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    Loathsome Characters Wiki

    Jerry Mouse (Gene Deitch era & The T&J Comedy Show)

    NOTE: Please have massive respect for Gene Deitch, Allen Swift and Lou Scheimer.

    Jerry Mouse (Gene Deitch era & The T&J Comedy Show)
    Despite what "The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit" claims, this Jerry ain't no "sweet and lovable mouse", unlike his original counterpart.
    Gender: Male
    Type: Overly Sadistic Mouse
    The Extremely Dark Side of Jerry Mouse
    Species: Mouse
    Portrayed by: Allen Swift (1961-1962)
    Lou Scheimer (1980)
    Status: Alive
    Media of origin: Tom and Jerry
    First appearance: Puss Gets the Boot (1940)


    Gerald "Jerry" Jinx Mouse is one of the two titular main protagonists (alongside Thomas "Tom" Jasper Cat) of the Tom and Jerry cartoons.

    But during both the Gene Deitch and the Filmation eras (the latter follows the same footsteps as the former era), he is portrayed as extremely unlikable to the point that it's even out of character for him and has frequently been depicted as anti-heroic and even villainous, eventually going so far to become the direct main antagonist of the duo in quite a number of episodes of both eras.

    Why He Was a Dirty Double-Crossin', Good for Nothin' Two-Timer

    Note: This only applies to his incarnation in the Gene Deitch era of Tom and Jerry, as well as Filmation's The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show.

    In General

    1. He has been flanderized beyond recognition and has lost all of the charm and likability he had in the classic era, and it wasn't until the Chuck Jones era when he finally reverted to his original personality. He's gone from a troublesome and mischievous, yet cute and lovable mouse into a malicious and sadistic jerk who constantly tortures Tom for little-to-no reason. He is so bad to the point that it could almost already give his Famous Studios knock-off counterpart a run for his money,
      • Unlike in the classic and Chuck Jones eras, where Jerry's antagonistic tendencies towards Tom were meant to be all play rather than serious attacks while bonding with Tom over a mutual sentiment towards an unpleasant experience, here, he takes it too far by downright making Tom's owner torturing Tom for his own sick amusement while showing absolutely no mercy for Tom. Worst of all, he never gets any comeuppance for his actions (with the minor exception of Calypso Cat), which he occasionally does in the classic and Chuck Jones-eras even whenever he provokes Tom while taking it to the extreme. Most of these really show the writers had Jerry at his absolute worst and Tom being portrayed as utterly harmless.
    2. In most of these cartoons, he often acts more like a villain than a hero, which makes it extremely hard to root for him.
    3. He's extremely sadistic, as he goes so far as to laugh at Tom every time he gets into all sorts of violent abuse and misfortunes, especially from Tom's overweight abusive owner, especially when all the chaos caused is entirely the mouse's own fault.
    4. As the result of his flanderization, the cat-and-mouse dynamic between him and Tom in this era has been badly butchered beyond belief:
      • With the notable exception of the episode "Buddies Thicker than Water", instead of being frenemies (both friends and enemies at the same time) with Tom (often due to their immense conflicts with one another), here both he and Tom are instead depicted as straight-out sworn enemies that downright hate each other while barely sharing the same bond they had with each other, with both of them being more mean-spirited and hateful towards each other than usual.
      • As mentioned before in Reason #3, he is downright malicious as during this era he's the one entirely responsible for all the conflict between him and Tom, unlike the the classic and Chuck Jones eras where it is kind of opposite. This ultimately results to Tom coming off as a villain wannabe that poses almost no threat to him and doesn't even feel genuinely threatening at all. Hence, in other words, because of Jerry's flanderization, these eras basically reversed the roles of both Tom and Jerry as the aggressor and victim respectively (albeit not in a good way!).
    5. He usually has Tom get into trouble with Tom's owners for no real reason even though it wasn't his fault, with the hugest and worst offenders being Gene Deitch era cartoons "Down and Outing", "High Steaks" and "Sorry Safari" since his extreme sadism has now hit full rock bottom as he is constantly getting Tom cruelly abused by his overweight abusive owner non-stop.
    6. The injuries that he conflicts on Tom are more lifelike and brutal rather than being cartoonish and funny.
    7. His gags had gone from funny, wildly hilarious and entertaining in the classic era to mostly flat, stale, unfunny and mean-spirited in these eras.
    8. The laugh that he makes is very creepy as it legit sounds more like a hyena or goblin's laugh sped up than a cute mouse's laugh,
      • Therefore, both Allen Swift and Lou Scheimer's voices for Jerry are downright atrocious and incredibly terrible to hear, especially in the Gene Deitch era, as both actors do not sound at the slightest like how William Hanna's original voice for Jerry in the Hanna-Barbera eras were.
    9. Like Herman from Herman and Katnip, he also qualifies as a Gary-Stu.
    10. For some reason, Jerry isn't usually seen because of how small he is, which results in most of the characters in the era not being able to see him, Jerry uses this as his advantage when getting Tom in trouble, as if he himself is the size of a ant or a flea. Not helping is the eras' bad animation and nonsensical logic (even by Tom and Jerry standards) resulting in how he manages to escape before he gets spotted by other characters being confusing and not making any sense whatsoever.
    11. In each short, he never gets punished. Instead, he wins in every episode of the Gene Deitch-era and the Filmation era, and with the minor exception of Calypso Cat, he never gets his comeuppance, thus making him a Karma Houdini.
    12. Sometimes, his design goes off-model, mainly due to the low budget of the cartoons of both the Gene Deitch era and The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show.
    13. His flanderization is one of the main reasons why both the Gene Deitch eras and the Filmation eras of Tom and Jerry are hated by critics and fans, and succeeded in turning him into one of the most hated Tom and Jerry characters of all time, to the point that some fans even started hating him as a whole for no valid reason whatsoever since then, even when he's not flanderized and is still a good character before and after those two aforementioned eras. Since then, he has created the extremely annoying misconception that Jerry is an unlikable sadist who tortures Tom solely just for fun. In other words, he gives the original Jerry Mouse a bad name.

    Gene Deitch era

    1. He sabotages Tom's chances of getting the affections of a female Persian cat in "Calypso Cat".
    2. He would be flanderized again, but only worse in Filmation's The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show.

    Filmation's The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show

    1. He was re-flanderized in The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, since that show seems to follow the footsteps of the Gene Deitch era. Worse still, his sadistic nature from the Gene Deitch era is shown to be even more obvious and exaggerated in that show than it is here, as evident in numerous episodes such as "Heavy Booking", "The Plain Baron Strikes Again", "Kitty Hawk Kitty", and "The Puppy Sitter".
    2. in numerous episodes such as "Spike's Birthday", "The Puppy Sitter" and "Say What?", he behaves rather mean and cruel to Spike Bulldog when the dog is supposed to be his best friend and support him. Yet he in this show seems to be even more oblivious towards Jerry's cruel nature than usual, and constantly defends him from Tom for no particular reason even though Tom technically did nothing wrong to Spike to begin with.
      • Granted, Jerry may not be the greatest friend to Spike Bulldog in some episodes of the classic era and the later revivals mainly due to him duping Spike as a shield against Tom via stealing his bones, bothering his son Tyke or disturbing him just to frame Tom, these moments were few and far between and cleverly used to wrap things up in said cartoons, and not to mention, most of the time, these were mainly done out of self-defense to protect himself from Tom whom is violently chasing him. But, to have Jerry actively harm Spike for no reason out of sadism and pure malice just so that he could see Tom suffer from Spike's wrath out of self-amusement in these cartoons does makes this out of character for him.

    Redeeming Qualities

    In General

    1. He was a much better character before the Gene Deitch era and has massively redeemed himself in future Tom and Jerry cartoons since the Chuck Jones era (though he got flanderized again only in The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show).
    2. His character design, despite going off-model at times, is still cute as usual.
    3. Even though he can be sadistic, but there are times where he doesn't laugh at Tom getting hurt by his owner, examples include:
      1. This happened when Tom tried to hide in the swimming pool and got beaten up by his owner in "High Steaks".
      2. Another time is when Tom reeled his red-faced owner out of the water in "Down and Outing".

    Gene Deitch era

    1. "Buddies Thicker Than Water", "The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit" and "Carmen Get It!" are the only cartoons which he was ever likable in this era of Tom and Jerry, as in the former, he did help Tom from freezing out in the cold, and his abuse towards Tom in that cartoon is justified because Tom betrayed his kindness by throwing him out into the cold in favor of getting pampered by his thin female owner. And in the latter two, he is just like his original counterpart.
    2. He does get his comeuppance in Calypso Cat as he is being pursued by Tom at the end for sabotaging his relationship with a female cat, much to the point of losing her to a calypso player.

    Filmation's The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show

    1. Despite being a Karma Houdini that frequently wins in the end in this show, unlike the Gene Deitch era Jerry does get his comeuppance in the end of some episodes such as in "Incredible Shrinking Cat", "When the Rooster Crows", "No Museum Peace", "Superstocker", "The Great Mousini", and "Mechanical Failure", despite that Tom still loses in the end alongside him (except in "Incredible Shrinking Cat", "When the Rooster Crows", "The Great Mousini" and "Superstocker" where Tom actually defeated Jerry in the end), though that isn't saying much.

    Trivia

    • Itchy from Itchy & Scratchy from The Simpsons is very likely to be loosely inspired partially by Gene Deitch's more villainous incarnation of Jerry from Tom and Jerry because of this Jerry's sadism and his cruel and manipulative tendencies towards Tom during the Gene Deitch era, as well as how the Itchy character itself as a whole is a parody of the villainous ideal of Jerry from Tom and Jerry.

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