The Grinch is a character created by children’s author and cartoonist Dr. Seuss. He is best known as the main character of the 1957 children’s book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Grinch is depicted as a green, furry, pot-bellied, pear-shaped, snub-nosed humanoid creature with a cat-like face and cynical personality. In full-color adaptations, he is typically colored green. He has spent the past 53 years living in seclusion on a cliff overlooking the town of Whoville.
Family: Max (pet dog/best friend)
Spouse: Martha May Whovier
History: The Grinch, in his best known incarnation, made his book debut in the 1957 story How the Grinch Stole Christmas, written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss, published as both a Random House book and in an issue of Redbook magazine. In 1966, the story was adapted into an animated television featurette of the same name, which was directed by Chuck Jones and included the song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”. Boris Karloff serves as both the story’s narrator and the voice of the Grinch, but the song was sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, as Karloff could not sing.[8] The Grinch’s green color debuted in the television special as a consensus choice among Jones and Seuss, who agreed green was the only choice that made sense. In 1977, Seuss responded to the fan request for more Grinch tales by writing Halloween Is Grinch Night. The Grinch is voiced by Hans Conried. This was followed in 1982, when Marvel green-lit The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat, a TV film co-starring the Cat in the Hat. The Grinch is voiced by Bob Holt. The special was produced by Dr. Seuss (though under his real name, Ted Geisel). Although not as successful as the original, the two films both received Emmy Awards. A 2000 live-action feature musical comedy film based on the story, directed by Ron Howard and starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch, was a major success at the box office. A video game based on the film, simply entitled The Grinch, was released on several consoles and PC in the same year. It was followed in 2007 by the release of the Nintendo DS title Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The Grinch was portrayed on the stage when the story was turned into a 1994 musical by the Children’s Theater Company out of Minneapolis. The show made it to Broadway by way of a limited run in 2006. Icelandic actor Stefán Karl Stefánsson portrayed the Grinch in the touring production of the musical from 2008 to 2015. The Grinch is also a minor character in the 2000 musical Seussical, which is based on multiple Seuss works.
The Grinch’s story was adapted for a 2018 animated film by Illumination Entertainment, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the title character.
On Wednesday, December 9, 2020, NBC aired the holiday live production, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical Live! based on the Broadway stage musical. Booboo Stewart plays young Max, Amelia Minto plays Cindy Lou Who, Denis O’Hare plays old Max and Matthew Morrison stars as the Grinch. The musical includes songs from the original musical, such as “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”. In 2022, XYZ Films produced a horror film interpretation, starring David Howard Thornton as the “Mean One”, a spoof of the Grinch character. In this adaption, the titled character became a literal monster that will kill anyone who celebrates Christmas, this leads to a adult Cindy (who had met the Mean One a long time ago and witnessed him killing her mother) to try to stop his reign of terror and bringing the holiday spirit back to Newville.
In popular culture: The Grinch has become an anti-icon of Christmas and the winter holidays, as a symbol of those who despise the holiday, much in the same nature as the earlier character of Ebenezer Scrooge. Over the years, the Grinch has appeared on various forms of memorabilia such as Christmas ornaments, plush dolls, and various clothing items. The grumpy, anti-holiday spirit of the character has led to the everyday term “Grinch” coming to refer to a person opposed to Christmas time celebrations or to someone with a coarse, greedy attitude. In 2002, TV Guide ranked The Grinch number 5 on its “50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time” list.
He also made a brief appearance on the television in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
The Grumple, from The Simpsons, is a green monster who is an obvious parody of the Grinch.
In The Fairly OddParents episode, “Merry Wishmas”, Timmy Turner, Santa Claus, and the elves watch in the television “How the Grump Stole Wishmas”, a parody of the Grinch.
In the season 19 Christmas special of American Dad!, Roger turns into a Grinch-esque monster due to observing 1 year straight of celibacy and proceeds to steal the coital paraphernalia at a sex party. During his thieving rampage, a parody of You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch plays acknowledging that this plotline is in fact, a parody and more.
