With the exception of the “Sonic” movies, Jim Carrey hasn’t been in the public eye much in recent years. However, according to one TikToker, there’s a reasonable explanation for this—he is actually playing The Grinch at the Universal Studios theme park in Florida.
In his viral video, which has garnered 1.3 million views, TikToker @nhatdao908 explained how he “dove down the rabbit hole” and watched viral videos of the Grinch in the Universal Orlando park.
“I spent probably an hour watching videos of this Grinch in Universal Studios, OK?” he said. “Now I need someone to go check this out.”
He then encouraged users to search up videos of the Grinch in Universal Orlando, and added, “I don’t care what anybody tells me, but that Grinch at Universal Studios is Jim Carrey in the original outfit from 2000. Prove me wrong.”
BroBible reached out to the TikToker via TikTok direct message.
Did Viewers Believe Him?
Despite the TikToker’s conviction, commenters were doubtful.
“Who doesn’t know about the Universal Studios Grinch?” one asked, “They have a whole Suess land. But it is definitely not Jim Carrey.”
“Today people can mimic anyone, it’s so deceptive today,” a second added.
“You think Jim Carrey is gonna take time out of his life to be a Grinch at Universal Studios?” a third wrote. “Absolutely not lmao.”
And a fourth remarked, “It’s April and you still stuck on Christmas.”
BroBible reached out to Universal Orlando and Carrey’s representatives at WME Entertainment via email.
Who Really Is The Grinch At Universal Studios?
Several commenters pointed out that the viral Grinch at Universal has already been unmasked—he is actor Nick Darnell. However, Darnell has made it clear that he is a big fan of Carrey.
In an interview with BET Current, he said, “When I was younger, I looked at [Carrey] as a godly figure. I was like, ‘There’s no way I would reach that level.’ Then, as I got older and just kept on impressions. It did feel like a calling.”
The actor shared that he started out by impersonating SpongeBob and Chris Tucker. “Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey started off doing impressions,” he said. “For me, it’s just training that muscle and developing that.”
While there are some similarities between Darnell’s Grinch and Carrey’s, Darnell brings his own twist to the character. He shared that he lets fans “know his thoughts and [what’s on] his mind” as the Grinch.
Darnell also noted that he “grew up studying Jim Carrey, like all of his work,” and was especially interested in his work on the sketch show “In Living Color.” This is because, according to Darnell, Carrey was “unapologetically himself… able to kick it with all these Black [comedians].”
As well as this, Darnell shared that he particularly enjoyed the slapstick aspects of Carrey’s performance, adding, “I fell in love with Jim Carrey for the physicalness of it all.”
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Ultimately, as Carrey himself has said, he is more of an “idea” than a person. So, unless the theory about him being cloned is actually true, it’s likely that the Grinch in Orlando is just very good at his job.