An Introduction to Grinching

When you hear the word ‘Grinch’ you probably think of a character from an average movie, good cartoon, and excellent book by Dr. Seuss. The Grinch tries to steal Christmas from all the Whos in Whoville. He is a mash-up of Scrooge, Alf and The Hulk. As wonderful as the character and the story of The Grinch is, I am about to introduce you to a completely different ‘grinch’.

While I was reflecting on the topic of this blog, it occurred to me that those close to me already know what this word means in my world. Therefore, if you are reading this and you know what it means to ‘grinch’ something, congratulations – you and I are true friends. If you don’t know the meaning of this term, you either don’t know me at all (Hi there! I’m Gwen, it’s a pleasure to meet you.), or you don’t know me as well as you thought you did. Either way, it doesn’t really matter because you are about to learn and then find yourself naturally using this word with ease. The reason for this is 'grinch' fills a void that no other word currently fills, which is the key to it catching on. (Just ask the inventors of LOL.)

Firstly, here is the story behind the word that swept through my circle of close friends and is no doubt about to sweep the nation, nay the world! (Optimistic for someone whose blog has been read by 43 people, but hey, six of those were in Russia so who knows!)

It was December, more than 10 years ago and The Huz and I were looking for a nice Christmassy movie to watch, hopefully one that we had not seen before. Somehow, we got our hands on a DVD of ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ starring Jim Carrey. A very close friend of ours had done all he could to prevent us from watching this movie because of how terrible he thought it was. “Cringe-worthy” “Boring” One of the worst Christmas movies ever”.  In spite of his scathing review, we decided to give it a go. To our surprise, we liked it. For some reason we found it quite charming and felt the need to defend it to our friend the movie critic.  However, we were astute enough to realise that even though we didn’t think it was the worst Christmas movie ever, we knew that it wasn’t great.

Yet why did we like a movie that we could see had the ability to irritate? Some may even call it gag-worthy. After much discussion, we concluded that our friend the movie critic had inadvertently made us expect the absolute worst. However, when that didn’t happen, we were more than pleased with what we had seen. One of us during this discussion referred to this phenomenon by saying that the movie critic ‘grinched the Grinch.’ Before long, we were introducing this idea of ‘grinching’ to friends and family. It’s surprising how often this word is the best one to use to explain the need to manage ones expectations appropriately, so it was being used in everyday conversation. And that is the story of the birth of the ‘grinch’ (little ‘g’).

The great thing about this word is it can be used to express when you have been set up for success or failure. Here are some examples of when it should be used:

1. “I loved the movie because I grinched it.” = Someone said the movie was awful so you had low expectations. Therefore, you were pleasantly surprised by the actual quality and entertainment value of the film. (e.g. Titanic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, etc.)
2. “I hated the movie because I didn’t grinch it.” = Someone said the movie was excellent, so you had very high expectations but ended up being disappointed with the shite that was presented to you and wishing you could get those three hours of your life back. (e.g. Titanic, Meet Joe Black – How do Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins get it so very wrong?)
3. “I loved the movie because I didn’t realise that I had grinched it.” = This is the reverse-grinch, which occurs when people build up a movie so much that you believe it must be all hype and you won’t enjoy it. But then you do watch it and because of your low expectations, which were created by other people’s attempts to create high expectations, you end up enjoying the experience. (e.g. Titanic, Whale Rider, etc.)

No other word succinctly describes what ‘grinch’ represents. If it were added to Webster’s Dictionary, it would go something like this:

Grinch-Verb To manage ones expectations in order to avoid disappointment. The movie is ok, but I would grinch it if I were you.

*Note: Use of the word ‘grinch’ is not restricted to expectations of movies.

By now, you might be thinking why I’m sharing this with you. Firstly, this is a blog. I could share about my favourite coloured toilet paper if I wanted to. But mainly, as I mentioned earlier, the use of ‘grinch’ started 10 years ago. After more than a decade, it is still in use amongst friends and family, and it’s spreading. I have actually met friends of friends who have used the word in front of me, not knowing that The Huz and I were the creators.

Language is an amazing gift, and I do feel that I have been involved in adding to that gift. Where would we be without LOL? Or ‘whatever’? Or even ‘sweet as’?

I am not suggesting that ‘grinching’ can reach the dizzying heights that those words have, but I guarantee that you will find a use for it.

Please don’t think that this will be a vehicle for introducing a new ‘Gwen’ language. I’m sure that we all have words and phrases that are only used by close friends or family, from nicknames to mis-spoken sentences.

For example, my family nickname is Bam. However, I will not be sharing the reason for this, nor will I be encouraging you to call me by this name.

Another example happened when my BFF and I were having a conversation and thought we were disagreeing. However, we realised we actually had the same opinion but were using different words to express it. My BFF then said, “Different language make same thing.” A very perceptive statement, if you were Tarzan. We still use this statement when required, but I do not invite you to use it as well. It is the epitome of an in-joke.

Perhaps your familial words and phrases are in-jokes as well. I have hundreds more of them. As I contemplate this, I realise that the people I have the most in-joke words and phrases with are my closest friends and family. Perhaps creating your own language is the ultimate sign of true friendship.

That’s the great thing about language. It is continuously evolving and it does not ‘belong’ to anyone. With nothing but common sense as your guide, your language is yours to use as you wish. Now go forth and grinch…