In my big age, 22 years after the release of Ron Howard’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas live-action film take on the Dr. Seuss classic, I finally caught a detail that unlocked the whole film for me. Sure, I knew the horniness between Jim Carrey’s Grinch and Christine Baranski as Martha May Whovier is one for the ages — a chemistry that could have put the movie over the top if not for Howard’s sincere depiction of it. But no, it’s a quick moment that for one reason or another I overlooked in the Universal Pictures family movie: the fishbowl with keys at the window. That’s right — when Grinch Baby gets stuck on a tree branch on his mother’s home, he’s left out in the cold to gaze upon a Whoville swingers party.
Sure at first watch, during childhood this is just like “wow, he’s left outside while they have a Christmas party” but no, the Who’s are high on some sort of Who-Hash while riding each other like ponies filled with concupiscent cheer. And this is the look on Baby Grinch’s face while it goes down:
It’s wild that this fantasy world obsessed with their holiday feasts filled with who-pudding drew the line at accepting the different looking green furry child. As youths Martha and the Grinch definitely had a forbidden awakening about one another that for the bully and future mayor was enough to ostracize him out of society to have Martha for himself. But that crush only simmers within Whovier, who reminisces lustfully about the young Grinch’s chaotic nature and strength to Cindy Lou Who (the film’s child protagonist who wants to reintegrate the him into Who society). She’s literally thinking about him aloud when she delivers “the muscles!” in the horniest way possible.
The woman is addicted to materialism because she can’t have the Grinch. And the Grinch is outcast so he won’t take the girl the mayor gaslights to be him away. The Grinch even still harbours his attraction despite saying, before accepting the invite “She’ll be on me like flies on a flugalhorse. Sorry Martha Baby, the G-Train has already left the station.” but has it? After everything that goes down, you know he still harbours feelings for Martha even when invited to the who-billation. The tension they exude at one another when he appears to accept his invitation to the Whobillation, is thick.
At one point, when she faints from sheer desire for the Big Green Mean One. Waking up to say “Oh, wow.” For real that’s some heavy comedic forbidden lust played up expertly by Carrey and Baranski that’s barely restrained by the grace of Ron Howard. I mean this movie is still preferred to the 2018 animated bore for * a reason *.
Anyways, can we also talk about Martha’s fits? The sheer weight she carries while she bodies those Christmas looks also carries the movie as an all-timer.
It’s a whole other movie as an adult beyond the Dr. Seuss story adaptation you remember as a kid. Make no mistake: those two want to fuck. Truly, the fishbowl being the first thing Grinch baby sees, sets him up to desire Martha May as he enters adulthood.
And yes, the true meaning of Christmas being something that can’t be bought in a store is the core of what gets the Grinch to come around but come on…Martha May Whovier is also right there. His heart growing three sizes that day, is a helpful gift her for her later.
Merry Grinchmas!