Where the Wild Things Are Quotes

Context

Who among us doesn't enjoy a good rumpus? We know that any time we've gone more than a week or two without one, we start to suffer from rumpus withdrawal.

Wait…what's a rumpus?

Well, it's any sort of loud commotion, really. Like a roomful of kindergartners on a sugar high right after lunch or that party you threw while your parents were out of town that got so wild it woke up the neighbors. And they just had to rat you out. Watch your backs, Hendersons…

In Where the Wild Things Are, a young boy named Max announces the start of the "wild rumpus," in which he and his new wild friends are about to get jiggy with it…in their own special way. There's a lot of stomping and bouncing around. It's not especially graceful, but they seem to be having fun with it, so…we won't judge.

P.S. Lots of folks misquote this one as "Let the wild rumpus begin!" And we're gonna be honest: that kinda has a nicer ring to it. But who are we to question the king of chidlren's lit?

Where you've heard it

Say the words "let the wild rumpus start!" to a group of two-year-olds, and they'll start dancing their toddler butts off.

Famous lines from children's books tend to entrench themselves more firmly in our vernacular than do lines from adult books. Why? Because we read them as kids, so they've been in our brains longer. Plus, we were young and impressionable.

So the term "wild rumpus" is a fairly common one, and anytime you hear it, you can be sure it's derived from Sendak's classic tale, whether the phrase is altered slightly or preserved in its original wording, as with this "new music collective" or this Minneapolis bookstore.

If your mother ever looks you sternly in the eyes and tells you to cease your "wild rumpus," just do what Max would have done: don a wolf costume and go on an adventure. 

If nothing else, it will be harder for her to reason with you if you're acting totally nuts.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

You don't get much pretension in kids' books, generally, and this one is no exception. It's just a kid, lost in in his own imagination, commanding his imaginary friends to get the party started. Sadly, we do have to move it up a couple notches for using the word "rumpus."