Serious-ish

There's no way around it—the serious topic of The Butter Battle Book means at least a somewhat serious tone. We're talking weapons of mass destruction here, and unless you're South Park, you're probably not joking around too much with that.

But wait a second. While the message is clear in terms of what the Big-Boy Boomeroo represents, it's hard to be too frightened of such a ridiculous name, don't you think? That's what we call Seussian diction.

We all know that diction is the superhero of tone—so when Seuss uses words like Snick-Berry Switch, Yookery, and Sala-ma-goo, we can't help but think he's going for at least a little lightheartedness among all that serious stuff.