3

The Whos Were Nearly Wiped Out

Whoville being quiet isn't just a minor detail. It's the main point of the book. Horton's the only one with big enough ears to hear the one person on their whole planet making noise, so everybody else just thinks Horton is crazy. The other animals then decide that nothing would be funnier than to throw Whoville off a mountain and then boil it in oil. Because Horton's world is the type of place where the Armenian genocide ends with Ashton Kutcher telling people they just got punked.

Random House

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Whoville Has Lived In Terror Ever Since

When we next see the Whos two years later in How The Grinch Stole Christmas, they're immediately described as incredibly noisy people. And they aren't just noisy at Christmas. It's not like they sing carols for a few minutes and then go back to being quiet. If they did that, The Grinch probably could've just put in a few earplugs and moved on with his life, instead of slowly descending into insanity like he's Dr. Seuss' version of Gollum.

They're noisy all the time. Every single present that kids in Whoville get is some type of noisemaker. They have tubas so massive that they take six people to play, elaborate drums that play an entire kit at once, and even play a version of lacrosse that has been inexplicably modified to involve as much screaming as possible. You earn points when your opponents' inner ears start to bleed.

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The Grinch hates Christmas, but that's just because it's a little bit worse than usual. The Whos are like this all year-round, which is probably why he lives on a mountain outside of town.

This is a huge cultural shift. These people were once so quiet that if one person shouted, they could overpower the entire planet. But a near-genocide has turned these quiet, modest people into terrible neighbors who can't go three seconds without banging a drum.

Warner Bros. Television Distribution

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The Grinch's Plot Might Have Killed Them All

It's not entirely clear what's wrong with The Grinch, then, but he's obviously not the most educated person. He hears his fellow countrymen banging as loud as they can to keep their planet alive, and he finds it annoying. He's like a distant uncle who will see a news report about food drives and use it as a way to blame the homeless for his problems. If he'd kept himself even the least bit up to speed on the local headlines ("Whoville Nearly Destroyed In Senseless Boiling" would be the biggest news story in forever for these guys), he'd know that singing and Blum Boopers are the only way to stave off the apocalypse.

His plot to steal Christmas is kind of crazy. He's trying to put an end to the one thing that's keeping his species alive. When the Whos wake up to find that they've all been robbed, they go out into the town square to sing carols. The Grinch thinks that they just really love the holiday. Damn, Grinch. Would it kill you to read a paper every now and then?

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The Whos aren't celebrating their love of Christmas; they're just continuing to make as much noise as possible to prevent the extermination of their race. They've woken up to find all their noisemakers stolen, and they're freaking out. Their survival relies on those things. If their animal protectors can't hear them, they could drift into another pool or get picked up by another eagle, and the whole society would be over.

So they do what they can with what they have: their voices. And only because it's the holidays do they harmonize something other than "FOR GOD'S SAKE. DON'T KILL US. DON'T KILL US. WE HAVE FAMILIES. PLEASE, GOD."

Warner Bros. Television Distribution

So no, Grinch, they're not out there singing because they love Christmas so much. They're out there singing because they'll die if they don't.

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