How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

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This article is about the Dr. Seuss book. For the 1966 animated special, see How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special). For the feature film, see How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (film)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Author Dr. Seuss
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Children's literature
Publisher Random House
Publication date 1957
Media type Print (Hardcover)
OCLC 178325
Preceded by If I Ran the Circus
Followed by The Cat in the Hat

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is one of the best-known children's books by Dr. Seuss. It is written in rhymed verse, with illustrations by the author. It showcases the famous character, The Grinch, and has been adapted to other media, also discussed below.

Seuss completed How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in 1957.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The Grinch, a bitter, cave-dwelling creature with a heart "two sizes too small," lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a steep, 3,000 foot high mountain just north of Whoville, home of the merry and warm-hearted Whos. His only companion is Max, his faithful dog. From his perch high atop Mount Crumpit, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville. (The Whos of this book may or may not be the minuscule Whos of Horton Hears a Who; In the Broadway musical Seussical, the Grinch's Whos and Horton's are one and the same, the Grinch being microscopic and living on the dust speck as well. In the live-action movie, Whoville is located in a snowflake.) Envious of the Whos' happiness, he makes plans to descend on the town and, by means of burglary, deprive them of their Christmas presents and decorations and thus "prevent Christmas from coming". However, he learns in the end that despite his success in stealing all the Christmas presents and decorations from the Whos, Christmas comes just the same. He then realizes that Christmas is more than just gifts and presents. His heart grows three sizes larger, he returns all the presents and trimmings, and is warmly welcomed into the community of the Whos.


[edit] The Grinch in popular culture

[edit] Parodies

A group of children reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
A group of children reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
  • Humorist Bill Maher presented How the Grinch Stole the Election in November 2000.
  • In 1999 the Grinch made a cameo in the Family Guy episode- "A Hero Sits Next Door", wherein Joe recounts (in flashback) being paralysed as a result of a rooftop battle with the creature.
  • In the mmorpg Guild Wars, players can, during the celebration of Wintersday, accept the quests You're a Mean One, Mr. Grenth, or steal presents from the "Grentches" running around in town in order to destroy them.
  • The comic strip FoxTrot has featured several references to How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Most notably, in a series of strips during the 1999 holiday season, Jason imagines his mother Andy as "Mrs. Grinch" because of her reluctance to buy her children big-ticket, expensive Christmas gifts. "Mrs. Grinch" replaces "fun" Christmas presents such as jet skis, bicycles, and video games with "wholesome" and "sensible" gifts such as tofu, granola bars, and socks.
  • In the role-playing game World of Warcraft, players can complete a quest in which a yeti-like monster, the Greench, has stolen food from one of the leading holiday suppliers; players must defeat the Greench to reclaim the supplies and get the food for themselves.
  • The Grinch has been seen in the South Park episode "Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!" where he appears as The Grinchiepoo, he, along with most other characters and the roast beast, are changed to include the word "poo" in their names (i.e. "Cindy Lou Poo" and the "roast poo."
  • In a 2000 episode of Spin City entitled, "Toy Story", Stuart quotes the Grinch to a girl who discovers them digging through presents at an orphanage.
  • The Grinch has often been parodied by The Simpsons. The animated special is briefly parodied in the 1993 episode "Last Exit to Springfield": After shutting down the power plant during a strike, Mr. Burns hears the picketing employees singing down below, cups his hand to his ear in a fashion similar to the Grinch, and recites a snippet of Seuss-like rhyming verse. Also, in the 2003 episode "'Tis the Fifteenth Season", Homer breaks into everyone's homes and steals the gifts given by Ned Flanders, while singing to himself to the tune of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". Then throughout the 2006 episode "Kill Gil: Vols. 1 & 2", a direct parody known as "The Grumple" appears numerous times.
  • A Christmas cartoon short on Nickelodeon titled "How Grinchelica Stole Christmas" featured narration by Tim Curry and had Angelica from Rugrats play the role of The Grinch, Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants as Cindy Lou, and her cat Fluffy in the place of Max the Dog. Angelica was known as Grinchelica and it was said her stomach became 300 times bigger than usual and it was shown in the same way Grinch's heart was shown.
  • In a Christmas episode of That '70s Show, Red Forman is annoyed at Bob Pinciotti's huge display of Christmas lights, and steals them while Bob isn't home. In the background as Red attempts to sneak away with a heap of lights, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" can be heard sung in the background. When Kitty finds out what he did, she was upset at marrying Mr. Grinch. Later, Red reveals that he threw Bob's lights in the dumpster behind the Fatso Burger.
  • In Living Color has a cold opening sketch where the Reverend Jesse Jackson (played by Keenen Ivory Wayans) promotes Dr. Seuss books for poor black children, one of which is "How the Grinch Stole My Stereo" (mistakenly said by Ivory Wayans as "The Grinch Who Stole My Stereo")
  • On the Christmas episode of Titus called "Houseboat," Titus reads a parody of "The Grinch" called "The Kenge" based on the heinous acts of revenge his father inflicted on him (such as urinating in the gas tank of Titus's car after catching him smoking weed, stuffing his clothes in a garbage disposable for leaving the front door open, and taking a chainsaw to Titus's bed as he sleeps).
  • A writer named Rob Suggs wrote a parody of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" called "The Binch" in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. Some erroneously believed that it was an effort to explain the attacks to children, but this was proven to be nothing more than an internet rumor.[1]
  • In the Kim Possible episode "A Very Possible Christmas", Dr. Drakken blurts out the same Seuss-like nonsense words to describe the Christmas gifts others are getting. Shego makes him stop, though.
  • In the Lizzie McGuire episode "Xtreme Xmas", Lizzie blurts out similar Seuss-like nonsense words to describe the rest of her families efforts to fix the plumbing in a nursing home attended by an eccentric old man who may or may not be one of Santa's elves.
  • In one comic strip of The Boondocks, Riley Freeman, who is trying to get a Playstation 2 from his grandfather, tries to buy the Grinch online, believing it to be an instructional guide to holiday theft.

[edit] Publication data

  • Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel). How the Grinch Stole Christmas! New York: Random House, 1957, ISBN 0-394-80079-6
  • Dr. Seuss. Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit: How the Grinch Stole Christmas in Latin. Translated by Jennifer Morrish Tunberg with the assistance of Terence O. Tunberg. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1997, ISBN 0-86516-419-3

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Binch (Urban Legends Reference Page)

[edit] External links