this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
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Thomas "Tom" Jasper Cat, commonly referred to as Tom Cat, or more simply referred to as Tom, and originally known as Jasper, is one of the two anti-heroic protagonists in Tom and Jerry, alongside Jerry Mouse, created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Despite being referred as an anti-heroic, Tom is more often placed in the role of the antagonist, with Jerry often being the protagonist just as much.

Tom is a bluish-grey and white anthropomorphic domestic short haired tuxedo British cat who first appeared in the 1940 MGM animated short Puss Gets the Boot. The cat was known as Jasper during his debut in the short; however, beginning with his next appearance in The Midnight Snack he was known as Tom or Thomas.

Tom and Jerry cartoons

His name, "Tom Cat", is based on "tomcat", a word which refers to male cats. He is usually mute and rarely heard speaking with the exception of a few cartoons (such as 1943's The Lonesome Mouse, 1944's The Zoot Cat, 1947's Part Time Pal, 1953's Puppy Tale and 1992's Tom and Jerry: The Movie). His only notable vocal sounds outside of this are his various screams whenever he is subjected to panic or, more frequently, pain. He is continuously after Jerry Mouse, for whom he sets traps, many of which backfire and cause damage to him rather than Jerry. His trademark scream was provided by creator William Hanna. Hanna's recordings of Tom screaming were later used as a stock sound effect for other MGM cartoon characters, including a majority of Tex Avery's shorts.

Tom is usually defeated in the end (or very rarely, killed, like in Mouse Trouble, where he explodes), although there are some stories where he outwits and defeats Jerry. Besides Jerry, he also has trouble with other mouse or cat characters. One of them that appears frequently is Spike Bulldog. Spike regularly appears and usually assists Jerry and beats up Tom. Though in some occasions Tom beats him or he turns on Jerry (like his debut appearance in Dog Trouble). Usually when Tom is chasing Jerry after a bit Jerry turns the tables on Tom and beats him or uses an outside character such as Spike to beat Tom.

Tom has variously been portrayed as a house cat doing his job, and a victim of Jerry's blackmail attempts, sometimes within the same short. He is almost always called by his full name "Thomas" by Mammy Two Shoes. In 1961 short Switchin' Kitten Tom has a membership card as belong to the "International Brotherhood of Cats".

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[–] CrawlMarks@hexbear.net 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Short king posting.
I am a short king. I am stronger than average. I don't work out enough to be properly strong. Just stronger than average. People are always consistently amazing to see a short king do a feat of mild strength. Like, there was a situation so I had to pick up and move a guy that was bigger than me and people looked at me like I was a wizard for getting a full two work outs in a week.

[–] Moss@hexbear.net 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Do you build muscle quicker with less overall body mass?

[–] CrawlMarks@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago

That is a a noted thing. If you consider the volume of weights moved as a ratio to volume of muscle possessed the smaller you are the bigger any given lift is. Muscle in particular is noted to to non linear strength correlation. So overall size doesn't indicate strength in the ranges most people live at. At the extremes sure. So when I bench one plate I am effectively moving a higher percentage of physiological weight and the body seems to put more muscle on than when my tall friend benches a similar ammount of weight. He will max out above me because his frame has more room for muscle. However most people won't because this is america and almost no one works out hard enough to get near their physiological potential.