‘Tis The Grinch Holiday Podcast delivers more Christmas satire in Season 3

Fans of Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas! should check out the ‘Tis The Grinch Holiday Podcast to mark the holiday season.

Created by Saturday Night Live’s James Austin Johnson, Season 3 of the podcast offers more fun with the infamous green scoundrel of Christmas.

We continue with the Grinch’s radio broadcasts, which are presented in a late-night show format as he jokes about Christmas and Whoville in his snowy mountain home at Mount Crumpit’s peak. Each episode has old segments from past seasons, including rants, celebrity interviews, a jazzy theme song, and an energetic announcer introducing Grinch, his dog Max, and Cindy Lou Who. 

Johnson’s return as the Grinch remains the best part of the podcast. Using his approach of imagining the character as if he was an online internet troll today, Johnson does an excellent job of portraying the green meanie’s overdramatic groans and obnoxious sarcasm towards Christmas during his rants and interviews. He brilliantly conveys the Grinch’s ever-growing narcissism and ego.

The podcast’s supporting voice cast are also worthwhile takeaways. Anjali Kunapaneni continues playing Cindy as an adorable force for the Christmas spirit. Anthony Atamanuik as the announcer gleefully sets the tone for the show every episode with his vocal flair.

While the myriad of Christmas jokes reflects Johnson’s team’s power to creatively poke fun at the holiday season, some of the humour in the initial episodes lands, while other comedy bits fall flat at times. However, it’s Johnson’s vocal performance that keeps the show going throughout its highs and lows.

Among the show’s positives, the Grinch provides some meta humour, from trashtalking his voice actor, Johnson himself, to even roasting Jim Carrey’s Grinch movie.

The podcast also covers familiar territory with Christmas satire about holiday habits and norms, but the Grinch also critiques new topics, such as Whoville’s social media apps and self-checkout kiosks. A lot of this humour isn’t that funny, but it does provide wonderful world-building for the show. 

One of the funniest aspects of Season 3 is “Grinch-a-palooza,” a subplot where the Grinch and Max create the titular event to compete with Cindy’s Whoville tree-lighting ceremony. The segment actually has worthy laughs from the Grinch enduring mishaps to prepare for his event. At one point, he’s swarmed by squirrels during a sabotage operation, only to later do a poorly planned parachute jump with hilarious results.

While the detective mystery subplot from Season 2 is a better story, Grinch-a-palooza is still a goofy adventure.

There are times where some ideas could have been focused on and explored further. In the third episode, the Grinch answers fan questions that give lacklustre satire. On the other hand, he mentions a story about hanging out with other green pop culture icons, ranging from Hulk to Kermit the Frog. If developed further, it would’ve made for a more entertaining segment. Nevertheless, Johnson’s voice acting carries listeners through these parts.

Season 3 isn’t as impressive as Season 2 so far, but the fact the podcast has lasted this long is indicative of Johnson and his team’s top-tier comedy talent always diving into old and new layers of the Grinch’s lore that honours the original Dr. Seuss story.

‘Tis The Grinch Holiday Podcast premiered its third season on Nov. 10 and is available on Wondery, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other audio streaming platforms.