Philadelphia's newest, orange-haired, manic mascot has now received an official welcome by City Hall.
City Council members Thursday passed a resolution by Councilmember At-Large Helen Gym to formally welcome Gritty to the city following his introduction as the Philadelphia Flyers' mascot one month ago.
Every member of the council cosponsored Gym's resolution.
"Gritty came into our lives when we most needed him, and while he may be a hideous monster, he is our hideous monster," Gym said in a press release.
The mascot was initially met with derision -- and a lot of confusion.
That didn't last long.
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"Gritty's National Hockey League debut, featuring a bottoms-up fall onto the ice, is a metaphor for the vulnerability that each of us face as we, too, skate onto the slippery ice that is life," reads the council resolution, which is as surreal as Gritty himself.
"Gritty has been described as 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, a non-binary leftist icon, an orange menace, a raging id, and an antihero," the resolution reads.
When the rest of the country laughed and jeered, Philadelphians embraced the "deranged orange lunatic ... acid trip of a mascot."
His humungous frame, orange fur, protruding belly and giant googly eyes have now captured the imagination of locals and the internet, with his official Twitter account climbing to 148,000 followers as of Thursday, Oct. 24.
And Gritty-mania shows no sign of slowing down. He has inspired costumes, pumpkin carvings and sandwiches. At least one fan went so far as to permanently brand himself with the now-iconic mascot in the form of a Gritty tattoo.
In the words of Gym's resolution, "Gritty, like our steadfast commitment to justice in the face of adversity, will not be mocked or stopped."
Welcome, Gritty. May your strange-but-lovable appearance and antics continue to capture hearts and minds for years to come.
