Ronald McDonald balloon partially deflates at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
He wasn’t lovin’ it.
A limp Ronald McDonald balloon was dragged from the Thanksgiving Day parade Thursday after it was allowed to fly despite a 3-inch gash in his leg that only grew larger as gusts kicked up.
Volunteer workers manning the 67-foot tall burger-touting clown told The Post they noticed the rip moments before taking off down the Manhattan route — and it only got worse as the march went on.
“Right out of the gate the left leg had a rip in it,” said Franki Primeggia, 23, who was situated under Ronald’s left arm, for her first year volunteering at the event.
The dozens of handlers were near the route’s start at West 77th Street and Central Park West at the time.
Officials this year announced less than an hour before the start time that the balloons could fly — just low to the ground, because of strong gusts.
When handlers got the green light, “we got underneath the balloon, we all took a rope, they unnetted the balloon … and they saw it,” Primeggia said of the tear.
Richard Buran, 39, who was handling the right leg, said a gust of strong wind pushed the inflatable toward a tree branch near the Museum of Natural History, “and when it came back I was able to see the leg deflating.”
“Everybody saw it,” Buran said. “It was obvious that it happened.”
According to Primeggia, two Macy’s employees conducting last-minute float checks noticed the rip, “but they couldn’t find tape” to patch up the pitchman.
The tear was so small that it did not alarm anyone, according to the handlers — and within seconds, the parade stepped off.
“The hole was 3 inches diameter, but they didn’t tape it or anything,” said Primeggia, and the workers “didn’t make a big deal out of being unable to tape it.”
“They said they were just going to float it.”
But the rip only grew when the wind picked up near Columbus Circle, she said.
“There were a couple big gusts of wind … Some people were freaking out and scattered,” Primeggia said of her fellow wranglers.
In a panicked attempt to keep control of the float, workers desperately pulled on the ropes that were tethered to it, which Primeggia believed contributed to the widening rip.
At one point during NBC’s parade broadcast “TODAY” host Hoda Kotb announced that Ronald had a rip — and the network switched to pre-recorded footage from a past parade.
Buran, who was working his seventh parade as a balloon handler, said he’d noticed the foot looking saggy from the get-go but “the whole leg eventually deflated, and then it was just this big piece of fabric.”
At least three of the handlers held up the flabby foot and leg until — about 10 blocks from the finish line at Macy’s flagship store, the balloon was taken out of commission.
“Everyone was a little bummed out … you want to make it down to Macy’s,” said Buran.
McDonald’s said “the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade remains an iconic tradition that McDonald’s is proud to be a part of for more than 20 years.”
Thursday’s balloon, which has flown for the last five years, was still safe and technically OK to fly — but was pulled for aesthetic reasons, a Macy’s spokesperson said.
“Some of the balloons suffered stress and tears during the overnight inflation which resulted in the Ronald McDonald giant balloon being pulled midway through the Parade,” Macy’s spokesman Orlando Veras said in a statement.
Workers will repair the tear and refurbish the balloon so it can fly again next year, the company said.
Mayor McCheese did not respond to a request for comment.