Gritty, the furry, bright-orange, seven-foot-tall, and perpetually wide-eyed viral sensation who resembles a love-child of McDonald’s Grimace and Zoe the Muppet, debuted this September. The Flyers’ first mascot in more than 40 years quickly became a meme and, of all things, a vessel for leftist, pro-union, ANTIFA-approved messages.

In response to my tweet applauding Artforum for breaking with tradition to offer an example of “art pubs taking themselves a bit less seriously,” the magazine’s senior editor, Lloyd Wise, shot back: “who said we're not taking ourselves seriously?” before adding that the issue contains a “related essay.”