Grimace
Grimace (or "The Grimace") is a fictional character that was once part of the marketing campaign of McDonald's. The McDonaldland character was a large jolly fellow who looked like a large purple gumdrop with small arms and legs. He was known for his smiling face and simple demeanor.
In the first cycle of McDonaldland commercials, Grimace was the "Evil Grimace", with several pairs of arms with which to steal Triple-Thick Shakes. After that first campaign, the character was revised to be one of the "good guys."
Today Grimace is generally portrayed in McDonalds' commericals and merchandise as a sort of well-meaning doofus, whose clusmy antics provide a comic foil to the more serious and mature Ronald McDonald. His trademark expression is "duh..."
Grimace is a fantasy character, and not intended to "be" anything specific. However, ever since the character's introduction there has been much speculation (though much of it tounge-in-cheeck) about his apperance. Because the majority of McDonald's characters more or less directly represent a food product sold at the resturaunts (ie: Mayor McCheese, Fryguys, Chicken McNugget Buddies, etc) many have naturally tried to guess as to what, if any, food product Grimace is supposed to represent. A common speculation is that he is supposed to be a giant McNugget, though there are many more faniciful attempted explanations. In reality Grimace's "official" role, according to McDonald's continues to be representing the chain's famous milkshakes. He does this out of love for the taste however, and not because he is any way himself a shake-based creature.
