No cows. No farmers. ONLY GRITTY.

January 2, 2020 5:57 PM

“There were skeptics who didn’t think that Butter Gritty would ever come,” said Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. “Today is triumphant for any number of reasons.” Behold Gritty, Philadelphia Flyers mascot, beloved meme, and now the Big Yellow Star of the Commonwealth's largest agricultural event: Butter Gritty (and friends) take the PA Farm Show, or how a Twitter joke by a government official got real.

This year's butter sculpture is...a departure from tradition (2019, 2018) and was pitched to Redding by Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. “Gritty's so cool that he may not even acknowledge it,” Fetterman said. “He might be so subversive [that] he may not recognize what a tribute being rendered in pure Pennsylvania butter is.” Gritty and the other two mascots will chill in a glass-walled refrigerated case for the duration of the Farm Show, and will then be moved to a farm in another county, where they will be converted into renewable energy.

posted by MonkeyToes (9 comments total)

MetaFilter: "Gritty ... will be converted into renewable energy."
posted by hippybear at 6:34 PM on January 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

This is all very a product of the now. An unavoidable consequence of many other tiny decisions stacking up over time which itself will influence thousands of other events which will each influence thousands of other events long after what Gritty was and someone duplicated it in butter are forgotten.
posted by bleep at 6:46 PM on January 2, 2020

It makes total sense that life-sized butter sculptures are a relatively thin layer of butter on a wire armature, but I'd like to imagine that a core sample of Butter Gritty would return nothing but Land o' Lakes' finest (not suitable for human consumption) butter. That video has stolen my dreams from me.
posted by mumkin at 6:49 PM on January 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

imma let you finish, greasy gritty, but best butter sculpture comment of all time, from the dailybeast (RIP's) "Most loathsome people of 2010" is:

Haley Barbour: Looks like William Shatner if William Shatner ate a racist butter sculpture of William Shatner.
posted by lalochezia at 6:53 PM on January 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

The Phillie Phanatic should be there instead of Steely McBeam, but I guess they had to throw one in from the lesser side of the state. IceBurgh or Captain Jolly Roger would have been better token representation for Pittsburgh. Most yinzers I know DGAF about Steely or actively hate him.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:07 PM on January 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Phillie Phanatic should be there instead of Steely McBeam

They wanted a mascot from a team that's won more than 2 championships.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 7:40 PM on January 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Gritty ... will be converted into renewable energy.

Unless reborn in the buttery ritual of Carrousel.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:25 PM on January 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

Fetterman's Twitter feed is one of my favorite things on that site these days. A lot of good natured goofing around and then a lot of serious stuff on prison/parole reform and marijuana legalization.
posted by octothorpe at 4:39 AM on January 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

i lived in philly for 12 years. it was a very angry city. gritty seems to be a positive presence in the city, and i think it's great. and his insta feed makes me happy.

(please do not @ me with comments about how great philly is. i know. i just had a not great time there.)
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:23 PM on January 3, 2020