The Grinch
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97 free The Grinch trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
87 free the Grinch trivia questions with answers. He's a mean one, Mr. Grinch. From the pages of Dr. Seuss to Jim Carrey's iconic performance, the Grinch has become as much a part of Christmas as the tree itself. How well do you know everyone's favorite holiday villain?
30 of 97 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 1966 special's theme song says the Grinch is as cuddly as a what?
A cactus
A cactus, the song says, and as charming as an eel. Its bass singer was left off the credits, so the insults are often credited by mistake to the special's narrator.
Q 02Which publisher released How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in 1957?
Random House
Random House published it. Seuss called it the easiest book of his career, written in a few weeks, except for the ending, which took him three months to crack.
Q 03In the 2000 film, where does Cindy Lou first come face to face with the Grinch?
The post office
The post office, where her father is postmaster: the Grinch has slipped into the back room to shuffle the Whos' Christmas mail into the wrong boxes.
Q 04In which direction from Whoville does the Grinch live?
North
North: the story opens with the Grinch 'just north of Who-ville', glaring down from his cave on Christmas Eve at the warm lighted windows of the town below.
Q 05A cardiologist joked that the Grinch's fast-growing heart gives him the physiology of which animal?
A Burmese python
A Burmese python, said Dr David Kass: the snake's heart swells quickly after a big meal. He admitted the theory has a hole, since a freshly fed python lies still rather than lifting sleds.
Q 06What does the Grinch dress up as to sneak into Whoville?
Santa Claus
Santa Claus: the Grinch sews 'a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat', and the disguise is good enough to fool the one small Who who wakes and catches him in the act.
Q 07Who played the Grinch in the 2000 live-action movie?
Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey found the daily makeup so punishing that he tried to quit early in the shoot, yet the performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
Q 08In December 2006 the Grinch stage musical ended which show's 100-week run as Broadway's top earner?
Wicked
Wicked was up against a heavier schedule: the Grinch musical played 12 performances a week, with matinees every day during the holiday weeks.
Q 09In 1998 How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was translated into which ancient language?
Latin
Latin: two University of Kentucky classicists turned it into 'Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit', printed with Seuss's original drawings.
Q 10In the first Who house, what does the Grinch call 'the first things to go'?
The stockings
The stockings, hung in a row, go first. Then he slinks round the room taking every present, from pop guns and bicycles to popcorn and plums.
Q 11In Dr. Seuss's book, what is the last thing the Grinch takes from the first Who house?
The log for the fire
The log for the fire goes last, so the family would wake to a cold hearth as well as bare walls: he leaves nothing on them 'but hooks and some wire'.
Q 12Which Parks and Recreation star voices Cindy-Lou's overworked mother in 2018's The Grinch?
Rashida Jones
Rashida Jones voices Donna Who, a single mother run ragged by work and infant twins, and it is her exhaustion that sets her daughter's whole Christmas plan in motion.
Q 13Dr. Seuss's widow first wanted which actor to play the Grinch in the 2000 live-action film?
Jack Nicholson
Q 21Which city's Old Globe Theatre has made the Grinch musical its Christmas tradition since 1998?
San Diego
San Diego was Dr. Seuss's adopted home: he lived and worked in its La Jolla district until his death in 1991, and the Old Globe's Grinch opened seven years later.
Q 22Who plays Cindy Lou Who in the 2000 live-action Grinch movie?
Taylor Momsen
Taylor Momsen swapped Whoville for hard rock: after Gossip Girl she quit acting altogether to front her band, The Pretty Reckless.
Q 23What animation studio produced the 2018 'The Grinch' film?
Illumination
Illumination gave its Grinch a backstory to explain the grudge: he grew up unloved in an orphanage and was never adopted.
Jack Nicholson was the widow's pick. Producer Brian Grazer argued that the Grinch is mean but has to be forgivable and innocent, and won her round to his own choice.
Q 14In Dr. Seuss's book, what does the Grinch stuff the Whos' presents into?
Bags
Bags: he arrives with them empty in his fist, and by a quarter past dawn his sled is packed with every present, ribbon, wrapping and tag in town.
Q 15What excuse does the Grinch give Cindy Lou Who for taking the Christmas tree?
A light on it won't work
A light on it won't work, he tells her: one side won't light, so he is taking the tree home to his workshop to fix it and will bring it straight back.
Q 16What was the real surname of the author who wrote as Dr. Seuss?
Geisel
Geisel was his surname; Seuss was his middle name and his mother's maiden name. The 'Dr.' was self-awarded, since he left Oxford without ever finishing a doctorate.
Q 17Who narrated and voiced the Grinch in the 1966 animated TV special?
Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff, cinema's Frankenstein monster, gave the Grinch his speaking voice but not his singing one: the theme song's deep bass belongs to another performer, who was left off the credits.
Q 18Who directed the 2000 live-action Grinch movie?
Ron Howard
Ron Howard at first had no interest in a live-action Grinch. His producing partner Brian Grazer talked him into pitching Seuss's widow, who had turned every studio down.
Q 19In the 2000 film, Cindy Lou nominates the Grinch for which honorary title?
Holiday Cheermeister
Holiday Cheermeister is the honour at the town's thousandth Whobilation. He turns up and even starts to have fun, until the mayor humiliates him and he wrecks the party.
Q 20Which bass singer performed 'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch' in the 1966 special without a screen credit?
Thurl Ravenscroft
Thurl Ravenscroft was left off the closing credits by mistake, so for decades the song was widely assumed to be the work of the special's narrator.
Q 24When the Who children rush for their toys on Christmas morning, what is the 'one thing' the Grinch says he hates?
The noise
The noise: he pictures every Who girl and boy waking 'bright and early' to try out new toys, and the thought sets his Grinch fingers 'nervously drumming'.
Q 25In 'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch', the singer says the Grinch has garlic in his what?
Soul
Soul. Dr. Seuss wrote every insult in the song, piling on a brain full of spiders and a heart that is 'an empty hole' before reaching for the garlic.
Q 26Who directed the 1966 animated TV special of 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'?
Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones, the Looney Tunes director, had worked with Seuss on Army training cartoons during the war, and that old friendship won over an author who distrusted Hollywood.
Q 27In the 2000 film's flashback, what does the schoolboy Grinch try in order to impress his classmates?
Shave
Shave: he cuts his face badly, the class laughs at him, and he storms out of town for good. The classmate who had mocked his beard grows up to be mayor.
Q 28The 1966 Grinch special was made at which studio, where its director was also making Tom and Jerry cartoons?
MGM
MGM had taken the director in after his long run on Looney Tunes at Warner Bros. ended, and its studio chorus sings the Whos' carols in the special.
Q 29In the 2000 film, which actress plays the socialite the Grinch has loved since his schooldays?
Christine Baranski
Christine Baranski's socialite is courted by the mayor all film long, then hands back his engagement ring in front of the town and declares her love for the Grinch.
Q 30The Grinch suit worn in the 2000 film was covered in the dyed hair of which animal?
Yak
Yak hair, dyed green and sewn onto a spandex suit. The star called it unnervingly itchy, and it kept him in the makeup chair for hours on each of 92 shooting days.