A viral TikTok shows a man in a Grinch costume threatening to send a family to the end of the line after they called him out for being late to a theme park attraction. The video sparked an online debate about whether he was acting professionally or the family was bothering him.
The clip shows TikToker Kay (@hi.im..kay) with her family in line to meet the Grinch at Seuss Land at Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida. The video was posted on Sunday and by Thursday had over 2.2 million views.
The Grinch is seen talking to colleagues when Kay says, “But you’re late!” He says he’s in “a company meeting” and then says to the TikToker, “Stop talking, it’s not even your turn. Do you want to go to the end of the line? I can make that happen.”
The TikToker says no. “How does another two hours sound? Exactly, say thank you,” the man says. The TikToker obliges, and the Grinch says, “You’re welcome.” Kids can be heard laughing throughout the clip.
The text overlay of the TikTok reads, “Lesson learned..don’t talk back to the Grinch.”
In a later TikTok, Kay shares the conversation that took place when the family posed with the Grinch for photos. Kay tells the Grinch he’s supposed to be excited. According to the text overlay, the Grinch says, “Can’t you tell I’m excited? To be fair, I don’t hate Christmas; I hate people.”
“No, you hate Whos, you don’t hate people,” Kay says.
“Yeah, you try working here all day,” the Grinch replies.
In the comments, some users called the Grinch “rude.”
“‘Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it back’ no you were being playful and he was straight up rude…obviously having a bad day,” @tashwrigh_t wrote.
“He shouldn’t work there if he’s gonna be mean to a mother in front of her kids,” @chloemccald wrote. “There’s a difference between grumpy and being straight up mean.”
Others said he was just being in character. “Ok, this is why I hate TikTok. Y’all only jump on the bandwagon. It’s the Grinch, literally his personality is mean! Sarcastic, mean, grouchy,” @rickyz025 wrote.
Some commented that they’d be “annoyed” if they were told they were late by a customer. “I’ve always learned that if no one but you or your kids are laughing, it’s usually not funny. I would’ve been annoyed being told ‘I’m late,’” @rosepetalxxxxx wrote.
In a video posted on Tuesday, Kay says that the “dude was having a bad day” and that he threw the photo that the family bought on the floor and tried to tear it.
The Daily Dot reached out to Kay and Universal Studios for comment.
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