mad: I personally know many people with computers who would have no idea who the characters in McDonald’s american television advertisements are. And that’s just the people I know personally. There are computers in other parts of the world besides North America. 
Isn’t he the same sort of creature as Slider and the Phanatic? Not that that settles anything, of course…
Okay, but why is he called “Grimace?”
Bunch of McDonald’s executives sitting around a table:
“We need a name for our new shake character…when you think of our shakes, what word comes to mind?”
“Frosty?”
“Creamy?”
A lactate-intolerant vice president feels a pain in his gut and grimaces.
…and a legend is born?
Grimace is evil’s extracted essence. Evil’s evil twin. He’s so evil he’s good.
…errr, that’d be lactose intolerant.
sheeessh.
Maybe they call him Grimace because of the facial expression you get when you drink your shake too fast. I know that whenever I get “brain freeze” from cold drinks it feels like something is trying to bore its way out of the back of my skull. The Grimace could be the physical representation of this phenomenon.
Yeah, that’s some special friend you got there, Ronald…
Yeah, Arnold, and there are McDonalds restaurants in other areas of the world as well. Hell, I’ve personally been to one in Rio de Janeiro. IIRC, it had the same fuzzy happy characters as all the others.
Yankee cultural imperialism my ass. Are there any developed countries that DON’T have at least one Mickey-D’s these days?
Grimace was the inspiration for Barney.
That would make a great band name or Doper username.
Let us not forget “Uncle O’Grimacey” the big green schmoo who always visited aroung St. Patrick’s day and went nuts for those shamrock shakes (do they still make those?).
I hardly ever go to McDonald’s, but the ones I see in Europe don’t have Grimace plastered everywhere. I asked my brother in switzerland over the phone (who has two children that eat at McDonald’s) and he had never heard of Grimace. So there.
An informal e-mail survey of people I know in Europe brought seven answers of people who had never heard of Grimace.
I believe my point stands.
And there are people even in non-developed countries that have computers. As a matter of fact I know a couple of people in Africa that have a computer. I’ll ask them if they have any McDonald’s food-serving places in their area, but I’m betting the answer will be no.
Grimace was the theme in many of my reoccuring nightmares as a kid. I swear he chased my through a multitude of dusty grocery stores, with that evil leer plastered on his face…
Not a pleasant memory, I can tell you that much.
NOW I’m still afraid of clowns… or anyone in a goofy costume.