Obituary

Gritty is the mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers — a seven-foot orange monster with googly eyes, a beard, and no discernible neck — and on September 24, 2018, he was introduced to the world and immediately became the most beloved chaotic force in sports. The internet adored him not despite his absurdity but because of it: he was a meme that the NHL could not control, appearing everywhere from marriage proposals to political rallies. He was adopted as an unofficial symbol of everything the internet loves — unhinged, unapologetic, impossible to explain. The meme died in 2020, when even Gritty couldn't out-chaos the news cycle. The mascot remains, forever orange, forever unbothered.

Portrait: U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Canada · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Born

September 24, 2018

Died

2020

Cause of death

Died of being too real for sports

Last sighting

A hockey arena, Philadelphia, 2020

Resting place

Section E, Row 12 — the orange plot

Category

person