Mayor McCheese

Mayor McCheese is the mayor of the land of McDonaldland, created for an advertising narrative for the McDonald's fast food chain. He has an enormous cheeseburger for a head, and sports a top hat, a diplomat's sash, and a pair of pince-nez spectacles. He is portrayed as a giggly, bumbling, somewhat incompetent mayor with a wavering, high-pitched voice that is reminiscent to that of comic actor Ed Wynn. His Chief of Police is Officer Big Mac. In 1973, courts sided with Sid and Marty Krofft that McCheese bore too close a resemblance to H.R. Pufnstuf, and that many other McDonaldland residents were plagiarized as well. McDonald's was forced to pay a settlement, and as a result, the character was eliminated from the advertising campaign. Since then, Mayor McCheese has largely been phased out of the McDonaldland canon, though he remains a popular '70s pop culture icon.

Despite being phased out, Mayor McCheese continued to be seen on McDonald's tray liners (doubling as activity pages for children) and some Happy Meal toys into the late 1980s.

As of 2005, one could see along the Chicago Skyway a billboard featuring Mayor McCheese welcoming motorists to Chicago. Suburban Oak Brook, Illinois is McDonald's Corporation's headquarters.

There has been a recent resurgence of Internet-based interest in the Mayor, resulting in several fictionalized histories of Mayor McCheese. Eyemarten.com is a humorous account of the Mayor's life, up to his "death," (although it refers erroneously to pictures of Officer Big Mac as the Mayor himself more than once). There is also a mock Petition demanding the Mayor's return to McDonald's commercials

Mayor McCheese in popular culture

In the late-1990s and 2000s, Mayor McCheese became a common subject in American comedy, such as Saturday Night Live and various other programs:

• On Late Night with Conan O'Brien, McCheese is a recurring character who is a prominent Scientologist (as a parody of the recent trend of celebrities joining the church, and of Tom Cruise in particular). The show has also featured Mayor McCheese as being afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome, muttering obscenities and other random phrases.
• Mayor McCheese was featured in an episode of Clerks: The Animated Series, where the mayor of the town (voiced by Al Franken) shows up at a press conference dressed as the character, claiming he was going to a costume party but got stuck in his costume. The Chief of Police is shown to be in a similar position later in the same episode.
• In an episode of Friends, Monica said she dreamed of marrying Mayor McCheese, then ate his head.
• The Mayor was mentioned in The Simpsons episode, "Bart Has Two Mommies", where the death of the Hamburglar was announced by Kent Brockman, and it was stated that he had been survived by his long-time companion, Mayor McCheese.
• In "Treehouse of Horror XVI", Mayor Quimby is dressed as the Mayor, and is turned into him by a witch.
• The Mayor was referenced by The Bloodhound Gang in their 1999 single Mope.
• The Mayor was referenced in Jim Gaffigan's Beyond the Pale comedy show as only taking "cheese checks."
• In the first episode of MTV's short-lived cartoon Undergrads, a curious character named Chief Justice Burger of Burgerland is shown in the episode; apparently a take on McDonald's Mayor McCheese.
• The Guardians collectible card game featured characters named "Mayor McEvil", "Mayor McFood", and "Mayor McGreed", all based to some extent on Mayor McCheese.
• On Roseanne, he was referenced back to when "he was City Councilman McCheese."
• In an episode of Married With Children, Al Bundy calls the police to report his car stolen. When the officer on the phone didn't take him seriously, he asks who the mayor is, and Al writes down "McCheese", whom Al claims he voted for.
• St. Louis, Missouri-based one man band Googolplexia has honored (or perhaps memorialized) Mayor McCheese in song.
• On an episode of Saturday Night Live, Adam Sandler had a monologue on Weekend Update and stated that if he were Mayor McCheese, his first order of business would be to sentence the Hamburglar to death.
• He is shown on a cup in Little Miss Sunshine.
• Leftover Salmon kept a stolen Mayor McCheese head as a popular prop for concerts. It has been stolen and returned many times. He is typically mentioned in the song "Pasta On The Mountain"
• In the video "Homer Simpson's Top Ten Reasons Why I, Homer Simpson, Should Be The Next President", Homer states that his vice president will be Mayor McCheese.

In the stop motion show Robot Chicken McCheese is apparantly running for mayor re-election with a reporter trying to confirm bizarre stories about McCheese's runins with hookers involving weird sexual matters.