The reasons for Grimace being designed as an inflamed taste bud would require someone with more expertise in Japanese culture than me to explain. But this is a fascinating research rabbit hole that you can go down if you like bizarre things & need a distraction from the daily horrors.
You didn’t ask why I was looking up Ronald McDonald fanfic but I’ll tell you anyway. During the dark days of the pandemic one of the things that gave me joy was thinking of the most bizarre things there could be sexy fanfic about and then going and reading all the fic descriptions for that on A03.
I was cured of this habit when it resulted in stumbling on a Jabba the Hutt & Millie Bobbie Brown fanfic which was obviously both so hilarious that I literally fell to the floor & rolled around laughing but also obviously problematic
Anyway if you all want to read about Grimace dick I assure you A03 has what you need. The one thing that surprised me is that you’d think there would be more fic focusing on the taste bud theme but usually it focuses more on Grimace having a fat ass. People are simple like that I guess… *smh*