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| “ | Dat sounds logical! | „ |
| ~ Katnip, whose about to fall for yet another one of Buzzy's schemes. |
Katnip is one of the three titular main protagonists of the cartoon series Herman & Katnip, nowadays usually shown in syndication with Casper and Baby Huey cartoons, where he was always bested (without exception) by his nemesis Herman, a mouse who was portrayed as kind of streetwise version of Mighty Mouse, though he was neither as strong or righteous as him, nor was he as clever as Jerry from Tom and Jerry was. Katnip would frequently be led straight into the schemes of Herman (who, despite always winning and being praised as a hero, was not always the good guy).
He was voiced by Sid Raymond, who also voices Baby Huey from Noveltoons and the Baby Huey Show (Season 1), and Heckle & Jeckle from Terrytoons.
Biography[]
While Katnip has an rivalry with Herman where he could be cruel to Katnip, but Katnip wasn't always innocent either. On the rare occasions he had Herman cornered, he thoroughly enjoyed his brief advantage. Katnip's own cruelty surfaced in the sequence of the cartoons before Herman arrived. When all Katnip had to face were the common mice, while they were not as dumb as Katnip, they were nowhere near as clever as Herman and prone to enacting scams that often put them right in Katnip's sights. While able to briefly get the better of Katnip, the other mice served the purpose of running from him, calling for Herman to get them out of their latest jam, and then aiding and sometimes screwing up Herman's efforts to strike back at Katnip. The closest Katnip came to getting back at the mice was in the cartoon, Cat Tamale, in the cartoon, it is claimed Katnip killed Louie and a ghost/angel is seen floating away after this, despite this, the actual animation of the preceding scene in the episode showed Louie successfully escaping Katnip.
Personality[]
Katnip is an completely naive, simpleton-ish cat who speaks in a classic dullard's dialect. He is also portrayed as very slow-witted, extremely gullible, impulsive, clueless, clumsy, incompetent, ill-fated, clownish, and painfully accident-prone towards his prey. He is usually doing whatever he wants to do such as sleeping or doing his jobs like being a chef while being interfered with by Herman as a prime enemy he continuously antagonizes over as a housecat on a daily basis, and is always shown chasing after him to the point of being a total pushover for Herman (aggressively through slapstick violence that Katnip survives from) & Buzzy messing with his mind.
All because of Katnip's idiocy, notable short-sightedness and acts of sheer gullibility, always leads to Katnip being put into unfortunate situations.
He's also quite tragic since Katnip is a scapegoat who is always mistreated and bullied by Herman and the gang (even when Katnip did nothing), to the point they even murder Katnip and he comes back to life, making Katnip out to be a Nemesis of some sort. Despite this, everytime he teams up with Herman out of remorse and sympathy, Herman and the gang would manipulate his vulnerability for their own selfish affairs, as well as getting Katnip in trouble.
In the Buzzy the Crow segments, this is also carried to where he is a little less antagonistic towards the aforementioned Buzzy (or at least, for the most part) where he is much more gullible, naive, and foolish than usual, as well as being a bit more miserable, pitiful, and lamentable than before (albeit having much more understandable motives for antagonizing Buzzy as a form of survival).
He can be a huge victim with problems of his own. Where in the Buzzy segments, he tries to get help with anything that is bothering him by relying on a health book and relying on the intelligence and common sense of others. Despite this, he is constantly deceived by Buzzy the Crow when Katnip thinks to cook him. Where he'd suffer a lot despite wanting to be cured, this would result in Katnip antagonizing his prey for that reason in particular, and it never ends well for him.
Even though Katnip is an excessively pitiful punching bag, a total buffoon, and a bumbling imbecile of a housecat put in such predicaments it's easy to pity him, he can be quick to realize when he is being deceived and tries to fight back, even if he is still proven to be very ineffectual at the end of the day. He even got a break from his abuse one time in a clip show, and rarely does Katnip ever come out on top.
Trivia[]
- The level of brutality and cruelty Herman would enact on Katnip often pushed the limits of even that slapstick, pre-PC era of cartoons, much to the point that Matt Groening has even said that Itchy & Scratchy are based far more on Herman & Katnip than on Tom and Jerry.
- Katnip spoke in a classic dullard's voice, very similar to Baby Huey done by the same actor. He is also unique even for his era in another respect. One cartoon, the mice tricked Katnip into believing he was dead, in the afterlife and facing an eternity of '"a fiery furnace", which could be avoided only if he served the mice back on Earth. While not brought up by name due to the era, few antagonists had their opponent deliberately threaten to send them to Hell.