For this bout on “Versus,” we have a little different curve in our match up. No, its not a death match! It’s more of a “who is the meanest and cruelest?” And we have two very green creatures, and no, it’s the not the Hulk! Not this time. Hiding in his trash can down by the street corner, we have Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street, and hiding in his cave looking down the citizens in Whosville, we present to you, the one and only Mr. Grinch from Dr. Seuss. We have a little bit of the history and information about each character. The challenge we present to you, is who is the meanest? We will let you decide. We have a poll at the end that we would like you to participate in. Also let us know why you choose that character.
Oscar the grouch
Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character on the television program “Sesame Street”. He has a green body (during the first season he was yellow and then orange), has no visible nose, and lives in a trash can. His favorite thing in life is trash, as evidenced by the song “I Love Trash”. A running theme is his compulsive hoarding of seemingly useless items. “The Grouch” aptly describes his misanthropic interaction with the other characters, but also refers to his species. His birthday, as noted by Sesame Workshop, is on June 1. The character is performed by Caroll Spinney, and has been performed by him since the show’s first episode.
Initially, the Muppet characters on “Sesame Street” would not actually appear on Sesame Street itself, but be relegated to the intermediary segments. Muppets creator Jim Henson wanted them to be integrated into the series, suggesting a giant bird and creature living in the neighborhood’s trash can. The character was developed by Sesame Street head writer Jon Stone and Henson, based on the personality of a “magnificently rude” waiter. Based on the character outline, puppeteer Caroll Spinney was inspired by the voice of a New York City taxi driver, hailed when going to the production studio; when he first got in, the driver asked him “Where to, Mac?” and spoke with Spinney about the mayor of New York at the time (Republican John Lindsay).
His name’s source is of some debate. Most sources suggest it’s derived from the name of the aforementioned restaurant, Oscar’s Tavern. In recent years, however, the family of Canadian folk musician Oscar Brand has suggested he was the namesake. Brand was an early board member for the show’s non-profit production company, Children’s Television Workshop. The claim has been made in an interview with the CBC around the time of Brand’s 90th birthday, and by his son in the interview segment of Jeopardy. Named “Oscar the Grouch”, writers would eventually add other Grouches, an entire species explored in the film The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland and various television episodes.
The initial puppet, built by staff builder John Lovelady, was yellow, but since there was already a very large yellow character named Big Bird (also puppeteered by Spinney) they decided to change Oscar to orange. He was orange for only the first season of Sesame Street and then changed to green which would prove to be his permanent color.
Big Bird is Spinney’s other lead character and is often described by Oscar as his friend during public appearances. He especially likes to prank him every morning by putting ketchup in his alarm clock. When Big Bird and Oscar are required in a scene together, Jim Martin often operates Oscar to a vocal track by Spinney so the latter can perform Big Bird. However, occasionally, Matt Vogel will instead operate the Big Bird puppet to a vocal track by Spinney, while he performs Oscar. During the first season of Sesame Street, the street set was arranged such that Spinney, who is right-handed, was forced to operate Oscar’s head with his left hand. A subsequent redesign of the set (and Oscar himself, as he was ripped apart by Jim Henson) allowed him to switch hands. In the first season of Sesame Street, Oscar was orange, and later became green in Season 2. This was due to his visit within the show to the Swamp Mushy Muddy.
According to Sesame Street’s Robert W. Morrow, Oscar was created to indirectly demonstrate racial and ethnic diversity. Since his manners and tastes were different from those of the other characters, his creators hoped to address social issues by using his differences as a metaphor for racial and ethnic differences. Some viewers, however, saw Oscar as a “surrogate for poor, urban Americans” during the show’s early seasons.
Oscar can also become mobile with the help of his friend Bruno the Trashman, who carries Oscar around in his trash can. Bruno is a full-body costume which allows Oscar’s puppeteer to manipulate Oscar while remaining hidden by the Bruno costume. (While Bruno was seen fairly regularly in Sesame Street’s early days, he hasn’t appeared on the show in over a decade.) Also, as seen in the Elmo’s World episode “Dance”, Oscar’s legs can protrude from the bottom of his trash can to allow him to walk around. Similarly, in Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978), Oscar is seen ice skating. For several seasons, Oscar was frequently shown with his friend and pet Slimey, an orange worm. On occasional episodes he has mentioned leaving Sesame Street to attend “the annual Grouch convention in Syracuse, New York”. Oscar openly admits that he does not like anything or anybody that is nice, except young human children (the only people that he can actually act nice to without facing ridicule from his fellow Grouches) as well as older fans of the show.[6] However, the only person he has ever liked on-camera was Maria, which he would never admit. He once inadvertently complimented a dance that his followers, The Grouchketeers, had performed for him. Oscar has shown rare acts of kindness such as trying to replace Ernie’s rubber duckie when Ernie had lost it. He also went out to find the missing Big Bird in “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street”.
He and his girlfriend Grundgetta also love each other, though their relationship is (understandably) somewhat rocky (though he does show he cares for her). As stated above, he is usually very nice to children especially when making public appearances with Spinney. According to a recent episode, Oscar hates “Pox News” (a parody of Fox News) but his mother likes it. Oscar tries to keep his Canadian identity secret, but admitted that he is Canadian due to his parents being from Canada. He was born in Minto, New Brunswick, with his father having been born on Parkhurst Drive, New Brunswick and his mother having grown up in Nova Scotia. His favorite dessert is spinach sardine chocolate fudge sundaes. His second favorite dessert is mashed bananas with ice cubes and cold beef gravy.
The Grinch
The Grinch is a character created by Dr. Seuss. He first appeared as the main character of the 1957 Christmas story “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”
The grumpy, anti-holiday spirit of the character has led to the term “Grinch”, which is probably derived from the French word grincheux which means “grumpy”, coming to refer to a person opposed to Christmas time celebrations or to someone with a coarse, greedy attitude. In fact, a document in the live-action film stated that “The term Grinchy shall apply when Christmas spirit is in short supply”.
The Grinch has since become an icon of the winter holidays, despite the character’s hatred of the season, and has appeared on various forms of memorabilia such as Christmas ornaments, plush dolls, Halloween costumes, and various clothing items.
In 2002, TV Guide ranked The Grinch number 5 on its “50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time” list.
The Grinch first appeared 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. 9 years later in 1966, the story was adapted into an animated television featurette of the same name, which was directed by Charles M. Jones (who was known at this time as Chuck Jones) and which 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.
In 1977, Seuss responded to the fan request for more Grinch tales by writing Halloween is Grinch Night, that serves as a prequel to the 1966 film. This was followed in 1982, when Marvel green-lit The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat a TV film starring The Cat in the Hat, also 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. Several episodes of the 1996 Nick Jr. television show The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss featured the Grinch, this time in puppet form, a rare screen appearance for the character without being animated or illustrated.
A 2000 live-action feature comedy film based on the story, directed by Ron Howard and starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch, was a major financial success, though it received many mixed reviews and holds a 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 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 with the release of a Nintendo DS version that went under the full title of the movie.
The Grinch was portrayed on the stage when the story was turned into a musical by the Children’s Theater Company out of Minneapolis. The show made it to Broadway by way of a limited run in 2006, with Patrick Page playing the Grinch.
In television and film, the Grinch has been played or voiced by six actors. For the three animated adaptations, three actors were used: Boris Karloff in the original 1966 short, Hans Conried in Halloween is Grinch Night, and Bob Holt in The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat. (All three of them died shortly after the production of their respective specials and could not reprise the role.) Anthony Asbury portrayed The Grinch in The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, and Jim Carrey and Josh Ryan Evans did so in the 2000 film adaptation, for which Carrey received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
The Grinch also appears in Glee in the episode “A Very Glee Christmas”. The Grinch was played by Sue Sylvester, who seeks revenge on Will Schuester, who stole all of her secret “Santa scam” presents.
With all that said who would you vote for in this challenge? The power is in your hands! vote below and let us know why you choose that person! Best of luck to both our mean lean green opponent!
“Your a mean one Mr. Grinch”
The Engineer