November 27, 2018

Update: Gritty's official City Hall appearance has been postponed

Look for the orange googly-eyed monster to take over Council Chambers sometime in the future

By Brian Hickey
PhillyVoice Staff

Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice

Philadelphia Flyers mascot "Gritty" during a game against the Arizona Coyotes at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia.

UPDATE: Maybe fame has gone to his big orange head. Though everything seemed to be a go with the Flyers mascot claiming the ceremonial City Council resolution passed in his honor on Thursday, Gritty has officially postponed his appearance at City Hall.

PhillyVoice has confirmed the news that was first Twitter-reported by Stephanie Farr of the Philadelphia Daily News and other related outlets at 4:26 p.m. Monday.

Melissa McCleery, director of communications for City Councilwoman Helen Gym, shared a few minutes later via email that "Gritty had a scheduling conflict come up (sadly!) and we are rescheduling the visit." Gritty will still be at Comcast's XFINITY store (1429 Walnut St.) from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, though.

Here's what we wrote when we still had faith in Gritty to live up to his obligations as a Philadelphia legend:

• • •

Back in the day, before you millennials were even a glimmer in your parents’ eyes, heading to Philadelphia City Council Chambers meant you might see a brawl break out.

It wasn’t exactly a feeling of international-waters lawlessness. It did have a touch of the Broad Street Bullies feel, though, and it might be coming back pretty darn soon.

This point is pertinent to bring up Tuesday as it was the day that Gritty’s official appearance before the legislative body was formally scheduled.

Via a Tweet from City Councilwoman At-Large Helen Gym – and an email from her communications director – PhillyVoice learned, and is proud to announce, that the googly-eyed mascot that stole everyone’s hearts (wallets and Social Security numbers and $33 million) will be in attendance at the December 6 council meeting.

Having covered crowded council meetings over the years, it is important that you get there well before 10 a.m., when it’s slated to begin.

Truth be told, this is the only event that I think could match Milton Street’s coffin serenade of March 1, 2007, especially now that former Flyers general manager Ron Hextall has free time to whisper fightin' words into his orange ear.

Oh, you’re probably wondering why Gritty is heading to City Hall, right? Well, it’s because the legislative body took the time to honor him with an exceptionally long and creative resolution in October.

You can read that here:

Welcoming Gritty, the new mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers, and honoring the spirit and passion that Gritty has brought to the City of Philadelphia and to the entire country, both on and off the ice.

WHEREAS, Gritty was introduced to an unprepared world as the Philadelphia Flyers’ new mascot on September 24, 2018, but his true age and origins remain cloaked in obscurity. His official bio merely notes that it was recent construction at the arena that disturbed his secret hideout and forced him to show his face publicly for the first time; and

WHEREAS, 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. He has been characterized as huggable but also potentially insurrectionary, ridiculous, horrifying, unsettling, and absurd; and

WHEREAS, The television host John Oliver opened one of his eponymous HBO shows by stating he would have preferred to spend the entire show on Gritty and now uses him as a symbol of something “hostile, consistently unsettling, temperamentally unpleasant and that screams who the [...] allowed this to happen”; and

WHEREAS, When Gritty floated from the rafters of the Wells Fargo Center to the tune of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” on October 9, 2018, he also floated into our hearts and minds, weaving his googly-eyed stare, maniacal smile, and passion for hockey and hot dogs into our deep subconscious; and

WHEREAS, Gritty’s storied arrival into Philadelphia was met with all the expected magnanimity of a city with a reputation for colorful and ardent fans and a creative, if skeptical, media, but as soon as Philadelphians realized non-Philadelphians were also mocking Gritty, we rose immediately to his defense and irrevocably claimed him as our own; and

WHEREAS, Philadelphians have already demonstrated their creative, if occasionally jarring, love for Gritty by putting his inimitable face on protest signs, tip jars, wedding cakes, and tattoos; and

WHEREAS, At the same time that Gritty brings people together, the divisions in our current political and cultural life have rendered Gritty contested territory. Gritty has been widely declared antifa, and was subject to attempted reclamation in the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. It has been argued that he “conveys the absurdity and struggle of modern life under capitalism” and that he represents a source of joyful comic respite in a time of societal upheaval; and

WHEREAS, A man who inked Gritty’s face onto his leg captured the feelings of countless Philadelphians: “At first, I was disgusted. I was like, what the hell is this? Why did you do this? Why is this a thing? It was like an hour after that I fell in love with him”; and

WHEREAS, 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; and

WHEREAS, When the Pittsburgh Penguin took to social media and mocked Gritty for his appearance, Gritty responded, “Sleep with one eye open tonight, bird.” Gritty, like our steadfast commitment to justice in the face of adversity, will not be mocked or stopped; and

WHEREAS, As there is a small part of every Philadelphian embedded in the soul of Gritty, he is never alone. Gritty joins a renowned cadre of Philadelphia sports mascot colleagues that will teach him how to keep the spirits of Philadelphia sports fans high despite our inevitable misery. Together, the Phanatic, Franklin the Dog, Swoop, and now Gritty will remind us that even in the face of defeat, Philadelphia is Philadelphia because of the brotherly love, sisterly affection, and monsterly spirit that binds us together in confronting anyone who dares to speak critically of our beloved city; and

WHEREAS, While the initial reaction to Gritty’s entry into the public eye was negative, he has persevered and become an icon of hope and resistance. As Flyers COO Shawn Tilger explained after Gritty’s unveiling, “

WHEREAS, Gritty may be a hideous monster, but he is our hideous monster; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the Council of the City of Philadelphia welcomes Gritty, the new mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers, and honors the spirit and passion that Gritty has brought to the City of Philadelphia and to the entire country, both on and off the ice.