History Literature / TheButterBattleBook

* MutuallyAssuredDestruction: The ending leaves open the possibility that, since [[spoiler:both sides realize dropping their Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo will doom their own side as well as the other side, they just might choose not to do it after all]]. And that's about the most ''optimistic'' interpretation of the ending.

* TrickedToDeath: Grandpa and Van Itch are sent on an obvious suicide mission to drop bombs on the other town, with neither of them considering that the blast will kill them to.

%%* MutuallyAssuredDestruction: One interpretation of the ending.

Creator/RalphBakshi gave the book an AnimatedAdaptation in 1989, the last to be produced during Dr. Seuss' lifetime. Seuss regarded it as [[CreatorPreferredAdaptation the best adaptation of any of his works]]. The second season of Creator/{{Netflix}}'s ''[[WesternAnimation/GreenEggsAndHam2019 Green Eggs and Ham]]'' also takes heavy inspiration from the book, being a spy thriller focused on the Yook and Zook War.

Creator/RalphBakshi gave the book an AnimatedAdaptation in 1989, the last to be produced during Dr. Seuss' lifetime. Seuss regarded it as [[CreatorPreferredAdaptation the best adaptation of any of his works]].

* FunnyForeigner: Van Itch talks like an EvilBrit.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The animated special (which, like the book, uses a Berlin Wall expy) aired four days after the real Berlin Wall fell.

* AnAesop: The book is about both the pointlessness of war and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids the Cold War arms race]], of all things. Two tribes called the Yooks and the Zooks are divided by a wall, and the societies can't get along because the Yooks eat their bread butter-side up, while the Zooks do the same butter-side ''down.'' Both groups start developing weapons to attack the other, a process which escalates until they independently develop the "Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo," a bomb capable of wiping out all life. The story ends with a child--the narrator--watching as his grandfather and the opposing side stand poised to drop their Boomeroos, begging for an answer: "Who'll drop it first?" It's a simple but powerful way of saying that wanting to kill someone or disliking a society simply because they're different from you is, for lack of a better term, completely ''stupid.''

* NotSoDifferent: Grandpa is a SociopathicSoldier who is eager to devastate his enemies with weapons of mass destruction because he has been taught that UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans. Van Itch arms himself with larger and more destructive weapons for the same reason.

* DirtyCommunists: The name Van Itch sounds very similar to the stereotypical Russian surname Ivanovitch.

* RealityEnsues: The SillyReasonForWar comes as pretty funny at first when all it consists of is building silly and increasingly silly weapons, until it's taken to its logical conclusion both sides building the equalivent of nuclear bombs.

* AnAesop: The Cold War is stupid.

%%* LensmanArmsRace: The plot, basically.

%%* MexicanStandoff: The last scene, leaving it quite ambiguous what will happen next.

* Main/Unishment: Every time Grandpa fails to defeat the Zooks, he is rewarded with a promotion and a more powerful weapon

%%* FantasticNuke: The "Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo."

%%* HeroicDog: Daniel, the nation's first gun-toting spaniel.

Written during (and intended to reflect directly on) the Cold War, it tells the story of an arms race between the Yooks and the Zooks, whose villages are divided by a wall all because [[SillyReasonForWar they can't agree on which side of their bread to butter]], leading up to what is all but stated to be a MutuallyAssuredDestruction.

** As far as Dr. Seuss books go, this is his darkest children's book. Not only does it deal with the Cold War and the idea of the atom bomb, but it also doesn't have a happy ending.

* FantasticNuke: The "Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo."

* HeroicDog: Daniel, the nation's first gun-toting spaniel.

* LensmanArmsRace: The plot, basically.

* MexicanStandoff: The last scene, leaving it quite ambiguous what will happen next.
* MutuallyAssuredDestruction: One interpretation of the ending.

* SillyReasonForWar: The trope's poster boy.

* WorthyOpponent: Grandpa's ArchEnemy Van Itch sees himself as one of these.

* CorruptHick: The Chief Yookaroo talks with a Texan drawl and wears similar rectangular glasses to the 41st President of the United States.

* MadScientist: The Zooks' Bright Boys dance ballet, measure Grandpa in a very eccentric way, and use a lot of technobabble in their song about the Bitsy Big Boy Boomeroo.

* WorthyOpponent: Grandpa's ArchEnemy Van Itch sees himself as one of these.

* UniverseChronology: A confusing one, as at first it seemed like the events were being told by the Yook in flashback framing to his grandson, but then it somehow started happening in the present where the grandson is present. It sort of justifies itself as it contributes to the ambiguity of the ending whereas if it had been a flashback, it would've been a ForegoneConclusion that [[spoiler:neither side dropped the bomb]].

* SympatheticPOV: Though the message concerns both sides' equally SillyReasonForWar, the focus is on the Grandpa Yook who is matched time and time again by his Zook rival and sent slinking back to base. He also comes off as visibly more shaken by their final plan than the Zook counterpart.

* NoEnding: [[spoiler:Both the animated special and the book just stop during the most chilling moment when both the Yook and Zook are waiting to see who will drop the bomb first. It makes the whole thing much more powerful and allows children to think and make up their own minds about the whole conflict.]]

* BirdFolk: Both the Yooks and Zooks have curved bird-like beaks.

* BirdFolk: Both the Yooks and Zooks are distinctly avian in appearance.

[[quoteright:344:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_butter_battle_book_cover.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:344:Which side is ''your'' butter on?]]

* BlackComedy: It's as whimsical and silly as any standard Seuss cartoon, but has a more satirical message, and closes with the assumption that [[spoiler: both sides will completely eradicate each other in what is all but stated to be a cartoon variant of nuclear warfare.]]

* FantasticNuke: The "Bitsy Big-Boy Bomberoo."

* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler: We never find out if anybody drops the bomb.]]

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: As mentioned above, the book is a very straightforward allegory for the Cold War, with the Bitsy Big-Boy Bomberoo being a stand-in for the atomic bomb.