| “ | Hurrah for our side! Butter side down! | „ |
| ~ Van Itch to the Yook border patrol guard. |
Van Itch is the main antagonist of Dr. Seuss' The Butter Battle Book.
In the TV Special, he was voiced by the late Clive Revill, who also voiced Emperor Palpatine in the original release of The Empire Strikes Back.
Biography[]
Van Itch is a Zook, a creature who dresses in orange and spreads butter on the bottom side of bread instead of the top like the blue dressed Yooks. This led to disagreement between the two and a wall was built between them.
A Yook only known as "Grandfather" used to guard the wall with a Tough-Tufted Prickly Snick-Berry Switch, a branch with prickly berries on it. If any Zooks got too close to the wall, Grandfather would wave his switch to make them go away. After a while, Van Itch destroyed the switch with a slingshot. Humiliated, Grandfather went to the Yook leader, Chief Yookeroo, who gave him a large machine with three slingshots known as the Triple-Sling Jigger. Van Itch was so scared by this, he ran away.
However, the next day, he came back with the Jigger-Rock Snatchem, a machine that would fling whatever the Triple-Sling Jigger shoots at the Zooks right back at the Yooks. Afterwards, the Yooks invented a gun and named it the Kick-A-Poo Kid, loaded with a variety of materials and carried by a dog named Daniel. Before they could fire it though, Van Itch reveals his much larger gun. It was the Eight-Nozzled Elephant-Toted Boom Blitz, it fired high-explosive sour cherry stone pits and was carried by two elephants. The Yooks then invented the Utterly Sputter, a vehicle that will sprinkle blue goo all over the Zooks so that they'll be unable to eat their buttered bread. However, Van Itch had another Utterly Sputter and threatened to do the same if they went along with their plans.
Finally, each race obtains a Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo, a tiny but powerful bomb that will blow everyone away. All of the Yooks and Zooks were ordered to stay safe underground while Grandfather and Van Itch drop their Boomeroo on the other side of the wall. The book simply ends on a cliffhanger between the two wondering who will drop it first.
Trivia[]
- Van Itch and the other Zooks represent the Soviet Union, particularly during the nuclear arms race. The way they put butter on the bottom side of bread most likely represents Communism.
- The Dookess of Zookia from the second season of Green Eggs and Ham was partially inspired by Van Itch, but the character himself was not seen on the show.
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 Villains
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