If I Ran the Circus

If I Ran the Circus is a 1956 children's book by Dr. Seuss.

One of Dr. Seuss's most quoted books--although not the best known--because its title has entered American English as a saying for introducing an opinion. Logically like The Cat in the Hat or the more political Yertle the Turtle, If I Ran the Circus develops a theme of cumulative fantasy leading to excess. The social commentary found in the Sneetches and the Zax also show that Dr. Seuss was fascinated by the errors and excess to which humans are prone (See Fensch, 1997). It can also be compared to the fantastic ideas in the tale that gives us the proverb don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Plot Summary

Behind Mr. Sneelock's ramshackle store, there's an empty lot. Little Morris McGurk is convinced that if he could just clear out the rusty cans, the dead tree, and the old cars, he would have nothing to stop him from using the lot for the amazing, the world-beating, Circus McGurkus. The more elaborate Morris' dreams about the circus become, the more they depend on sleepy-looking, innocent Mr. Sneelock, who stands outside his ramshackle store sucking on a pipe, oblivious to the fate that awaits him in the depths of Morris's imagination. He doesn't yet know that he'll have to dispense 500 gallons of lemonade, be lassoed by a Wily Walloo, wrestle a Grizzly-Ghastly, and ski down a slope dotted with giant cacti. But if his performance is up to McGurkian expectations, then "why, ladies and gentlemen, youngsters and oldsters, your heads will quite likely spin right off your shouldsters!"

Copyright Dates

It was October 12, 1956. But now, it was renewed: September 23, 1983, where "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (1983), was filmed.

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