Grouch Day

Well it is on one of my Google Geek Holiday Calendars: October 15th is “National Grouch Day“, invented by Sesame Street Magazine as a day for all Grouches to celebrate their way of life.

A Grouch’s mission in life is to be as miserable and grouchy as possible, and pass that feeling on to everyone else. Only then will a Grouch feel in touch with his or her world and be happy. Yet, even though a Grouch may show happiness at anyone’s misfortune (including his or her own), a Grouch would never admit to being happy. Such is the stability of a Grouch’s life: so balanced, and yet so unbalanced.

The Grouch Anthem, writen 1985 by Jeff Pennig, Jeff Harrington, and Steve Pippin, is an illustration of this way of life, where Oscar insists that people stay sitting down for the Grouch Anthem, instead of rising to attention as is usual in most countries.

I also prefer to remain seated when the national anthem of my country is being played, but the Grouchy way of life is definitely not *my* lifestyle. However, a geek is a geek, fun is fun and a blogpost is a blogpost. Besides: we have to respect each other’s lifestyles.

“Oscar exemplifies what psychologists call oppositional defiant disorder. He’s the archetype that teaches children to tolerate this kind of individualist in society.” (It’s Monday, so be miserable)

Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or ODD – Oscar is quite a character! And he is an individualist, that gives two reasons to count Oscar to My Kind Of People. 🙂
Here is the song:

Announcer: Please rise for the Grouch Anthem.

Oscar: No, no, no. For the Grouch Anthem, you stay sitting down. Down in front there! Now brace yourself, I’m gonna sing:

Grouches of the world unite!
Stand up for your grouchly rights!
Don’t let the sunshine spoil the rain
Just stand up and complain (heheheh)

Let this be the grouches’ cause:
Point out everybody’s flaws!
Something is wrong with everything
Except the way I sing!

(Cue Grouch Choir ooing in the background)

Spoken:
You know what’s right with this world? Nuttin!
You know what gets me hot under the collar? You name it!
And the next time some goody-two-shoes smiles and tells you to have a nice day, just remember:

Sung:
Don’t let the sunshine spoil the rain,
Just stand up and complain!
Just stand up and complain!