For more than 40 years, the Philadelphia Flyers ice hockey team didn’t have a mascot.

Then, in September, they unleashed Gritty, and the “orange hairy monster that comes complete with a beer-gut, squeaky belly button and wild googly eyes” became a worldwide sensation.

Not to be confused with America’s other beer-gutted orange monster, who is less popular around the world. Or, for that matter, the one over in Britain.

As the BBC reports, Gritty mania is now a thing:

He’s amassed almost 200,000 Twitter followers, made appearances on US talk shows, crashed a wedding and is being fought over as an icon for the US political far-left and far-right.

So how on earth did all of this Gritty mania begin?

The mascot’s origin story on the Flyers’ website claims he had been hiding for an unknown amount of time inside their arena, feasting on snow and leftover hot-dogs.

He was reportedly created after the son of the team’s chief operating officer, Shawn Tilger, asked why they didn’t have a participant in the NHL’s 2018 mascot showdown event.

Cue a lengthy commissioning process where Gritty’s quirks, including an ability to blow smoke from his ears, were ironed out by designers with the help of local children.

Props to the kids involved, because they clearly created a loveable rogue, although it wasn’t smooth sailing right from the start.

When he was first unveiled, there were plenty of people taking the piss:

Gritty having a bad first day on the job @spittinchiclets pic.twitter.com/24er9dA4gL

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 25, 2018

Others found him to be a little creepy:

That thread is worth a look.

Slowly but surely, though, the tide began to turn, and within a couple of days, Gritty had more followers than any of the other NHL mascots.

Channelling those Kim K ‘break the internet’ vibes:

For the first home game of the NHL season, Gritty descended from the roof to Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’, and fans were well and truly won over.

Check out from 1:30 below:

As Philadelphia descended into full Gritty mania during October, the city council passed a resolution to honour the mascot. Here’s how council member Helen Gym described him:

“A 7-foot tall orange hellion, a fuzzy eldritch horror, a ghastly empty-eyed Muppet with a Delco beard, a cross of Snuffleupagus and Oscar the Grouch, a deranged orange lunatic, an acid trip of a mascot, a shaggy orange Wookiee-esque grotesquerie…”

Oh, and Gritty loves to boogie:

GRITTY JUST SHOWED UP AT THIS VERY PHILLY WEDDING I AM AT AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE STARSTRUCK IN MY LIFE pic.twitter.com/BYCZSC0J2C

— Mary Wagner (@marybwagner) November 24, 2018

Like, really:

This being 2018, when everything nice ends up in flames, I expect the person inside the costume to be found guilty of some heinous crime sooner or later.

For now, though, let Gritty mania reign supreme.

[source:bbc]