We should talk about Grimace

You can't always control how other people tell your story, my friends. But let me tell you, when you have the confidence to let go, people will surprise you.

Now, let me set the stage for you. The Golden Arches went all out this year. It was Grimace's special day, and they didn't hold back. They created a Game Boy Colour style game, filled the shelves with merch, and even whipped up a Grimace-flavored shake.

And a photoshoot with all your favourite McDonald’s peeps With this much effort, the marketing team knew they’d get some of the good heat. Birdie and Hamburgler don’t have the purple carpet rolled out for them. Grimace holds a special plays in the zeitgeist. The former shake villain is our weird saviour.

We like weird and Grimace is undoubtably weird.

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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser We embrace the weirdness. Grimace is strange, and we're here for it, in stranger ways.

The Grimace Shake Trend really scratches my itch for Horror. I’m very big into Analogue Horror, found footage, Alternate reality games. This trend takes the concept of a taste test and adds a twist. Before we get to the taste appraisal, we jump forward in time to the aftermath of an "incident." The video subjects find themselves covered in Grimace shake liquid, sometimes shirtless, sometimes spewing it from their mouths. And as we witness this spectacle, old-timey music plays eerily in the background.

Now, the gang at McDonald's didn't plan for this, my friends. All Grimace wanted was to enjoy their birthday

Don’t worry, this isn’t linked to the musky place. You can't always control how people use your story. Nevertheless, it's working for McDonald's. This trend is grabbing eyeballs and making me think about Macca's more than I did when I worked there.

So, what can we learn from this bizarre trend? Let's break it down, shall we?

A holey story Last week, I talked about the bomb under the table where you create suspense and anticipation as you build your story. But the Grimace Incident takes a different approach. It skips the climax and shows just before the incident and its aftermath.

Why?

Well, it creates questions, an unsolved puzzle. It's like having four people engaged in a conversation about baseball, then abruptly cutting to the aftermath of a bomb going off. These kinds of stories surprise the audience and leave them with wandering questions.

And guess what?

If you don't answer those questions, your audience will. And let me tell you, they'll come up with some pretty damn good answers. So, when you ask a question, be ready to listen to the answers.

Make sure you ask an enticing question.

There are many ways to tell a tale The Grimace incident has creators telling the same story, but each one brings their own personality and unique interpretation to it.

Your story will always be different because you are telling it.

And with this incident, there's room for freeform expression. Some folks go shirtless, while others adorn themselves with pentagrams made of Grimace shake. This amplifies the original message and adds layers to it. It's a reminder that your ability to tell stories is what makes them truly unique.

It’s no Harlem Shake Now, my friends, as a Partner of story, Grimace caught my attention this week. But don't you worry, I won't be doing the Grimace Shake myself, mainly because you can’t get them in Australia.

As for Duolingo, who knows? People are asking for it (at the time of writing the owl has yet to meet Grimace)

Do I think you should do it yourself? (It depends but probably don’t1)

Take stock in the trends of the internet and see what you can get out it. The worst that could happen is meeting Grimace, late at night.