the life and times of endenizen » 2007 » November

I flipped on the TV while cleaning my apartment to see if there were any good football games. Then I remembered I don’t really like football and settled for Tom and Jerry. When you think about it, the cartoon is rather profound. Both for its interesting take on the physical world, and the creative situations made up by frequent writer/producer Chuck Jones (who did the cartoon I am currently watching so my points may need to be adjusted to cover the whole of Tom and Jerry cartoons).

First and foremost, no story is necessary (as is especially apparent during the Chuck Jones era). The substance of almost every episode relies on the bitter rivalry between that darned cat Tom and his would-be lunch Jerry. While this provides quite a bit of conflict to an otherwise straightforward drama, it is presented in much the same way as comical theatre: should the villain ever catch the hero… well we don’t even want to think about that. In fact, many episodes end with Jerry coming to Tom’s rescue and asserting that he is the “better mouse”… or animal, or whatever.

A few recurring themes tend to appear:

• Any romance must be portrayed by a French-speaking animal
• Any dog which appears in the show must be angry, or stupid, or both
• When an animal moving at significant speed runs into a stationary object, it must be smashed like a pancake, an accordion-like pancake, or severed into multiple pieces (none of these will cause permanent damage)
• When high above the ground, an animal won’t fall unless it looks down, and/or is not Jerry
• Cats are hollow - an object (such as a mouse) moving fast enough can potentially enter through a cat’s mouth and proceed straight through to the tail and out (note: to prevent further injury, tying the tail below the exit point is recommended)
• Inflating something with air will result in that object becoming lighter than air
• Slowing down is not an option - when moving around a corner, the turn will be taken too quickly resulting in a skidding sound and a hopping motion (this is required, therefore, no animal can gain an advantage by attempting to circumvent this process)

And finally…

• When a foe (typically a dog) presents a threat to the well-being of either party, all inter-species conflict may be temporarily set aside until such time that said foe is “removed from the picture” either by pancaking, accordion-pancaking, or being severed into multiple pieces. At this point, chasing may resume (occasionally preceded by a handshake)

Tom and Jerry cartoons are some of the most well-known in history. They have won seven academy awards and solidly established themselves as the Saturday-morning cartoons. So the next time you feel like flipping on the game, watch Tom and Jerry instead. I did!

(and by now, unfortunately, it’s over and some “modern” cartoon is on - with more story, more characters, more colors, and much more confusion. imagine the attention span you’d need to have to watch a cartoon with so much going on… it’s more than I can handle)