McDonald's new berry-flavored Grimace Shake is a hit on TikTok — but not necessarily in the way the fast-food company might have hoped.
Since McDonald's introduced the shake on June 6 to celebrate the birthday of its purple monster character, the drink has inspired countless memes across social media. However, one TikTok trend, dubbed the Grimace Shake Incident by some, has stood out for its macabre imagery.
The Grimace Shake Incident involves TikTok creators trying the milkshake and then faking their own deaths in horror-inspired scenarios. In the videos, creators typically wish Grimace a happy birthday, taste the drink and the video cuts to a clip of them playing dead or injured with the purple milkshake streaming out of their mouth, nose or head.
McDonald's did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But on Tuesday, the McDonald's account tweeted "meee pretending i don’t see the grimace shake trendd," alongside a picture of Grimace looking horrified.
The first Grimace Shake Incident TikTok was posted on June 13 by user Austin Frazier (@thefrazmaz), according to online meme database Know Your Meme. Since then, the trend has gotten increasingly dark and cinematic.
Frazier told NBC News' Stay Tuned that he was inspired by a TikTok that showed a creator pretending to be in the hospital after trying Burger King's Spider-Verse Whopper.
He said he thought the Grimace Shake video would be a one-off hit. However, he was pleasantly surprised by how many people made their own versions.
“The great part about it is that, you know, it’s a trend that kind of took off, and it allowed for creativity and allowed for people to kind of put their own pieces to it," Frazier said. "So even though I may have had it a certain way, you know, the format was set there, but it allowed for people to kind of create that funny humor, dark humor, horror, whatever [they] may want it to be."
Grimace Shake videos have garnered millions of views on the platform and even become popular on Twitter, where users praised Gen Z TikTokers for their "absurdist humor."
Meanwhile, back on TikTok, commenters are writing their condolences to the families of Grimace's "victims."
"today we mourn the loss of 5 innocent gentlemen taken by grimace," one commenter wrote, along with dove and prayer hand emojis, under one video.
While Grimace tweeted from the McDonald's account that he doesn't "see" the trend, the post hasn't stopped people from requesting that he drink the shake himself.
When asked whether he would participate, Grimace replied, "participate in wat."
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