The Grinch has a kind-of adult secret that will definitely ruin Christmas

If this passed you by, just be glad you managed to maintain your innocence this long

This is some information you may regret learning. The Jim Carrey-starring, live-action version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas from 2000 has been hiding a very child unfriendly secret this whole time.

Considering Dr. Seuss’ original tale of the green grump hell-bent on ridding the inhabitants of Whoville of their holiday joy ran to a total of 69 pages, it was inevitable some padding would have to be included to bring the tale to the big screen.

Part of that filler material included some flashbacks to Grinch’s past as an adorable/slightly grotesque green baby-puppet; when he was delivered to Whoville by mistake as an infant, floating down from the skies in a basket.

He lands just outside the house of two sisters having their “annual holiday get-together”; and as little Baby Grinch looks in through the window at the raucous party happening within, what does he witness?

Oh, just some keys being dropped into a communal bowl; to the reaction of an obviously disturbed Baby Grinch who just realised that his adoptive parents to be are, as Buzzfeed points out, holding a party for swingers. No wonder it took so long for them to notice a baby hanging outside of the window, the Whos were all very much busy.

Need more confirmation? Notice how, on the first arrival of a baby to Whoville, the father takes a look and shouts back to his wife, “he looks just like your boss.” What exactly is going on in this hedonistic town?

This is beginning to make the Grinch’s famous hatred of Christmas significantly more understandable; he’s probably still dealing from the trauma of having to witness a Whoville key party.

Can we, for a moment, reflect on the fact this film came from the supposedly wholesome imagination of Ron Howard? The master of earnest emotions and stirring adventures, the guy who directed both Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind? What else has he been hiding? Should we be watching out for inappropriate Moby Dick references in his new film, In the Heart of the Sea?

This article was originally published in December 2015