Grimace: A study in “What the fuck are you?”

At a holiday party with my cousins on Saturday the McDonald Land characters were brought up. You know, Ronald McDonald, Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, and of course; Grimace.
Okay I get what the “creators” were trying to convey with each character. Ronald is fun and playful. You can practically hear marketing saying “Come on down and chow with this fun bastard”. The Hamburglar speaks to a child’s mischievous side. Mayor McCheese appeals to a child’s good nature and need for structure, and/or an authority figure.
Now give all that just what was Grimace? A purple spice drop come to life when struck by lightning in the lab of a mad scientist? And what kind of name is “Grimace” for a children’s character? I mean Oscar the Grouch I get. He’s supposed to be a douche. But whey “Grimace”? It’s a sad and sour face a person makes when unhappy. Why would they want to use that name and slow thinking fool to appeal to kids? Was it to get the special need kids to feel welcome? “Hey there’s one of us there too. I think I’ll put peanut butter in the VCR”.
Whatever it was the world may never know. My cousins and I guessed as to what he may be and the best guess that we could agree on came from my cousin Kate; a gelatinous retard. There you have it folks. Grimace is simply a gelatinous retard. Case closed.