Ronald McDonald
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 One of the many images of Ronald McDonald |
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Ronald McDonald, better known as the Penis Clown, is the beloved mascot of the McDonald's restaurant franchise and one of the original Barney Bunch characters to be comprised of the "Founding Four", alongside Drew Pickles, Barney, and his brother Dick the Clown, having been used since the Newgrounds era.
History edit
In 1963, the McDonald's corporation introduced Ronald McDonald as their new official mascot, retiring their old mascot Speedee. Willard Scott, who was well known for playing Bozo the Clown, was chosen to be the first person to portray Ronald, and 3 commercials were made and broadcasted on local stations in the US. His first appearances gave Ronald the moniker "Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown". The very first design of Ronald was very different from the present day design, as he had a fully striped suit, a container on his head and waist, and had a cup on his nose.
In 1965, he was given a redesign with his iconic yellow jumpsuit, and it would last for more than 40 years (with small changes with his suit here and there). Later in 2014, he was given another redesign, this time with yellow cargo pants, a vest and a red-and-white striped rugby shirt.
Ronald would appear in a large percentage of McDonald's commercials throughout the 70s, especially when the McDonaldland commercial campaign was released in 1971. This featured a wide variety of characters including Birdie the Early Bird, Grimace, Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, the Fry Kids, and many more characters. In 1973, Sid & Marty Kroft sued McDonald's claiming that McDonaldland plagiarized the premise of their show H.R. Pufnstuf, and this caused McDonald's to phase out some characters in McDonaldland. The McDonaldland universe would continue to be used in commercials until 2003.
In 1998, he would get an animated series titled "The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald", which was animated at Klasky-Csupo, the same company known for shows like Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys. The series would last 6 episodes before ending.
Between 2004 and 2007, a series of commercials known as "ドナルドのうわさ" (Romaji: Donald no uwasa, English: Donald's Rumor's) was released in Japan. These commercials, along with the "Ran Ran Ruu" quote, would become a popular meme online as users would remix the commercials to a song (Example: "U.N. Owen was Her?" from Touhou Koumakyou ~ The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil) by pitch shifting some sounds from the commercials.
In 2005, during the Newgrounds era, he would find his way into the Barney Bunch, and was made a staple character of the group, remaining very popular within the Speakonia Community to this day.
Description and Personality edit
Ronald McDonald is an insane fast food clown who was a part of the Barney Bunch since it was first formed. He is often referred to as the "Penis Clown", though the origin of said name remains a mystery. He and his brother, Dick the Clown, left their abusive home in the circus and became good friends and butt buddies with Drew Pickles and Barney. Ronald can provide the Bunch with his trademark poopy cummy cheeseburgers, and he is also one of the founders of the band Insane Ass Clowns (Parody of “The Insane Clown Posse”), along with Dick and Penis Bread the Clown. In later videos, he sometimes says "Ran Ran Ruu!", a common quote said in some mid 2000s McDonalds commercials in Japan, which in turn became a popular meme where Ronald would sing and dance to various songs remixed, starting with UN Owen Was Her? from the popular Touhou games.
Ronald's voice by default has been Adult Male #1 since roughly the early days of the community on YouTube, but later videos have switched this by having him voiced by Microsoft Mike.
Trivia edit
- In some older videos Ronald McDonald and Dick the Clown also have an lesbian sister (Either the Female Ronald McDonald from the Japanese McDonald's commercials or Lumi the Clown, the Betty Bunch's equivalent to Ronald McDoanld) but those concepts are likely forgotten.