The Grink

About

The Grink, an intentional misspelling of "The Grinch," is a catchphrase inspired by a viral tweet joking about how friends in a text message thread will take any opportunity to remind someone about a time they made a humorous typo. Since the tweet was made in 2019, "The Grink" has often been used as shorthand for making an embarrassing typo, particularly on Twitter.

Origin

On October 1st, 2019, Twitter user @murrman5^[1] posted a tweet containing the original instance of "grink" that read:

[me telling my story how I survived a plane crash and lived on a deserted island for a year] it was crazy
[friend who once got a text from me where I accidentally called the grinch the grink] was the grink there?

The tweet gained over 43,000 retweets and 183,000 likes in nearly four years (shown below).

Spread

In the years since the tweet was posted, "The Grink" became widely referenced and celebrated as an influential tweet, as many users expressed that they remembered the tweet when they made a typo. On April 13th, 2021, Twitter user @brocklesnitch^[2] joked that they had typed "Grink" so much, their phone had begun autocorrecting "drink" to "Grink," gaining 65 likes in two years (shown below, top). On February 9th, 2021, a local Florida television station misspelled "Gronk," referring to football player Rob Gronkowski, as "Grink" in their chyron, causing Twitter^[3] user @lukeoneil47 to joke that "THE GRINK WAS THERE," gaining over 240 retweets and 3,000 likes in two years (shown below, bottom).

On May 18th, 2023, Twitter user @rremake2^[4] then reimagined the tweet as if it were taking place between Leon and Claire from Resident Evil 2, gaining over 240 retweets and 800 likes in five days (shown below, left). On May 22nd, the Twitter account for Merriam-Webster^[5] notably referenced the meme in a prompt tweet about autocorrect failures, gaining 13 retweets and 366 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References