McDonald's Customers Are Flipping Out Over Learning What The Character Grimace Actually Is

Everybody who ever watched the Clerks cartoon knows, nothing can kill the Grimace. But what, exactly, is the creature? It's one of the longest-running mysteries in the strange lore of McDonaldland characters. The two most prevalent rumors are that he's a "milkshake monster" or a giant tastebud. The latter, it seems, is supported by at least one McDonald's manager, and after he stated it pretty matter-of-factly, the internet has taken it up as something to freak out about, debate, and debunk. McDonald's has remained mostly silent on the matter, since they tend to like the mystery, and sometimes just answer the question of what he is with "He's a Grimace."

Per the McDonald's Wiki, Grimace is "a large, purple anthropomorphic being of indeterminate species with short arms and legs. He is known for his slow-witted demeanor. His most common expression is the word 'duh' before every sentence."

McDonald's manager Brian Bates of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, is the one who said in a recent interview that Grimace "is an enormous taste bud, but a taste bud nonetheless."

(h/t CBC)

The character has been portrayed by only a handful of people -- two in the suit (officially) and three more as its voice. Frank Welker and, sometimes, Larry Moran voiced Grimace in the commercials, and Kevin Michael Richardson in the VHS series "The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald". He was portrayed by Patti Saunders from 1971-1984 and Terry Castillo from 1984-2003.

You can see some of our favorite tweets about it below.