MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

On September 24, 2018 the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL) introduced their new mascot, Gritty. Gritty is a furry, orange, googly-eyed mascot with features reminiscent of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team mascot, The Phanatic, and is said to have been living in the arena where the team plays until construction forced him out. The reaction to his introduction was varied, but strong. As is often said when something takes the internet by storm, the response to Gritty’s introduction “broke the internet”. Whether loathed or loved, there was indeed a visceral response from the internet that provides an interesting case study of internet culture, virality, social media, marketing, metamodernism and memes. While the local fans and hockey community were trying to figure out what and why, many outside of sports embraced the intentional and very Philadelphia representations of grit, determination, tenacity, and underdog boisterousness. Just two days after his introduction, the democratic socialist publication Jacobin tweeted out “Gritty is a Worker” and shortly after that Gritty’s image made appearances on antifascist signs during Donald Trump’s visit to Philadelphia. Within two weeks Gritty was embraced by the “left” (to the dismay of some) and seized for the memes, quickly becoming an internet icon well beyond his role as mascot of a hockey team. This presentation will explore how Gritty has been memed into an unofficial mascot of leftist activism while simultaneously existing as an official representation of corporate interests (NHL, Flyers,Comcast) in the context of metamodernism and internet culture. Metamodernism is a response to postmodernism that explores the oscillation between sincerity and irony, and cynicism and optimism. Gritty embodies this motion both figuratively and literally (watch.him.dance), making him perhaps, the very first metamodern mascot.