What are people doing with the Grimace shake? Here's the TikTok trend explained.

Apparently, this shake is to die for. A TikTok trend of people trying Grimace's berry-flavored purple milkshake and then pretending to die has finally gotten the McDonald's monster to respond to the absurdist fad.

In a tweet from McDonald's official account, Grimace — the popular creature from McDonaldland — even playfully acknowledged the viral trend.

meee pretending i don't see the grimace shake trendd pic.twitter.com/ZTcnLTESC8

— McDonald's (@McDonalds) June 27, 2023

The trend took off not long after McDonald's began selling the Grimace Birthday Shake on June 12 — the same day the fast food giant declared it to be the creature's special day.

What are people doing with the Grimace shake?

Videos uploaded to TikTok show mostly teens and other young customers trying the shake and wishing Grimace a happy birthday, but then the clips sharply take a morbid tone. The videos abruptly cut to the subjects pretending to be dead with the shake oftentimes spilled or splattered nearby. 

Viral meme cataloging site Know Your Meme claims Austin Frazier started the trend when he uploaded a video on June 13 of himself tasting the shake and then lying on the floor with the drink spilled around his head and mouth. That video received more than 2.6 million views on TikTok and prompted others to follow suit — with varying levels of production value. 

Frazier said this week that he took inspiration from a similar video in which someone tried Burger King's Spider-Verse burger and then the video smash cuts to a view from the back an ambulance with the caption "Do not eat the Spider verse burger"

"I said ok, then let's do something similar," Frazier said. "Let's be super excited. Take a drink and the next scene immediately would be me on the ground with all the stuff next to me and some funny music, and that was literally it. It's just supposed to be a meme about it's a really weird color, means it's not good for you, Grimace is collecting victims... It's just funny." 

Is the Grimace shake actually dangerous?

No, the shake itself is not dangerous. While the trend is dark, it's a parody.

In:
• McDonalds

Christopher Brito

Christopher Brito is a social media manager and trending content writer for CBS News.