The Summer of Grimace: Grace shares her thoughts.

On June 12th, we celebrated a new national holiday…Grimace’s 52nd birthday. You remember Grimace, right? That purple blob who was one of the many McDonald’s Mascots. You might have seen him in his breakout role titled “The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald.” He starred alongside three chicken nuggets wearing cowboy boots appropriately named the McNuggets. And may I say now that Grimace is having a moment, can the McNuggets be next?

Grimace originally was an evil character inspired by a tastebud (Yes, you read that right, a tastebud….). But he soon shifted into a fun-loving guy. In doing research for my hard-hitting Grimace piece, I actually found that Grimace celebrated his 16th birthday by getting his driver’s license. He also apparently loves skateboarding, dancing, and karaoke. I mean, who doesn’t?!?. The more I learned about Grimace, the more I was inspired to make this the Summer of Grimace. To celebrate, head on down to McDonald’s and get a purple Grimace shake while supplies last. 

Unfortunately, I don’t think Grimace would enjoy the new TikTok trend surrounding his birthday shake. The TikToks show people enjoying a Grimace shake and then cut to the person who drank the shake being dead or dying, usually choking on the shake. How this got started…I have no idea. I’m sure McDonald’s had hoped for a different viral moment. Maybe a cute dance or song, but no…they got Grimace-inspired horror TikToks. For those of you inspired by the trend, Mass and Cass McDonald’s would be the perfect backdrop for your spooky content. Although I do enjoy the videos when I see them, I think Grimace would be sad.

This is how we chose to celebrate his 52nd birthday? Instead, we should enjoy the day as Grimace would, riding around Castle Island on his skateboard while doing Karaoke. Let’s lift our shakes to toast the summer of Grimace!

Images via McDonald’s on Instagram