Sufferin' Cats!

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Sufferin' Cats!
series = Tom and Jerry


caption =
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
animator = Kenneth Muse
George Gordon
Jack Zander Pete Burness
musician = Scott Bradley
producer = Fred Quimby
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date = flagicon|US January 16, 1943
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7' 50"
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0036399
preceded_by = "Fine Feathered Friend"
followed_by = "The Lonesome Mouse"

"Sufferin Cats! " is a 1943 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 9th "Tom and Jerry" short. It was produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on January 16, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

Plot

The cartoon opens with Jerry running with a fishing line tied to his tail. The line is pulled back and Jerry is pulled under the radiator and towards Tom, dressed like a fisherman, at the end of the line. When Jerry reaches Tom, Tom makes a face and scares Jerry causing him to run away again. Tom starts to reel in Jerry again, but the mouse holds onto a bag of jerked beef, causing Tom to reel in a little harder. As the line returns to Tom, a piece of the bag is on the end, simply stating "JERK". Jerry then escapes through an open window and smashes into another alley cat (here named Meathead) who is going through garbage cans trying to find something to eat.

Jerry starts to run away from the alley cat, but then runs into Tom who is coming towards him. Choosing between evils, Jerry then jumps into the alley cat and gives him a kiss, hug, and plays with his whiskers, and sticks his tongue out at Tom. This angers Tom who grabs Jerry and hisses at the alley cat. The alley cat then grabs Jerry back and hisses significantly louder than Tom, causing him to retreat for a short while.

Meathead then tries to make a Jerry sandwich, but when he puts pepper on the bread, Jerry sneezes away from the bread and escapes from Meathead only to run into Tom. The mouse now hugs Tom and snubs Meathead, who grabs Jerry and breaks the bread over Tom's head. Tom then grabs Meathead's whiskers and pulls one of them out. Meathead then locks Jerry in a sardine can and pulls one of Tom's whiskers out. This battle continues until Meathead notices Jerry trying to escape while holding Tom by the ears and pulling his fist back to punch him. Meathead scolds Jerry and points to the can as if to say, "You belong to me, get back in the can." Jerry goes back in the can, but Tom has replaced himself with a flowerpot and stolen the sardine can. Meathead chases after Tom, but runs directly into the front grate.

In the backyard, Tom sits on Jerry to hide the mouse and shows Meathead the empty sardine can. Jerry reveals himself by sticking Tom with a gardening fork. Jerry then runs away, followed by Meathead. However, Tom has tied Meathead's tail to the garden hose, and he is drawn back to the spigot and rained on. Tom then chases Jerry and catches him near an open window where a pie is sitting, which he places in the alley cat's path. Meathead hits the pie and Tom runs away with Jerry, but soon trips into a garbage can. Meathead grabs Jerry but then Tom emerges and wallops him with a frying pan. Jerry then runs away and through a hole in a fence. As Tom sticks his head into the hole, Jerry whacks him with a pipe. Meathead shows up, seeing Tom clutching his head in pain, but Tom recovers soon enough to graciously allow him to go into the hole, who is promptly whacked on the head with the pipe.

Jerry runs away and disguises himself with the help of a mop bristles in the shape of a beard. Both cats corner him, and Jerry points in a direction as if to say, "He went that way". He sneezes at one point and moves his finger under his nose. The cats shrug and run off then realize they've both made a mistake and they search the mop. The cats then turn around and post a lookout; meanwhile Jerry emerges from the drainpipe and ties both cats' tails together. Jerry walks out and taunts the cats. Both attempt to chase him, but Tom moves first and ends up dragging the alley cat across the ground, and both the cats end up tangled around a tree. The mouse continues running and sets out thumbtacks for the cats to step on. They cannot stop, but they endure the pain, and catch Jerry. After a brief fight, they look at a tree stump with an ax on it and agree to cut Jerry in half. The alley cat holds Jerry while Tom readies the ax and as Tom raises the ax over his head, his devilish conscience appears and convinces him that he doesn't have to share Jerry. He then makes an X on the alley cat's head, which Tom swings for but stops short. The conscience appears again and calls him yellow, and uses general reasoning to convince the cat that Tom had priorities on Jerry, successfully breaking through to Tom. Tom draws the ax back, but the blade slides off the end and instead of being beheaded, Meathead is whacked on the head and a lump forms on the top of his head. The alley cat starts to chase Tom and beat him with the stick. Jerry has escaped, and he runs and ducks under the front gate. The cats put their feud aside to chase the mouse, but end up crashing through the gate with their heads and paws stuck on the front side of the gate and their rear ends hanging out the back. Jerry then returns with a 2x4 and gives the cats a spanking. The cartoon ends with the camera zooming in on a notice above the cats' heads saying "Make all deliveries in rear" as Jerry does exactly that to his enemies.

Trivia

*This is the first appearance of Meathead, and also the first short where Tom is given an adversary to fight with over Jerry, although Meathead is later replaced with Butch.
*Jerry ties Tom's tail with Meathead the same way he did with Butch in "Casanova Cat".