--- title: The Philadelphia Flyers Mascot Was Destined to Be a Meme description: The new mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team is a furry orange character with googly eyes, and the internet has questions. canonical: https://time.com/5405221/gritty-mascot/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-24T21:28:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:03.057Z og:title: The Internet Can't Get Over This Wacky New Hockey Mascot og:description: The Philadelphia Flyers have anew mascot destined for instant meme status og:url: https://time.com/5405221/gritty-mascot/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Can't Get Over This Wacky New Hockey Mascot twitter:description: The Philadelphia Flyers have anew mascot destined for instant meme status twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Internet Can't Get Over This Wacky New Orange Hockey Mascot  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 24, 2018 9:28 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 24, 2018 9:28 PM UTC [Philadelphia Flyers](http://time.com/money/4531292/richest-hockey-stars-nhl/item/claude-giroux-philadelphia-flyers/) fans were in for a bit of a shock today: the Pennsylvania hockey team unveiled their new official mascot to the public. His name is Gritty. He looks like a rejected [Muppet](http://time.com/4706631/sesame-street-julia-autism-diversity/) creation, a _Where the Wild Things Are_ misfit or a stuffed animal gone seriously, terrifyingly rogue. He’s a bright orange, furry creature of bizarre design. But don’t take our word for it. The [Flyers website provides](https://www.nhl.com/flyers/fans/gritty) their own background to the character: --- > “” --- They also note that he is “feisty” and a “fierce competitor, known for his agility given his size.” Hopefully the extremely googly eyes on this mascot’s suit don’t get in the way of that aforementioned “agility.” > [](https://twitter.com/GrittyNHL/status/1044244470806523905) As anyone might have predicted, fans and casual onlookers alike can’t quite get over this strange new addition to the world of mascots. If the Flyers public relations team was going for instant meme status for their new guy, well, that’s exactly what they got. > [](https://twitter.com/matt%5Fmullin/status/1044254743391023104) > [](https://twitter.com/akief27/status/1044289122318331904) > [](https://twitter.com/HLLivingLoco/status/1044247800626728960) > [](https://twitter.com/ryanwhitney6/status/1044252386125139968) > [](https://twitter.com/DownGoesBrown/status/1044250042557771776) > [](https://twitter.com/GrittyNHL/status/1044258341017587713) > [](https://twitter.com/LOLejandro/status/1044284701605855232) > [](https://twitter.com/djREEDSTREETS/status/1044288966755848192) > [](https://twitter.com/SoloSportsComms/status/1044256493263081473) Of course, Gritty may be the topic du jour in the world of mascots this week, but he will always have fierce competition. > [](https://twitter.com/JamesTylerESPN/status/1044270960927526912) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5405221/gritty-mascot/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5405221/gritty-mascot/"},"headline":"The Internet Can't Get Over This Wacky New Orange Hockey Mascot","datePublished":"2018-09-24T21:28:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:03.057Z","description":"Introducing \"Gritty\"","url":"https://time.com/5405221/gritty-mascot/","keywords":["Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5405221/gritty-mascot/","name":"The Internet Can't Get Over This Wacky New Orange Hockey Mascot"}}]}] ```