Gritty on Thursday made an appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy FallonFLYERS
It took new Flyers mascot Gritty about 36 hours to "surpass every other NHL mascot in Twitter followers," according to Kevin Durso of SPORTSTALKPHILLY.com. By the end of its first week, Gritty had "over 100,000 followers on Twitter and 48,000 followers on Instagram." Big things are "supposedly in the works for the home opener" Oct. 9, where Gritty is "sure to play a big part in the fanfare." Gritty's first week has "been an eventful one, winning over the fans of Philadelphia and traveling quite a bit." Gritty made an appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon, and closed the week by "going to the Phillies game and meeting the Phanatic on Saturday" (SPORTSTALKPHILLY.com, 10/1).
WE ARE ALL GRITNESSES: HBO's John Oliver said Gritty is "clearly the most fun story of the week." Oliver said Gritty is "horrific," and every single photo of him is "appalling." Oliver: "Gritty looks like the end result of the orange McDonald's fry guy hooking up with Grimace." Oliver's show then "aired footage of Gritty repeatedly slipping and falling on the ice," which elicited a "lol" tweet from the Penguins. Gritty "responded to the Penguins tweet with, 'Sleep with one eye open tonight, bird.'" Oliver said, "They're just engaging in some inter-team banter and you've gone straight to, 'I will murder you in your sleep.'" Oliver also noted Gritty has "already done a Kim Kardashian-style photo shoot," and someone has "already got an actual tattoo of him on their body" ("Last Week Tonight With John Oliver," HBO, 9/30). THE MMQB's Albert Breer in his weekly column wrote about Gritty for its "general awesomeness." Breer: "I don't know why they needed him, or where the idea came from, but somehow it was a total home run" (SI.com, 9/30). In Philadelphia, EJ Smith wrote "SNL" also "didn't pull any punches" while talking about Gritty in its "Weekend Update" segment. Colin Jost "had some fun at the expense of the polarizing new Philadelphia figure." It is "safe to assume Gritty has developed a thick skin, at the very least" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 9/30). ESPN's Elle Duncan said of Gritty, "Listen, it's September and we're talking about the NHL and, in particular, the Flyers, so I feel like they won. That's all you want, for stuff like this to go viral" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 9/29).
