The Grouches are a race of creatures in Sesame Street.
Grouches are an eccentric race of pessimistic, argumentative, and unhygienic furry creatures who prefer to live wherever trash can be found: trash cans, city dumps, even the occasional landfill (although, some Grouches live in crummy houses, broken cars, and some live in "yucky beautiful houses"). Grouches are a distinct species from the Sesame Street Monsters (including the AM Monsters).
Being as grouchy and miserable as they possibly can be is any Grouch's main mission in life. They also feel that they have to make everyone else feel the same way. Even though that makes them happy, however, a Grouch will never admit to being happy no matter what the circumstances.
Grouches like anything dirty or dingy or dusty, anything ragged or rotten or rusty or trashy. They will only buy appliances that don't work, they normally keep elephants, worms, pigs, goats, and donkeys as pets, eat undesirable foods (particularly sardines), sing out-of-tune, play radios at the highest volume, and bathe in mud as they all love not being clean. Grouches also like to use phrases such as "scram", "get lost", "go away", and "beat it".
As seen in the 1985 film Follow That Bird, a handful of human beings have embraced the Grouch way of life, proving themselves to be as hostile, surly, and filthy as any furry Grouch. Two such human Grouches were seen working at the Don't Drop Inn, a Grouch eatery whose patrons included both furry Grouches and disagreeable humans who might or might not themselves have been human Grouches.
Even though Oscar the Grouch and his girlfriend Grundgetta are the most well-known Grouches, over the years a very large number of Grouches have been introduced.
Most of the Grouches live in Grouchland USA as seen in the film The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. Though the Grouches there had to put up with having their stuff taken by a man named Huxley, Oscar the Grouch later convinced the inhabitants that even though Grouches hate working together, they had to cooperate just this once in order to take a stand against Huxley.