For The Last Thirty Years, One Balloon Character Has Dominated The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade might just be America's weirdest annual television broadcast. It's undeniably wholesome yet nakedly defined by corporate interests. Set aside the pop-culture characters and big-name musicians and all you're left with is people pretending to care about marching bands and musical theater. The parade is arguably at its best when it tries and fails to capitalize on trends, like when a Cartoon Network program Rickrolled the country, or when Mr. Peanut did an awkward dab. The entire parade is like the bit on "The Today Show" where Smuckers Jam wishes people over 100-years-old a happy birthday, but stretched to three delirious hours.
Perhaps that's being a little hard on the parade, no? It's fun, loads of people like it, and for goodness' sake Snoopy always puts in an iconic appearance, right? What's more pure and good-natured than America's favorite beagle taking the spotlight?
Well, prepare yourselves. The modern era of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades undeniably starts in 1987, since that's when the legendary Willard Scott took over hosting duties. After tallying all the character balloon appearances over the last thirty years, a hard truth came to light. Snoopy doesn't lead the modern parade in balloon appearances:
That's right, Ronald McDonald — a creepy, burger-slinging clown — has been in the parade more consistently than any other balloon character over the last thirty years.
[2018 update: Ronald has increased his overall count by one, while Snoopy sat the parade out. Charlie Brown appeared instead.]
As I realized while digging through the meticulously-kept archives at the parade's Wiki,1 there were a few years where instead of a Snoopy balloon, "Peanuts" was represented by Charlie Brown and the elusive football. It's all fine and good for Charlie to get his own balloon, but in doing so Charlie let the McDonald's Corporation steal the limelight.2 Few characters have had their balloon retired only to return with a brand new one the next year, but Ronald's done it twice (the clown's had four variations total: Ronald with Balloons, "Traditional" Ronald, Ice Skating Ronald and the seemingly redundant Circus Ronald).
Maybe you're not shocked that America's biggest fast-food chain has had a steady presence in the country's biggest annual parade, just like I'm not surprised that Pikachu (17 appearances) easily trounced the parade's first video game character, Sonic the Hedgehog (a measly 8). If you dig a little deeper, however, you'll start to fill in a different, more sinister picture of the burger clown's reign.
Ronald McDonald's first appearance in the parade as a balloon came in 1987, the same year Willard Scott took over hosting duties. What famous mascot is Willard Scott famous for originating on television? Ronald McDonald.
So, maybe the Macy's Parade isn't as pure and wholesome as I initially wanted to give it credit for.3 Still, it's better than if the parade decided to fly a balloon of the freaky "Burger King" over Manhattan every year. Like, a lot better.
For more parade facts, check out the Macy's Parade Wiki.
The site has a complete balloon line-up for each year, including notes on when balloons ripped or partially deflated during the parade. It happens a lot.
Snoopy still has the record for the most balloon appearances over the parade's entire history… for now.
I mean, this is the same parade where the Ask Jeeves butler appeared four times, edging out Shrek, Scooby Doo and the Finn+Jake balloon from "Adventure Time."
