Herman (Herman and Katnip)

Herman the Mouse is the main protagonist of the 1940s to 50s show Herman and Katnip. He is the mortal enemy and arch-nemesis to the more clownishly dim-witted Katnip and the leader of his four loyal cousins. He is voiced by Arnold Stang.

Why He Sucks

 * 1) He is a Gary-Stu, one of the most irredeemably sadistic Gary-Stus ever made.
 * 2) He never, if ever, gets his comeuppance for his cruel actions against Katnip, who is a thoroughly ineffectual and sympathetic punching bag & torture-victim that is always perceived as the villain. Instead, Herman wins in every episode, making him a huge Karma Houdini.
 * 3) Speaking of which, Herman is someone we are supposed to root for since he is obviously ripping off the idea of the heroic ideal of Jerry the Mouse from Tom & Jerry, but he is barely well-intentioned, much to the point that he usually comes off as more of a villain than the titular Katnip.
 * 4) *This is especially evident where Katnip in an episode is either sleeping or simply doing his job while Herman or even his cousins are causing trouble around wherever Katnip goes.
 * 5) *Speaking of which, there were shorts where Herman and his inconsistently young cousins pick on Katnip whether he is not around or even when Herman is still torturing Katnip, just to make him even more 'likable'.
 * 6) *In fact, he is so cruel, malicious, and sadistic that he even makes the worst version of Jerry look like an absolute angel in comparison.
 * 7) He is also very manipulative towards his ineffectual enemy, much to the point that it always comes off as unreasonably sadistic and harsh, especially where the attacks he pulls on Katnip are way too murderous and underhanded to come off as morally righteous. And worse, none of the attacks he pulls on them are funny and instead, they come off as extremely hurtful and hateable.
 * 8) With that said, he never gives Katnip, his generally foolish feline rival, any mercy and always has him either murdering him or make him suffer a lot of the time.
 * 9) And because of this, he isn't likable in any way.
 * 10) His weird voice that has a vague hinting of a Brooklyn accent in it is very uncomfortable to hear.
 * 11) His singing is very bad, thanks to his accent.
 * 12) His attempts at humor or witty lines always fail and fall flat on his face because of lacking any real comedic touches with his sayings (e.g "There is more than one way to skin cat" from the episode "From Mad to Worse", even for a cartoon mouse. That comes off as extremely disturbing).

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Despite being one of the biggest Gary-Stus around, he can be rational and show common sense towards Katnip's foolishness.
 * 2) He was shown to be briefly likable in shorts that don't revolve around him being against Katnip, especially in some cartoons where he is paired with Henry the Rooster where he helps the rooster stand up against his utterly abusive wife Bertha/Chickenpie. (Unfortunately, where he was still paired with Katnip, he suffered from more Flanderization by becoming more of a sadistic jerk than before)
 * 3) His design comes off as either cute, poorly done, or just okay, depending on your view.

Trivia

 * Itchy from Itchy & Scratchy is based on Herman because of Herman's sadism and his cruel & manipulative tendencies towards Katnip.