True Gritty, or how a mystifying new NHL mascot won the Internet
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If you’re a hockey fan or devotee of the noisome digital hive that is Sports Twitter, by now you’ve probably familiarized yourself with the Philadelphia Flyers’ sinister, googly-eyed new mascot, Gritty. An amorphous burnt-sienna blob that looks like the product of the unholy union between a third-tier H.R. Pufnstuf character and an even-more-hirsute-than-usual Seth Rogan, Gritty began winning over children and under-medicated sociopaths alike shortly after the team introduced him to the world on Monday afternoon.
Minutes after his formal unveilingin a ceremony punctuated by Halloween confetti and theatrical smoke, the Flyers trotted him out for a bunch of ecstatic school kids at Philly’s Please Touch MuseumGritty made his Twitter debut, where he was immediately greeted with accolades, hoots of derision and the inevitable cascade of uninspired reaction gifs. (How ’bout we retire that Exasperated Ryan Reynolds Facepalm thing already, huh?)
Gritty’s more enthusiastic early engagers likened the Grimace-shaped mascot to canonical weirdos like Animal from “The Muppet Show” and Gossamer, the lurching orange fuzzball with tennis shoes on his feet and malice in his heart familiar from that old Bugs Bunny cartoon. More cynical Twitter users invoked the grim specter of PCP or observed that Gritty “looks like he’s halfway through opening the Ark of the Covenant.” One wag snarked that anyone looking for a marketing job should try cold calling the Flyers as the team is likely “hiring an entirely new staff.”
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