A large purple monster who was first introduced in November 1971 as the Evil Grimace. In Grimace's first appearances, he was one of the original main antagonists and was depicted with two pairs of arms which were used to steal milkshakes and Cokes. Evil was soon dropped from Grimace's name and he was reintroduced in 1972 as a protagonist where he only has one set of arms. He was then a rather clumsy, but still amiable monster from then on. His exact nature has been disputed: in a 2010 interview, a McDonald's spokesperson said that Grimace was a taste bud.[15] A 2014 Tweet from the McDonald's Twitter account stated Grimace lore says he is the embodiment of a milkshake or a taste bud.[16] In 2021, Brian Bates, a franchisee in Canada, stated in an interview widely reported on in the press that Grimace is an anthropomorphic taste bud.[17][18] Writing in The Takeout, Lillian Stone disputed this, pointing out other material that established that Grimace was part of a species of Grimaces, including his Uncle O'Grimacey who promoted the Shamrock Shake.[19] To celebrate the 51 year anniversary of the character's inception, in 2023, McDonalds ran a promotion to celebrate Grimace's birthday with the release of the Grimace Shake, which became an Internet meme on social media platforms.[20] Heather Schwedel of Slate stated that prior to the meme, the character was a nobody, and that the promotion for the Grimace-themed milkshake was done for novelty and was perfect meme fodder.[21]