If you’ve been seeing McDonald‘s character Grimace on the timeline a lot more in the last week, it’s because June 12 was allegedly his birthday and the fast food chain rolled out a Grimace Birthday Meal. But the engagement—and memes—around the birthday reached truly alarming levels of Online.
The star of the birthday meal is a purple shake that has gotten some mixed reviews since rolling out this week, but in the week leading up to the meal launch, Twitter and TikTok went feral with Grimace memes and shocking familial lore.
On June 5, the official McDonald’s account tweeted out a number that would “text” Grimace, and many of the quote-tweets were, of course, filthy and concerning.
On TikTok, Grimace, a fictional character who is reportedly supposed to represent a taste bud, has been labeled a “bad bitch” and “our queen.” In a full-circle moment, Daniel Ross, a voice actor who voices Grimace, tried the shake. And there was, uh, cosplay?
@ugh_madison New mcdonalds grimace birthday meal and shake! grimace tastes so good 🥰 #mcdonalds #food ♬ birthday – multi
Make no mistake: The Grimace Birthday Meal is a straight corporate engagement play by McDonald’s, and it’s obviously working. (They got Brian Cox to narrate the Grimace commercial.) But some franchises have allegedly been overcharging for the Grimace Birthday Meal, which makes the fact that no one really knows what flavor the Grimace shake is—or isn’t allowed to say—even more delicious. McDonald’s told the Daily Dot earlier this week that the Grimace shake is supposed to be berry-flavored, but people’s reviews have been more varied.
“why is grimace’s PR team convincing us that grimace is like extra necessary right now,” asked one commenter, and that is a good question. There is a Gritty-esque oddball appeal to Grimace, and he is being vulnerable online, which make him more relatable.
We reached out to McDonald’s for comment.
