Fox in Socks

Fox in Socks is a children's book by Dr. Seuss. The book begins by introducing the main characters, the Fox and Mr. Knox (initially referred to just as “Knox” like Fort Knox), and some props (a box and a pair of socks). Throughout the book the Fox tries to get Knox to say extremely difficult tongue-twisters that progress in complexity, culminating in a description of a Tweetle Beetle Battle:

“Now, when Tweetle Beetles fight, it's called a Tweetle Beetle Battle. And when they battle in a puddle, it's a Tweetle Beetle Puddle Battle. AND when Tweetle Beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, they call it a Tweetle Beetle Puddle Paddle Battle. AND when Beetles battle Beetles in a Puddle Paddle Battle, and the beetle battle's puddle is a puddle in a bottle, they call this a Tweetle Beetle Bottle Puddle Paddle Battle Muddle. AND when Tweetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles, and the bottle's on a poodle, and the poodle's eating noodles, they call this a Muddle Puddle Tweetle Poodle Beetle Noodle Bottle Paddle Battle. AND–”

“Stop it! Stop it! I can't stand it! That world is a vastly cruddy, bloody bore!” as said by Mr. Hoober-Bloob of The Hoober-Bloob Highway, a 1975 television special on CBS that featured the skit. Here, the skit was part of a job: that of a “Famous Tweetle Beetle Statistician”. If you took on this job, “you could be the world's greatest authority on Tweetle Beetle battlistics, if you study Tweetle Beetles and their ballistic characteristics.” The dissertation was read by Bob Holt, the voice of Mr. Hoober-Bloob, using a German impression similar to Ludwig von Drake.

Knox has been upset repeatedly throughout the book and finally explodes and pushes the Fox into the bottle, simultaneously obtaining revenge and terminating the Fox's dissertation on the beetles:

“When a Fox is in the bottle where the Tweetle Beetles battle with their paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle, THIS is what they call……a Tweetle Beetle Noodle Poodle Bottled Paddled Muddled Duddled Fuddled Wuddled Fox In Socks, Sir!”

Fox in Socks bears a resemblance in characters to Green Eggs and Ham, another book by Dr. Seuss. Both stories contain two main characters: one who is stubborn and wants to be left alone; the other, a persistent and sometimes annoying opposite.