Claude Cat

"(Claude Cat) kinda feels like a pointless add-on because he makes me wonder why can't his roles be played by Sylvester. He already places himself as the Tunes' go-to antagonistic cat, and does the job very well, so why not use him instead of his yellow knock-off?"

- ElectricDragon505, when unfavorably comparing Claude Cat to Sylvester

Claude Cat is a Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies character created by Chuck Jones.

He once was a protagonist in the Hubie and Bertie shorts, he was eventually depicted as the main antagonist for the following episodes "Two's a Crowd", "Terrier Stricken", "Mouse-Warming", "Feline Frame-Up", "No Barking", "Cat Feud" and "Louvre Come to Me!". He has been shown to bully and antagonize other pets and animals so he can have all of the attention and benefits for himself.

Intentional Bad Qualities
Note: This page will be discussing only his appearances with Frisky Puppy and his later appearances in 1952-1962, as his appearances prior and after these appearances are passable and likable.
 * 1) To get down the first problem with him, he is a Chuck Jones version of Sylvester. Where his role as the comedically unlucky antagonistic cat was already done very well with Sylvester, making Claude pointless, to begin with. In fact, you could replace Claude with Sylvester and it wouldn't make a difference.
 * 2) *What makes Claude even pointless is that Chuck Jones did use Sylvester in four of his cartoons "Scaredy Cat", "Claws for Alarm", "Jumpin' Jupiter" and "The Scarlet Pumpernickel", meaning that he, like Robert McKimson, Bob Clampett and Arthur Davis, actually do have the rights to use Friz Freleng's character Sylvester and could've used him in each of these cartoons instead of this cheap yellow Sylvester knock-off.
 * 3) While yes, he is intentionally made to be a despicable and unlikable villain for us to see him get his comeuppance, he just goes way too far with his ruthless actions to the point of being extremely heartless and selfish, almost as bad as those of Daffy Duck during the De-Patie Freleng and Seven-Arts eras.
 * 4) Unlike Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck (Chuck Jones' 1950s version), Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam and the aforementioned Sylvester, his villainous and underhanded actions are more mean-spirited than humorous. Even though he's not too much of a Karma Houdini, Claude Cat lacks what makes the beloved characters stated above, to be "love to hate" type of villains that the viewers don't need to necessarily hate to like them and these iconic characters are still lovable as villains who the viewer wants to see defeated for their schemes, which is a certain amount of charm and enjoyability that Claude lacks in.
 * 5) His consistent design from 1949-1954 is very unappealing to look at, as he looks like a yellow clone of Sylvester but with a maroon-colored haircut. His design was also changed by Chuck Jones in a year, making him look pretty inconsistent, with his post-1953 appearances being the worst offenders of such downgraded redesigns.
 * 6) *In 1958, his face looks like he had a sex change with a similar but puffier face that resembles Penelope Pussycat.
 * 7) * In 1962's "Louvre Come Back To Me", he looks like a very ugly clone of Pete Puma from 1952's "Rabbit's Kin".
 * 8) Because of his ugly design, he sometimes looks hideous whenever he gets blown up or beaten up most of the time. There was even one time when his eyes went black due to being surprised. Which looks wrong.
 * 9) Whenever he had the role of being the episode's antagonist, he is generally depicted as a malicious bully who antagonizes other pets and animals so he can be the center of attention in the house, even if he has to be violent, self-serving, and cruel to get what he wants.
 * 10) *It doesn't help the fact that his most recurring victims Frisky Puppy and Pussyfoot act more like a realistic puppy and kitten respectively unlike his previous mice victims Hubie and Bertie and the unnamed mice duo from "Mouse-Warming" or even his final foe Pepe Le Pew whom are anthropomorphic animals, hence making his antagonistic actions towards both Frisky Puppy and Pussyfoot go into animal abuse territory.
 * 11) His bumbling antics often cause him to destroy property like his own home or accidentally get himself end up into so many painful situations that are played for comedy even when it gets old, making him a predictable and destructive if well-deserved Butt-Monkey.
 * 12) Whenever he was given comedic one-liners by Mel Blanc, it sounds like a deleted take for Wile E. Coyote's voice when he had a rivalry with Bugs Bunny. Making his voice very unoriginal since Claude only communicates with stock cat sounds due to being silent (which sounds unfunny whenever he makes real-life cat sounds when he's flailing his limbs on the ground after falling from the sky). This is unlike his earlier appearances in the Hubie and Bertie cartoons where he speaks with a Marvin the Martian-esque nasal voice which fits perfectly well for his nervous characterization.
 * 13) After his earlier days as the protagonist and eventually his infamous days as a recurring antagonist, he has become so forgotten as a character that his future appearances are very unremarkable and don't add up to anything else than being a typical bumbling cartoon villain as seen in "Louvre Come Back To Me". Making him a pointless secondary character to be used as an additional villain to be used as a replacement for Sylvester's role as a bungling villain until he was brought back in an episode of HBO Max's Looney Tunes Cartoons.
 * 14) *The biggest proof of how pointless Claude is due to his excessive similarity to Sylvester is when he, Sylvester and Pete Puma are paired together as a trio of comedic antagonists in New Looney Tunes with Claude and Pete Puma depicted as Sylvester's lackeys, where Claude barely contributes anything important to the plot (let alone speaking anything), while Pete Puma, on the other hand, contributes hilarious comic relief by frustrating Sylvester with his stupidity and incompetence. In fact, these New Looney Tunes in question depicting Sylvester, Claude Cat, and Pete Puma as a trio of antagonists to Tweety, Speedy Gonzales, Hubie and Bertie, Sniffles and/or Frisky Puppy could've been written with just Sylvester and Pete Puma as a duo of comedic antagonists with Claude being written out completely and the plots would not even change in the slightest.

Good Qualities

 * 1) He was decent in the Hubie and Bertie shorts for example, where the mice are portrayed as mischievous tricksters who often manipulate Claude's mind to go insane and is depicted as a tolerable comedic antagonist as seen in "Fin 'N Catty", "Roughly Squeaking", "Mouse Wreckers" and "Mouse-Warming".
 * 2) *Despite the inconsistency to his personality, he was depicted as an unlucky, neurotic, and goofy yet empathetic protagonist in the episodes "The Hypo-Chondri-Cat" and "Cheese Chasers", which makes him likable and well-written. It's a shame that he got drastically flanderized from a likable Butt-Monkey into an evil Sylvester wannabe after his pairings with Hubie and Bertie ended, resulting his antagonistic roles to appear a lot more than his roles as the protagonist.
 * 3) *In HBO Max's Looney Tunes Cartoons, he is better written as a sympathetic guard-cat who pretty much borrows traits from Tom from Tom and Jerry with being ill-starred and mistreated due to circumstance.
 * 4) Despite his flaws, he can be a decently funny character at times.
 * 5) His design in "The Aristo-Cat", "The Hypo-Chondri-Cat", and "Cheese Chasers" are easy on the eyes and are passable to look at.
 * 6) He always gets comeuppance for his sinful deeds, so he's not too much of a Karma Houdini.
 * 7) As mentioned above, he's meant to be hated for how despicable and selfish he is.

Reception
Claude Cat received a generally mixed reception from critics, audiences and Looney Tunes fans alike, as despite the character enjoying some popularity as one of Chuck Jones' more humorous, if forgotten, Looney Tunes characters from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s, many often compared Claude unfavorably to Friz Freleng's popular puss Sylvester which he bears numerous similarities to, both in terms of physical appearance and personality.

Videos
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Trivia

 * He bears a striking resemblance to Sylvester in the following episodes "Mouse Wreckers", "Two's a Crowd", "Terrier Stricken", "Feline Frame-Up", and "No Barking".
 * The name Claude Cat is a pun on the homonym "clawed cat".
 * One of the versions of Claude Cat was planned to be made as a cameo in the deleted scene "Acme's Funeral" from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He appears with other animated characters scared when Casper appears at the funeral.
 * He is the only feline villain who doesn't speak in most of the shorts he appears in compared to cats that are treated as the protagonists.
 * Jones redesigned the neurotic feline for the 1949 film Mouse Wreckers (perhaps to distinguish him from Friz Freleng's popular puss, Sylvester). The short is another Hubie and Bertie vehicle, only this time, the antagonist they antagonize is Claude, drawn as he would appear in all future cartoons: yellow, with a red shock of hair and a white belly (his exact markings, however, would vary from cartoon to cartoon).