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Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas is my favorite of all the Christmas classics. I love the poem and the
cartoon, and over the years I have noticed subtle differences between them. However, while the complete text of
the original poem is easily attainable, a transcript of the cartoon special is not.
So I watched the cartoon, with the text of the poem and verses from the songs on hand, in order to provide such
a transcript. I organized the poem into rhyming couplets for simplicity. (I also determined that, for the cartoon,
dozens of lines were modified, five lines were removed completely, and twenty or so were added.)
And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!
There's one thing I hate! All the NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! NOISE!
And they'll shriek squeaks and squeals, racing 'round on their wheels.
They'll dance with jingtinglers tied onto their heels.
They'll blow their floofloovers. They'll bang their tartookas.
They'll blow their whohoopers. They'll bang their gardookas.
They'll spin their trumtookas. They'll slam their slooslunkas.
They'll beat their blumbloopas. They'll wham their whowonkas.
And they'll play noisy games like zoozittacarzay,
A roller-skate type of lacrosse and croquet!
And then they'll make ear-splitting noises galooks
On their great big electro whocarnio flooks!
Then the Whos, young and old, will sit down to a feast.
And they'll feast! And they'll feast! And they'll FEAST! FEAST! FEAST! FEAST!
"And they'll sing! And they'll sing! And they'd SING! SING! SING! SING!"
And the more the Grinch thought of this Who Christmas Sing,
The more the Grinch thought, "I must stop this whole thing!
"I know just what to do!" The Grinch laughed in his throat.
"I'll make a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat."
Did that stop the Grinch? Hah! The Grinch simply said,
"If I can't find a reindeer, I'll make one instead!"
Then the Grinch said "Giddyap!" and the sleigh started down
Toward the homes where the Whos lay a-snooze in their town.
But, you know, that old Grinch was so smart and so slick,
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick!
And his fib fooled the child. Then he patted her head,
And he got her a drink, and he sent her to bed.
And the Grinch, with his grinch feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling. "How could it be so?
Trivia Tidbits:
The song "Fahoo Forays" references the last name of the voice actress for Cindy-Lou Who, June Foray.
The thread used to tie the horn to Max's head is red in the poem, black in the cartoon.
In the original poem, the Grinch lives 3,000 feet up Mount Crumpet. In the cartoon, it's 10,000 feet.
Several real-life toy items mentioned in the original poem are replaced by made-up toys in the cartoon.
Thurl Ravenscroft was accidentally uncredited for his singing. Dr. Seuss tried to correct this by sending letters to
newspapers across America. Ravenscroft was also the voice of Tony the Tiger.
Meanwhile, Boris Karloff - who did NOT sing the song - won a grammy for his narration of the cartoon when it
was released as an LP in 1967.
The illustrated Grinch in the poem was black and white with touches of pink, like every other illustration. Director
Chuck Jones (who produced and directed countless Warner Brothers cartoons starring Bugs Bunny and his pals)
decided that the cartoon Grinch should be green.