TV & Movies
23 Years Later, A Grinch Plot Hole About Max Might’ve Been Solved
The dog’s origin story might not be what it seems.
More than two decades after the film’s release, a How The Grinch Stole Christmas plot hole finally makes sense.
Adapted from Dr. Seuss’ original yuletide tale, the 2000 film tells the story of the green, hairy, and heartless Grinch (Jim Carrey) who resides on Mount Crumpit with his dog, Max, above the Christmas-loving town of Whoville.
The Grinch, who has a deep hatred of his neighbors and the holidays, comes up with a diabolical plan to steal Christmas by posing as Santa Claus and snatching the festive season away from the Whos.
In the years following the film’s release, fans noticed an inconsistency in the story that never seemed to make any sense — until now.
The Grinch Plot Hole
On TikTok, one curious fan pointed out that the Grinch moves to Mount Crumpit alone as a child and doesn’t return to Whoville until the holiday Cheermiester celebration decades later.
In the movie, the Grinch also explains that the residents of Whoville’s Christmas gifts wind up with him at Mount Crumpit — where the town’s garbage chute leads.
“If he hasn’t been down to Whoville in a couple of decades... where did his dog Max come from?” the TikToker asked, sparking a string of fan theories — the most unsettling of which might explain Max’s origin story.
The Grinch Fan Theory
The theory in question claims that the Grinch’s four-legged friend was another of Whoville’s unwanted Christmas gifts, and Max wound up at Mount Crumpit after being thrown out in the trash chute.
“I was today years old when I realized Max the dog in The Grinch was just a Christmas present that a kid didn’t want and got rid of by dumping it into the ‘Dump it to Crumpit’ trash chute. Poor doggo,” one fan commented.
While not everyone agrees with the Max theory, claiming there are plenty of other ways he ended up living with the Grinch, the 1998 book The Grinch Meets His Max appears to back it up.
In the book, which wasn’t written by the original Grinch author Dr. Seuss, Max was found by the Grinch after becoming lost on Mount Crumpit — suggesting the pooch might’ve been left there by his previous owner.
Max’s origin isn’t the only Grinch plot detail to have piqued interest online. In 2022, one viral TikTok highlighted an apparent error in the Christmas flick involving Carrey’s eye color.
