Teens have turned a new McDonalds drink into the latest bizarre TikTok trend as they film themselves pretending to die or meet some other gruesome fate after drinking the bright purple shake.
The limited edition Grimace shake, reintroduced by the restaurant chain in homage to a long-forgotten and downright disturbing mascot, has inspired a wave of memes and videos that have even forced the fast-food giant itself to get involved.
Grimace first appeared in the 1970s as part of a campaign for young children. He was originally introduced as a villain who stole people’s shakes, but quickly turned into a cheerful character.
And McDonald’s aficionados have certainly turned to the mascot again, but perhaps not in the way the fast-food brand could have anticipated.
The horror-infused trend tagged #grimaceshake has been viewed more than 778.6 million times on TikTok and has thousands of videos of Gen Zers sipping the sugary drink and then slashing at them playing dead or injured while the purple liquor flows from their nose, mouth or head.
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Originally introduced as part of a children’s campaign, Grimace joined the gang of other questionable-looking McDonald’s characters
Grimace was once a villain who would steal kids’ milkshakes, before the company turned him into a jolly milkshake fan
McDonald’s initially didn’t comment on the trend — likely surprised by the morbid response — but tweeted “meee as if I don’t see the grimace shaking,” alongside a photo of Grimas looking stunned.
Other major companies are shocked by the trend, The Sims even posted their own purple character in response to the McDonald’s tweet.
The first Grimace Shake Incident on TikTok was posted on June 13 by Austin Frazier (@thefrazmaz), according to the meme database Know Your Meme, and since then the trend has become increasingly absurd.
Frazier spoke to NBC News about the video, which has been viewed more than two million times, and said he was inspired by a TikTok that showed a user pretending to be in the hospital after trying Burger King’s Spider-Verse Whopper .
The fast food conglomerate eventually responded to the terrifying trend on Twitter by posting a stunned photo of Grimace with the caption “I’m pretending not to see the Grimace trend”
The Sims responded to the Tweet with their own gruesome take on the purple mascot
He didn’t expect the trend to take off and was surprised by how many adjustments have been made since then.
He said, “The great thing is, you know, it’s a trend that really took off, and it kind of sparked creativity and allowed people to add their own pieces to it.
“It allowed people to create that funny humor, dark humor, horror, whatever they want.”
One user, @wheresxanders, made the concept even more terrifying, when a video showed the drinker innocently trying the milkshake before cutting towards him posing with the purple drink spilled around him as he vomited it up – a scene which is not much like ‘The Exorcist’.
Since the first Grimace video was posted, the TikTok trend has taken off — some of them even got millions of likes
Each video cuts to a fake death after users try the sweet purple drink
Another video from @_loganross gained more than 38,000 likes after the drink caused the user to lie face down in purple on a children’s climbing frame. The user rated the milkshake only 2/10 in the caption.
A user (pictured above) lay face down on a children’s playground in the park
The user posted again with his friend trying the potion and then lying face down against a purple covered wall.
User @_loganross even had his friend try the concoction, which also resulted in a messy ending
TikToker @abby tried the potion and ended up with her face against a wall covered in purple
Another user placed his brother trying the drink, causing him to fall unconscious to the floor while still holding on to the milkshake.
One user got his brother to join the trend, the video received thousands of comments from people who knew about the trend
Some TikToker’s commented ‘Rest In Grimace’ while his older brother captioned the comment ‘RIP lil bro’
His fake death was pictured and shared with millions of people on the app
The video, which also received more than a million likes, was captioned, “Rip lil bro ma boy mc passed away. He was only 13.’
Other TikTok users following the trend have shared their condolences in the comments.
Some of the tributes read: “RIP,” “rest in grimace,” and “gone too soon.”
It’s not the first time morbid McDonald’s-inspired videos have appeared, in 2016 Ronald was retired by the fast food giant after a series of “creepy clown sightings” surfaced in the US.
They escalated from harmless pranks to reports of guns being carried by people dressed as clowns.
The grueling response comes weeks after the grimace was dubbed an LGBTQ+ icon, and brings a whole new lease of life to the character.
Social media users wondered if the new campaign was launched in June on purpose because of pride month.