The Convoluted History Of McDonald's Characters

[Music] have you stopped lately and thought about your favorite fast food mascots really thought about them was the burger king once a burger prince or did he inherit the title after marrying the dairy queen is wendy a raggedy and all trying to pass as a human and what is going on in the wacky world of mcdonaldland today on weird history food we're diving down the rabbit hole of the convoluted history of mcdonald's mcdonaldland characters but before we get started be sure to subscribe to the weird history food channel and let us know in the comments below which fast food mascots you'd like us to dissect next okay let's get clown to business and figure out what's going on with some of these characters smile and say cheeseburger [Music] mcdonald land was the setting of a series of tv ads created by mcdonald's and launched in 1971 designed to look like the fantasy world of a children's show like mr rogers neighborhood or hr puffin stuff more on that connection later mcdonald land was intended to get very young kids hooked on delicious piles of hamburgers and french fries by introducing them to mcdonald's menu items via a cast of rascally characters while many of these characters have long since been retired you could still see remnants of them in older mcdonald's restaurants and play places like the relics of a forgotten society meanwhile other characters have remained in a relatively steady rotation ever since becoming almost as universally recognized as the hamburger clown himself i should have known you'd have something like that up your sleeve let's begin our deep dive into the extended universe with the hamburglar today's subject the hamburglar the lovable bandit we know today is one of the many many thieves in mcdonaldland started out as the lone jogger that's the lone jogger he was portrayed as an old man with a long pointy nose and gray hair not exactly the kind of character that inspires repeat visits in 1985 mcdonald's marketing team took a page out of charles entertainment cheese's handbook and rechristened lone jogger as hamilton b burglar this went a long way toward rehabbing his image from 70 serial killer to something more relatable to kids like a thief the most notable change was the burglar's sudden ability to speak english instead of rubble rubble his signature catchphrase but 30 years later we saw another makeover for the burglar going from a cartoon burglar to a cool danny ocean type with a macintosh jacket over his striped prison shirt and dangerous stubble check out the not my hamburglar twitter hashtag to see how well this went over with fans but hamby ergler wasn't the only thief in mcdonald's league of villains [Music] while we may think of grimace as a short-armed jovial purple blob grimace used to be a four-armed monstrosity angling to steal himself some milkshakes yeah grimace began as a low-level pilferer of dessert beverages but much like the hamburglar over time he's evolved into a reformed and repentant rubble rubbler how do you do it what's your secret the most interesting thing about grimace is his extended family grimace has a mom a dad a grandmother named winky and a great-great-grandmother jenny grimace he's also got two aunts millie and tilly as well as an uncle o'grimacy who delivers shamrock shakes every year on st patrick's day maybe his restitution for his nephew's criminal past that's a large family of purple blobs wandering around mcdonaldland but that's not including grimace's prodigal brother king gonga who rules over the rest of the grimaces is it really any wonder that grimace turned to a life of crime his family has the extended backstory of the sopranos i'm a coward remember oh we are not done with the criminal underbelly of mcdonald land captain crook appeared in the 1970s as an adult-sized human muppet which is as disturbing as it sounds and since no two characters can ever be after the same menu item crook's mo was snaring the phileo fish sandwich and having that delicious tartar sauce all to himself it's like a window into his deranged criminal mind much like his extremely unpopular booty crook himself never got much love either and it's not hard to see why he's an off-putting captain hook knockoff no kid wants that guy hanging around their mcdonald's birthday party crook only got one redesign in the 80s before finally being retired and sent adrift on the sea of wherever former mascots go when they get discontinued with a final appearance in 1990s the adventures of ronald mcdonald mctreasure island we like to think crook finally got his well-earned wish and now sleeps with the fellaio fishes keep your eyes on your fries was the campaign that introduced the largely forgotten fry kids anthropomorphic pompoms who spoke gibberish and would steal your french fries before looking at you twice man there is a real problem with food theft at mcdonald land in fact the fry kids were originally named goblins because of the ravenous way they attacked fried spuds there are millions and millions of goblins in the french fries hatch honestly there's a way better name fry kids isn't even a pun just gave up on that one mcdonald's the squeaky little critters were initially called the fry guys but the name was changed to the fry kids after the debut of lady fry a fry kid with long eyelashes who was introduced in 1986 and while they made a few appearances in commercials and happy meals the fry kids were shelved by the following decade after a final appearance on the wacky adventures of ronald mcdonald speaking of looking into mcdonaldland's rampant crime problem we present officer big mac officer big mac is by all appearances a human man with two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun for a head officer big mac is where the mcdonald's lure starts to strain incredulity officer big mac is the chief of police in mcdonaldland where he represents law and order primarily by rounding up the hamburglar every time he steals a new batch of delicious hamburgers hughes was caught red-handed sneaking off with a big bag full of mcdonald's delicious cheeseburgers which makes it personal for officer big mac because if he's a fancy hamburger that means the hamburglar is abducting members of his family and eating them are those kids is this a mcdonald's version of the film taken mctaken with cheese also since officer big mac has a hamburger dome but a standard human body does that mean the hamburglar is running around with a sack of severed heads my nephew with a mad bag whatever the case may be it's hard to believe that officer big mac could be an impartial detective when the crimes of the hamburglar hit so close to home big mac had a good following in the 1970s and early 1980s but was dropped from the mcdonald land lineup when the characters received a redesign in 1985. he can still be found in some mcdonald's playlands where future hamburger criminals can role-play by entering a crow's nest style prison located inside officer big mac's head that's some weird symbolism on the subject of sentient cheeseburgers mayor mccheese is a seemingly elder cheeseburger who has been in charge of mcdonald land since his debut in 1971. if ever there was a case for term limits this is it he's got to smell pretty bad by now he sports a jaunty hat and an impressive sash and is portrayed as charmingly befuddled i'm not a cheeseburger i'm making mckees you know he also has clear ties to officer big mac the whole thing stinks of nepotism outside of his cameo appearance in the 1998 animated mini-series the wacky adventures of ronald mcdonald merrimack cheese hasn't been seen in a commercial in almost 40 years elections in mcdonaldland can be rough depending on when you were born you may have noticed that mayor mccheese looks an awful lot like h.r puff and stuff the punishingly creepy life-sized puppet star of a children's show created by iconic television producers sid and marty croft it turns out that several of the characters in mcdonaldland were actually plagiarized from the show no wonder there's so many thieves in mcdonald land mcdonald's and the cross had originally planned to work together on a campaign involving the hr puff and stuff characters the fast food franchise hired an advertising agency to work out a concept and that's when things went fry ways the crops were told the deal had fallen through but in fact the ad agency dropped them as a client hire their former employees to build costumes and sets and put them to work on the mcdonald's project which eventually became mcdonaldland mcdonald's found themselves in a big heap of trouble trouble order order in the court when they lost both the lawsuit and its appeal and were ordered to pay over a million dollars in damages now let's all adjourn to mcdonald's or cheeseburgers after that mcdonald's redesigned several of its characters to be more legally distinct and some other characters like mayor mccheese were tossed into the dumpster you'd be hard-pressed to find someone on the entire planet of earth who doesn't know ronald mcdonald mcdonald's flagship creepy hero clown mascot and the unofficial star of the 1988 children's film mac and me predates the creation of mcdonald land by several years having made his first official appearance in a series of ads in 1963 portrayed by famed tv weatherman willard scott isn't that mcdonald's hamburger delicious but the character got a bit of a makeover for mcdonaldland which included settling him with a shocking number of enemies especially for a guy who had the whole town named after him but when the croft lawsuit hit mcdonald's marketing team had to come up with some new ideas preferably ones that weren't borrowed from somewhere else so the decision was made to rehabilitate some of the villainous mcdonald land characters by the 1980s grimace hamburglar and captain crook had reformed to become the heroes of mcdonald's and according to official mcdonald land cannon ronald mcdonald was the steady hand of influence who showed the criminals the error of their ways and inspired them to turn it all around although hamburglar still dresses like a burglar hey if you find a style that works in 1980 the mcdonald land crew sorely lacked a female presence coincidentally mcdonald's was asking itself how do we show off our new breakfast menu luckily the fast food conglomerate found a way to hit two birds with one egg and introduced the world to birdie in her debut commercial birdie fell from the sky one evening while still partially trapped in her shell ronald and his newfound criminal friends protectively gathered around birdie and guarded her all evening until she hatched and decided to make mcdonald land her new home though it's unclear what they were protecting her from considering mcdonaldland had recently expunged its criminal element maybe hungry mcdonald's customers and while birdie didn't steal anyone's food the implications of her existence are much darker than the motivations of a mere fry snatcher as we mentioned birdie was created to promote the breakfast menu at mcdonald's when we're done and what is a mcmuffin except a vehicle to transfer eggs into your mouth it's like mary mcchees holding public office in a town of people who eat hamburgers one time around the world and back and the winner gets a delicious mcdonald's cheeseburger don't you know it is best not to dwell on these things so what do you think which one of these forgotten characters was your favorite let us know in the comments below and while you're at it check out some of these other videos from weird history food

Channel: Weird History Food

Views: 539,860

Keywords: who were the mcdonalds characters, what were the names of mcdonald's mascots, mcdonaldland characters, forgotten mcdonald's characters, the cast of mcdonald's playland, weird history food, weird history food mcdonald's, mcdonaldland, mcdonald characters from the 80s, food history, food commercial history, ronald mcdonald, what was grimace, grimace mcdonalds, hamburgler, the fry guys, birdie the early bird, fast food history, yesterworld entertainment, mashed, tasting history, food

Id: QZC3b3ZqHng

Length: 11min 17sec (677 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 26 2022