Every holiday season there are some things that are destined to return — Michael Bublé, Boxing Day thirst posts and “Fairytale of New York” discourse, to name a few — but a new festive being has been filling our hearts with Christmas cheer recently. No, it’s not Santa or Jesus. It’s not even Mariah. It’s slutty Grinch.
The furry, green, sassy chaotic evil figurehead, who ironically famously hates the holidays and wishes to destroy the festive joy of the local squish-nosed Whosville folk, has started to appear with alarming frequency on the feeds of those of us with cursed algorithms far beyond the realms of salvation. That explains why meme-obsessed, Gen-Z-humoured New York brand Luar did a Christmas celebration post in which their iconic Ana it-bags, one in a rather Grinch-y shade of green, appeared alongside a yassified version of the Dr. Seuss character with a BBL to end all BBLs. Within the post lies one particular image that has been making the rounds on social media of late, featuring the Grinch at a supermarket, crouching down in his thigh-high latex boots, a corset, velvet black opera gloves and matching Santa hat as he casually helps himself to a slushie — as we all know, truly sexy people have iced drinks year-round, regardless of the weather.
Luar are not the only ones partaking in the deranged cult of slutty Grinch this year, however. He’s well and truly making his mark on the 2022 Christmas season. At this year’s Jingle Ball in NYC, Lizzo took off a glittering Mrs. Claus dress to reveal a Grinch-inspired green-trim-lined sexy bondage harness over a trippy bodysuit as she shouted “the Grinch is ready to turn up!” In a later TikTok, the singer wore the same look, lip-synching and twerking to a song by her go-to hair stylist, and fellow musician, Shelby Swain, with lyrics about Mrs Grinch, a “bad bitch” all “wrapped up in designer”. Meghan Trainor could never.
Drag queens, too, have embraced The Grinch in recent festive seasons, bringing their own takes to the character. Over the past few years Drag Race All Stars 5 winner Shea Couleé has brought back her Grinch character for festive shows, with a look that features green-hair trimmed boots and rhinestoned boobs; while Canada’s Drag Race contestant Boa put together a look somewhere between the Grinch and a female Gremlin, with green Hollywood waves and red nipple covers.
So what is up with all the deranged slutty Grinch content? It (thankfully) doesn’t play into any sort of desire or fetish in the same way that the Ghostface cosplay every Halloween does. It’s not a response to a cultural moment, such as the queering of the Babadook or Disney once again introducing their first openly gay (incredibly minor) character. In much the same way as gay Spongebob or barb Patrick Starr, it’s as simple as this: slutty Grinch is fun and dumb and plays into our generation’s based humour. And it’s been a long year.
Besides, the Grinch himself already had everything in him to be a bad bitch icon anyway. Various TikToks show Grinches at shopping malls reading locals to filth about their fake lashes and obvious contouring, terrorising children at their home and doing make up tutorials. The fact he is an outcast and rejected by society may be evidence of a queer-coded narrative, but what is evidence of him slaying is the fur on his limp hands extending so far past his twig fingers that he was naturally born with the look material gworls with five-inch acrylics pay to get. Although we don’t know when the Grinch’s birthday is, his vengeful nature as he gets into Santa drag and whips down the village chimneys to destroy Christmas trees, eat everyone’s food and steal all the presents, is giving severe Scorpio energy (perhaps he’s a Cancer moon, since by morning he’s suddenly all sensitive). But do you know what else Scorpios are? Incredibly horny. And yet super selective and with incredibly high standards. Following on from this theory, which is definitely not a reach, it means the Grinch is likely a slut (non-practicing).
Not that you asked, but if you need further evidence of why the Grinch innately serves cunt, in the 2000 movie How The Grinch Stole Christmas, it is revealed that the character was raised by two cohabiting legally-single women, and if that isn’t queer-coded, I don’t know what is. The Grinch is both the adopted gay son and thot daughter of a lesbian couple. And speaking of that 00s classic, though I am loathed to call any characterisation by Jim Carey queer, his Grinch, and his love at the end of the movie — the ever stylish Martha May played by Christine Baranski — do give off strong “we saw you across the bar and really liked your vibe” energy. The fact that, in 2022, the character is the serial killer villain of an overwhelmingly-derided slasher horror movie entitled The Mean One, is evidence alone of the fact that he is certifiable queer royalty alongside M3GAN and Freddy Krueger.
Does the queering and sluttifying of this character add anything to our lives or society in general? Absolutely not. But in the lethargy of late Christmas day, as we scroll past a video of someone dressed as the holidays-hating camp icon while lifting their skirt to reveal the word “slay” written across their ass, it ironically spreads some Christmas cheer (gives a momentary yet much needed huff-laugh) before we return to the monotony of bland roast dinner pics and every gay man captioning their selfie “merry quismois” on our feed.