Open this photo in gallery The Philadelphia Flyers mascot, Gritty, takes to the ice during the first intermission of the Flyers' preseason NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins on Sept, 24, 2018. Tom Mihalek/The Associated Press “Gritty” – the hip-swinging, arm-flailing, ear-smoking, googly-eyed hot mess of a Philadelphia Flyers mascot – returned to the spotlight Tuesday after a debut that sent the social media world spinning and left hockey fans unsure whether to applaud or grimace. The seven-foot creature, complete with a ZZ Top-ish wild orange beard, was on Good Morning America after making on-ice appearances during breaks in a pre-season game against the Boston Bruins a night earlier. The TV spot came after a dizzying number of memes, gifs and Twitter buzz triggered an outpouring of reaction. Some felt Gritty’s vibe was intense, edgy, perhaps even a tad frightening. Others liked that Gritty wasn’t cut from the traditional cuddly mascot cloth. Story continues below advertisement “I’ll call it the Donald Trump school of marketing here that all publicity is good publicity,” said McMaster University professor Marvin Ryder. “I can’t remember a mascot debut that has been more covered than this.” Gritty looks like a zany combination of the Montreal Canadiens’ mascot “Youppi!”, the Muppets’ character “Animal,” with a dash of “Chucky” from the “Child’s Play” slasher film series. According to a Flyers release, Gritty was forced out of a hermit-like existence when construction at the arena disturbed his secret hideout. His bio also describes him as “the ultimate Flyers fan” and “loyal but mischievous,” with a penchant for eating snow left behind by the Zamboni ice-cleaning machine. Naturally there’s a Gritty account on Twitter, and it had 46,000 followers and counting as of Tuesday afternoon. A post Monday evening said, “Goodnight, internet,” along with a picture of the orange mascot squeezing champagne out of a squirt bottle into a glass, a cheeky nod to Kim Kardashian’s infamous Paper Magazine photo shoot. Ryder said it will be interesting to see if the NHL team tweaks the mascot image to dull any rough edges. “They got a lot of coverage on this mascot but it’s mostly because, ‘Look how weird he looks, look how ugly he is, look how scary he is,’" Ryder said from Hamilton. “That’s not exactly the message I’d want.” Proclaiming “It is time to get Nitty Gritty!,” Good Morning America host Lara Spencer interviewed Gritty and “handler” Andrea Helfrich from a Wells Fargo Center locker room on Tuesday morning. Story continues below advertisement So what do they make of all the attention and some of the mixed reaction? “Gritty is loving it,” Helfrich said with a smile. “If he could talk, he would say, ‘Bring it on.’ He eats his opponents for breakfast.” The segment was capped with a dancing Gritty hamming it up for the camera as wisps of smoke appeared behind his helmeted head. “He’s the perfect mascot heading into Halloween,” Ryder said. “But I’m not sure I’d want him around at Christmas-time or in February.” Gritty is just the second mascot in Flyers history after the short-lived Slapshot in 1976. “I probably would have dialled it back and gone for something just a little more cuddly,” Ryder said. “But remember this is the team, the Philadelphia Flyers, who gave us the ‘Broad Street Bullies’ once upon a time. So they’re trying to make this thing I guess a little bit more of that reactive character.”<doc-sep>Gritty, Philly’s Disturbing New Mascot, Traded Insults with Wally on Twitter The Flyers' Babadook-looking thing and the beloved Red Sox symbol duked it out online. Get a compelling long read and must-have lifestyle tips in your inbox every Sunday morning — great with coffee! Gritty, the batshit and cursed new mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers, and Wally the Green Monster, the Red Sox’ lovable portly beast that everyone loves, are fighting online. A back-and-forth between the two creatures played out on Twitter Thursday, after Wally shared a joke that suggested the wild-eyed orange Gritty was a less attractive version of Red Sox pitcher Craig Kimbrel, who has a frizzy orange beard. “Tinder pic vs real life,” the tweet reads. Wally tagged the hell-beast—which has made quite the splash on social media since its debut earlier this week—in the message. Tinder pic vs real life Welcome to mascot fame, @GrittyNHL, it’s a glamorous life. pic.twitter.com/h05ofVPSIL — Wally (@Wally97) September 27, 2018 And in no time at all, Gritty responded: “I always assumed you were a Craigslist missed connections kind of guy,” the mascot, who looks eerily like Babadook, wrote. I always assumed you were a Craigslist missed connections kind of guy.. https://t.co/stG3K7CsP4 — Gritty (@GrittyNHL) September 27, 2018 I gotta say I don’t exactly know what Gritty is getting at here. I looked into it and, yes, people are in fact still using Craigslist to try to find people they spotted on the subway and whatnot. Is it a baseball joke about batting? Is Gritty just deflecting? What is its deal? I don’t know, just like I don’t know what Gritty even is, or how to get the image of his its giant, lifeless googly eyes and agape mouth out of my head. I prefer Wally, who is, sensibly, a green thing named after a wall.<doc-sep>PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Flyers have introduced an odd-looking new team mascot — a 7-foot fuzzy creature named Gritty with a wild, orange beard. The creature is so bizarre that Twitter could not get enough. The character’s debut triggered an outpouring of comments online, including, “Good luck sleeping tonight, Flyers fans,” and comparisons to ZZ Top and the Muppets. Twitter users created memes with Gritty taking the place of horror-movie villains and splicing his head onto other disturbing images. The cross-state rival Pittsburgh Penguins tweeted, “lol ok” — to which Gritty responded, “Sleep with one eye open tonight, bird.” Gritty’s first game did not go any better. When he wasn’t falling on the ice, he was attacking others with the t-shirt gun. The NHL labeled him “the ultimate Flyers fan who loves the orange and black, but is unwelcoming to anyone who opposes his team” in an online announcement. The name stems from his “possessing an attitude so similar to the team he follows,” the Flyers said. The reaction seemed to be exactly what the Flyers were going for. Gritty’s final tweet of the day included the message, “Goodnight, internet,” and a photo of the crazed-looking mascot squeezing what looked to be Champagne out of a squirt bottle. — With AP and Fox News<doc-sep>
If you hadn't already seen him, count yourself among the lucky ones. This week, the world met Gritty — then shook with fear and loathing. Gritty is the Philadelphia Flyers' massive, hairy, bug-eyed new mascot. In his debut at the team's pre-season hockey game Monday night, Gritty — a hockey mascot — fell on the ice and shot a person with a T-shirt gun. Headlines reported his arrival on the ice like horsemen heralding the apocalypse. Crossing Broad warned: "The Flyers' New Mascot Is Here To Murder You." And a parody GoFundMe page called for Gritty to be euthanized. Maybe that one was overkill. Wow. That escalated quickly. #flyersMascot #gritty pic.twitter.com/7dtj6tyaUn —@CoconnellFox29 But Bill Matz and Kelly Hinkle, who host Broad Street Hockey Radio, told Day 6 that they love Gritty's grit. "I think it's a perfect representation of not only how we view ourselves, but how people view us as Philadelphia fans," Matz said. "He looks like some drugged up maniac, the way people perceive Flyers fans [as] the most intimidating fans in hockey." A common point Gritty critics have made is that his unhinged appearance makes him terrifying to children — the very people mascots are ostensibly supposed to please. Matz agrees. "If I were a kid and Gritty walked up to me, I'd like to believe I'd be all about it, give him a high five and want to be Gritty's best friend. But I would probably be afraid," he said. Hinkle maintains Gritty is not that scary. "People seem to be really on board with the idea of a mascot that's goofy enough for kids to enjoy and snarky and weird enough for adults to enjoy," she said Some Gritty haters have asked why the Flyers even need a mascot. Others accused Gritty of ripping off the style of the Phillie Phanatic, the monstrous green mascot who cheers on the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team. President George W. Bush, poses with baseball mascot, the "Philly Phanatic." We may never know what the Phanatic whispered to him. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Hinkle and Matz say the comparison to the Phanatic was inevitable. "In Philadelphia, the Phillie Phanatic is pretty much a god. You could replace most of the statues in the city with a statue of the Phillie Phanatic and people would be very in favour of the move," Hinkle said. "The Phanatic just kind of represents Philadelphia and he's what we compare every other mascot to. So you're just not going to get a good reaction right away because everyone's just going to say: 'It's not the Phanatic,'" Matz said. Yet Hinkle and Matz both say introducing Gritty was a good move for the Flyers. "I think they knocked it out of the park and you can see by the by the publicity it's getting. I can't remember the last time hockey was everywhere," Matz said. To hear more of Bill Matz and Kelly Hinkle's gritty take on Gritty's grit, download our podcast or click listen above.