The tale of the Grinch is well known for families at Christmas time, with many dressing up as the grumpy Dr Seuss character for festive events and parties. Green and furry, the Grinch despises all things Christmas related and tries to ruin the big day for the 'whos' who live in Whoville.
Although there have been many adaptations of the Grinch over the years, the iconic character looks the same in each iteration - and importantly looks totally different to the 'whos'. They have no fur and no green skin and bully him for being different, which results in The Grinch's exile to the top of Mt Crumpit.
Now, one TikTok user has a theory about why the Grinch looks different and how he ended up in this version of Whoville, which exists in a snowflake.
What do you think about the fan theory? Let us know in the comments...
TikTok user @Bettyhasanxiety said: "My theory is that somewhere in this Horton Hears A Who land there's a snowy place, all right? And obviously, the spec can travel - specs can travel, hence the one in the snowflake. And the fact that the Grinch was in like a floating basket.
"So somehow, with this big gust of wind, the Grinch got knocked off of his little flower speck and out of it and somehow landed on a floating snowflake."
At the start of the 2000 adaptation How The Grinch Stole Christmas, the narrator tells viewers: "Inside a snowflake, like the one on your sleeve, there happened a story you must see to believe."
Since the snowflake holds a self-contained world, inside the bigger world we know from Dr Seuss's Horton Hears A Who that would mean the Grinch, in his baby basket, would have to travel from his speck and through the barriers of both worlds into the snowflake.
In the original book for Horton Hears A Who, there is a scientist who studies the sky and is trying to prove that the 'whos' live on a speck. This character was split into two for the 2008 film but he can be seen poking his observatory telescope out of the top of their world in early renditions.
"So we know that they can get through the barrier," added Betty. "So he gets knocked off his flower speck and sent straight into here where he runs into another baby and knocks him off course."
She then compares pictures of the animated 2018 version of the Grinch with the Whos from the 2008 Horton Hears A Who. The TikToker explained: "Now you cannot tell me that this [Grinch] with the stripes, the thing on the top of his head, his fingertips. He literally looks like these, feet and all from head to toe."
The most striking resemblance is to the council, who are all green, which Betty says could have been his "long lost uncle or distant relative".
In a follow-up video, she shows footage that "proves" there are Grinches living on the flower speck with footage from the original Horton Hears A Who. A clearly Grinch-like 'who' can be seen singing along with other Whos in the short clip, meaning he is clearly part of the flower-speck town.
"No wonder he was grumpy, he's supposed to be from a flower and he's living on a snowflake," Betty concludes in her original video before adding: "But at the end of the day, I still want to know what happened to that baby that he knocked off course. The world may never know."
Commenters agreed with Betty, saying the theory "makes total sense" and that a film should be made about the lost baby. One user joked: "Forget the MCU multiverse, I subscribe to the Whoniverse theory."
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