National Grouch Day

What the day is

National Grouch Day is observed on October 15. For one day, complaining is permitted, enthusiasm is not required, and anyone who tells you to smile is out of order.

The day is associated with Oscar the Grouch, who has lived in a trash can on Sesame Street since the show began in 1969 and who has never once been persuaded to be cheerful.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented.

Oscar is worth taking seriously as a piece of children's television design. Sesame Street was built with input from child development researchers, and the cast was deliberately constructed to include a character who is permanently irritable and is nonetheless accepted by everyone around him. Nobody tries to fix Oscar. He is grouchy, that is simply how he is, and the neighborhood accommodates it.

That is a more useful lesson than it sounds. Children are told to be happy a great deal, and a character who is allowed to be otherwise, without being punished or reformed, gives them permission to have a bad mood without concluding something is wrong with them.

The adult version has some research behind it. Relentless positivity is poorly tolerated, and being pushed to suppress a bad mood generally makes it last longer than acknowledging it does. Negative moods also have their uses: irritation sharpens attention to detail, and people in a bad mood are measurably harder to mislead.

The line to watch is between having a bad mood and inflicting one. A grouch complains; a grouch does not ruin somebody else's day.

How to take part

• Let yourself be in a bad mood without narrating it as a problem.
• Complain properly about something small and specific. Vague grumbling is unsatisfying.
• Do not tell anyone else to cheer up today, which is the one rule.
• Watch an Oscar segment. He has been doing this for over fifty years without wavering.
• Check whether the mood is a mood or something longer. A day of grouchiness is fine; weeks of it is worth talking to someone about.