Tom & Jerry - Who is the bad guy?

Skylands

Skylands

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Watching the classic Tom & Jerry, I noticed how much trouble they both get into.

So, who do you believe is really the bad guy?

I've always noticed that Jerry was a jerk. Granted, Tom is too, but it's usually Jerry who does something to annoy the cat first. Poor Tom, everything and everyone is always stacked against him.
 
Cartoon Network is for always playing reruns of it during the day.

The show is okay, Cartoon Network, but not good enough that I want to watch it for hours on end.

(I'm not sure if they actually still play episodes of it constantly on weekdays)
 
I think Jerry is the bad guy. He's evil.... but evil in an annoying way. Tom is just trying to capture the mouse like his master told him so i don't really think he's the bad guy. =D
 
Tom is trying to fulfill his role as a mouse-hunting cat. Jerry, is more of the bad figure because he continues to defy Tom's attempts to get rid of him.
 
If Tom doesn't do anything, the Jerry will try to do something that will make Tom chase him. If Jerry doesn't do anything (most of the time), then Tom will try his hardest to catch the mouse and try to eat him.
 
FINALLY SOMEWHERE I CAN POST ABOUT THIS OMG YES

I recently watched some Tom and Jerry cartoons, and I was appalled at how much of a jerk Jerry is to Tom. In the majority of episodes, it was Jerry who first gained Tom's ire, but there were some in which Tom was first to cause trouble.

Their relationship is best described as love-hate. They love to chase and be chased, hurt and be hurt. In one episode, Jerry finds his current life boring, and leaves a note for Tom while he sleeps that he is heading to the big city. Once he gets there, he realizes that city life is too hectic and crazy and he rushes back home and rips up the note, planting a big wet one on a sleeping Tom, who wakes up thoroughly confused.

Tom has also showed that despite their differences, Jerry is extremely important to him, quite possibly the most important figure in his life. He has captured Jerry numerous times, and not once has he truly been able to kill him, as it would be tremendously easy to simply bite off Jerry's head and kill him.

He relies on Jerry to bring excitement into his life. In one episode, after much fighting, Jerry gets fed up and storms out, ignoring Tom's scares. When Tom realizes what he's done, he freaks out, offering Jerry numerous methods with which to cause him harm, and Jerry refuses them all and simply walks out the door.

Whether or not either of them can be described as "the bad guy" based solely on their behavior is pretty much impossible. Both of them are two halves of the same whole. Without one, the other would clearly go insane, which is why Tom won't actually kill Jerry despite having numerous chances to (he actually saved Jerry from freezing to death in one episode), and why Jerry doesn't move out of the house Tom is in and go live with Spike, who would gladly let him stay.

Spike seems to go after Tom solely because he is chasing Jerry, not because he's a cat. He can't really be seen as the bad guy, either, because Spike simply thinks he is protecting his friend by pummeling Tom. Tom, on the other hand, is terrified of Spike because he is an enormous, ferocious dog, so he doesn't ask questions when Spike lays into him. He expects it.

To summarize, Tom and Jerry is a cartoon with two villains and no villains. Each has done something to fan the flames of war - and they wouldn't have it any other way.
 
^PMJ just psycho-analyzed an old slapstick cartoon. WIN. Even though if you look at it, Jerry is the bad guy, being that he always starts the trouble, he's so much more likeable. He's a jolly little mouse messing with his natural enemy. Tom is just a jerk, where Jerry is trying to have a good time, Tom clearly has the intent of eliminating the little guy for good. Even though Jerry may be the bad guy, Tom is the antagonist. Ya dig?
 
I was going to say that Jerry = Antihero and Tom = Antivillian, but then after reading PMJ's rant analysis, I have decided to rest my case.

That being said, this is a cartoon focussed mainly on the events that happen as Tom tries to catch Jerry, not on who's right and who's wrong. I watched it purely for enjoyment and never really noticed this. :S
 
PMJ said:
FINALLY SOMEWHERE I CAN POST ABOUT THIS OMG YES

I recently watched some Tom and Jerry cartoons, and I was appalled at how much of a jerk Jerry is to Tom. In the majority of episodes, it was Jerry who first gained Tom's ire, but there were some in which Tom was first to cause trouble.

Their relationship is best described as love-hate. They love to chase and be chased, hurt and be hurt. In one episode, Jerry finds his current life boring, and leaves a note for Tom while he sleeps that he is heading to the big city. Once he gets there, he realizes that city life is too hectic and crazy and he rushes back home and rips up the note, planting a big wet one on a sleeping Tom, who wakes up thoroughly confused.

Tom has also showed that despite their differences, Jerry is extremely important to him, quite possibly the most important figure in his life. He has captured Jerry numerous times, and not once has he truly been able to kill him, as it would be tremendously easy to simply bite off Jerry's head and kill him.

He relies on Jerry to bring excitement into his life. In one episode, after much fighting, Jerry gets fed up and storms out, ignoring Tom's scares. When Tom realizes what he's done, he freaks out, offering Jerry numerous methods with which to cause him harm, and Jerry refuses them all and simply walks out the door.

Whether or not either of them can be described as "the bad guy" based solely on their behavior is pretty much impossible. Both of them are two halves of the same whole. Without one, the other would clearly go insane, which is why Tom won't actually kill Jerry despite having numerous chances to (he actually saved Jerry from freezing to death in one episode), and why Jerry doesn't move out of the house Tom is in and go live with Spike, who would gladly let him stay.

Spike seems to go after Tom solely because he is chasing Jerry, not because he's a cat. He can't really be seen as the bad guy, either, because Spike simply thinks he is protecting his friend by pummeling Tom. Tom, on the other hand, is terrified of Spike because he is an enormous, ferocious dog, so he doesn't ask questions when Spike lays into him. He expects it.

To summarize, Tom and Jerry is a cartoon with two villains and no villains. Each has done something to fan the flames of war - and they wouldn't have it any other way.
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Well, I agree with most of your analysis, but Spike treats Tom like that because Tom's almost always bothering him (unintentionally of course) trying to catch Jerry. I do remember one episode that Spike agreed to help Jerry because Jerry had helped him in some way. Otherwise, though, it's Tom's own recklessness that gets him into the doghouse (hahaha).
 
I think everyone has "psychoanalyzed" (it would actually just be analyzed, psychoanalysis has to do with Freud) Tom and Jerry at some point.

I've always thought of Tom and Jerry as having Grey and Grey Morality; Tom wants to catch the mouse for his owner and Jerry doesn't really want to be caught.
 
CCloud said:
Well, I agree with most of your analysis, but Spike treats Tom like that because Tom's almost always bothering him (unintentionally of course) trying to catch Jerry. I do remember one episode that Spike agreed to help Jerry because Jerry had helped him in some way. Otherwise, though, it's Tom's own recklessness that gets him into the doghouse (hahaha).
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The episode you're referring to is the one in which Spike has a thorn in his paw, and Jerry pulls it out. I'm not sure if that was the beginning of their relationship, but it certainly could be seen as a big contributor.

It's true that Tom gets in Spike's way a lot. I guess Tom is so focused on catching Jerry that he is oblivious to his surroundings.
 
lol @ PMJ's first post in this thread.

I think both of them are the bad guy for promoting violence. Remember, violence is not the answer kids.
 
There both the bad guys because in almost every episode one of them provokes the other and then that leads to violence
 
I didn't like this show as a kid, I don't like it now, and the reason is this: both Tom and Jerry essentially try and kill one another with cartoon violence that was way too intense even for the generation it was originally made for. I mean, how hard was it back then to entertain kids where they actually had to have a cat and a mouse try to kill each other in the name of comedy? The only consolation is that this was an easy show for others to parody (my personal favorite being "Itchy and Scratchy" from The Simpsons).

In any case, if I had to say either was the real bad guy, it was definitely Jerry. While both are equally guilty of taunting and tormenting each other, Jerry seemed to get more of a self-righteous pleasure from it all, since he almost always got away unscaved.
 
Although I see where PMJ got his points, I am in more agreement with Apollo's (and it's not because I think Freud is a baseless scientist that doesn't deserve credit for making a bunch of theories from observations). Despite the apparent innocence of it, everything they do is really unnecessary and impractical to real life (enjoy the thrill of the chase and being violent? Really?).
 
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