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Sufferin' succotash!
~ Sylvester's catchphrase, said example heard in "A Mouse Divided" (1953).
(Dog snarling and barking) AAAAAAAH, SSSHADDUP! (Continues barking) AHH Shut your BIG yap, or I'll let YOU have another!! (train goes uphill) Ahhhhh, what are you looking for? A FLAT lip!?
~ Sylvester to a snarling bulldog in in "All A Bir-r-r-d".
(Dogs snarling and barking) AAAAAAH SHADDUP!! (Sylvester pushing the cactus vase). (Dogs Yipes) Now, maybe that'll teach you to keep your ugly traps SHUT!
~ Sylvester to snarling dogs in "Cats and Bruises".

Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr. is a major character in the Looney Tunes franchise. He is the main protagonist villain of the Sylvester and Tweety cartoon shorts, the main antagonist of the Speedy Gonzales cartoon shorts, and the main protagonist of various other cartoon shorts. In the cartoon series "Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries", he serves as the titular main protagonist. He is the archenemy of both Tweety Bird and Speedy Gonzales, who he constantly tries to eat. He is also the natural arch-nemesis of Hector the Bulldog (who always brutalized Sylvester in order to protect Tweety).

He usually fails in his attempts to eat the bird from his owner, Granny (who owns Sylvester, Tweety and Hector as pets), often getting hit by her with a broom or getting punched by Hector. At times, he can be seen to be good by teaming up with the other Looney Tunes in such features like the 1996 film Space Jam. However, on other occasions, he does appear as a downright villain such as appearing as the main antagonist of Tweety's High Flying Adventure. He successfully ate Tweety in the 2002 webtoon Twick or Tweety.

Portrayals[]

  • From 1945 to 1989, he was voiced by the late Mel Blanc.
  • From 1990 to 2011, he was voiced by the late Joe Alaskey.
  • From 1990 to 1993, 2007 and since 2011, he was voiced by Jeff Bergman.
  • In 1996, he was voiced by Bill Farmer.
  • In 2003, he was voiced by Jeff Bennett.
  • In 2018, he was voiced by Eric Bauza.

Personality[]

Pitted against Tweety and Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester is a violent but awkward predator. He is a work-shy mouser and an amateurish hunter, so his focus on catching Tweety and Speedy is mostly obsession. Like Wile E. Coyote, Blue Aardvark, and other cartoon hunters, Sylvester's reason for being is to catch and kill the little creature who always escapes him, and is always doomed to fail. Also like these characters, he’ll use any means possible to catch his prey, by carefully placed traps, brute force, disguises or mail-order weapons.

He called the Mexican mouses as "cheese thieves" and "rats".

As a cat, Sylvester is terrified of dogs. When out of their reach, Sylvester tossed a flower vase to them and yell at them "Ah, shaddap." to keep their "ugly" traps shut.

In the cartoon Satan's Waitin', he’s killed in one of his attempts to catch Tweety, and is sent to Hell. Since cats have nine lives, the first life is told to wait, but only because the Devil Dog plans to manipulate him into hurrying his other lives along. When seven of his other lives are lost in more attempts to eat Tweety (due mainly to the Devil Dog tricking him into making these other attempts), he realizes his trick, decides to give up chasing Tweety to save his last life, and makes a home in a bank vault. This backfires when two robbers blow up the vault, sending themselves and Sylvester to Hell.

Biography[]

Sylvester is usually the main anti-hero of the same cat and Tweety Bird cartoons/episodes as he is constantly trying to eat Tweety. He is also often the main antagonist of the Speedy Gonzales cartoons/episodes since he is constantly trying to catch and eat Speedy.

Sylvester's personality in the early shorts tends to vary depending on which director handled him. Friz Freleng first paired him against Tweety Bird and Speedy, but other directors paired him with other characters. In Bob Clampett's cartoon "Kitty Kornered", Sylvester teams up with other cats to lock Porky out of the house in revenge for putting them out for the night.

In other various cartoons/episodes, Sylvester is usually the main protagonist.

Robert McKimson gave Sylvester a son named Sylvester Jr., who Sylvester tries (and fails) to train in mouse-catching. These cartoons also pit him against Hippety Hopper, a baby kangaroo Sylvester always mistakes for a giant mouse.

In Chuck Jones' shorts, he is Porky's cowardly pet cat, and most differently, does not speak. These are cartoons that show Sylvester as a hero, trying to protect an oblivious Porky from danger all around him. However, he did appear in a villainous role in one Jones short "The Scarlet Pumpernickel", which was his most villainous role ever as he wields a sword, and shows signs of being a pervert and even a rapist. Fortunately, most of the short was a show within a show.

In the 60s, Sylvester was retired as Speedy's foe with Daffy Duck taking the role. The passing of the torch is referenced in It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House where Granny hires Daffy as an exterminator to deal with Speedy as Sylvester needs to be taken to a veterinarian due to a nervous breakdown after Speedy scared Sylvester to fall into the swimming pool.

Interestingly, despite he and Daffy both meeting the heinous baseline standards in Looney Tunes, Daffy Duck has shown to be a more cruel and obnoxious person than Sylvester ever was; where Daffy's idiocy and recklessness allows him to be even more of a nuisance that stoops to several lows and several lengths that the cat would never go and succeeding at his misdeeds in a few cartoons.

However, in Bam, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, it's revealed that Sylvester (as a moralistic ghost with a brutal death from a forklift named "Sylvester the Investor") was a idol to Daffy Duck, who the latter was inspired by Sylvester to become a CEO of his own Lucky Duck mega-mart store because of Sylvester's super-successful Cat Meow Superstores.

Villainous Acts[]

  • He continuously attempts to eat Tweety and Speedy in several cartoons.
    • He achieved at killing Tweety by eating him twice in the 1957 short Greedy for Tweety (for a short amount of time) and in the 2002 webtoon, Twick or Tweety.
  • He stole many different things in numerous episodes.
  • He often smacks around a kitten for just speaking in Kitty Kornered.
  • In "Tweet Tweet Tweety", he violated the No Hunting and Fishing, which resulting getting bashed in the head by the enraged park ranger.
  • In "Back-Alley Oproar", he constantly sang and provoked Elmer Fudd, and didn't give him piece to sleep.
    • This led to Elmer Fudd creating a bomb that killed himself by mistake after wanting him to be quiet and being mentally scarred by Sylvester torturing him with singing and dancing at nighttime rather than letting him sleep peacefully and pleasantly. Even when Elmer Fudd was a angel and saw all nine lives of Sylvester sing, Elmer even commits suicide as a angel!
  • In "Ain't She Tweet", he attempted throwing a brick at a glass wall at the pet shop Tweety and a mouse were seen poking fun at Sylvester, and in the same episode, he even tossed a flower vase to a group of dogs out of pure anger and yelled at them to keep their mouths shut.
  • His most villainous role was In "The Scarlet Pumpernickel", where he played the villainous Grand Duke whom tried to force Melissa Duck to marry him, and attempted to kill The Scarlet Pumpernickel (played by Daffy Duck) when he arrived to save her, with him behaving like a pervert and a full-on rapist towards Melissa Duck. It's worth noting that this cartoon is about Daffy Duck trying to get a self-written screenplay into production, and as such, this isn't the "real" Sylvester.
  • In "Tweet and Lovely", he attempted creating a vicious robotic dog and a explosive device to get rid of a bulldog that was protecting Tweety.
  • In "Greedy For Tweety", while he, Tweety and Hector were all being hospitalized at the Animal Hospital by Granny, Sylvester attempted disfiguring Hector's foot by using a invention to drill a hole inside of Hector's foot and placing a lighted up TNT to place in Hector's foot cast with a wine cork to close it shut.
    • It doesn't help the same episode, he brutally whacks Hector's foot cast with a cane, visibly harming Hector's foot for just snarling at Sylvester while the latter tried eating Tweety (Sylvester was willing to hit him more than twice if it meant silencing him).
    • Sylvester even used scissors to cut the rope holding Hector's foot to make his foot cast brutally slam onto the front side of his chair, making Hector tormented even more.
  • In "Crowing Pains", he tried to destroy an egg to stop it from chasing him, and he used a mallet and anything he could get his hands on. It's worth noting that Henery Hawk was inside the egg, and as such, if Sylvester succeeded, it would have killed him.
    • Sylvester also brutally whacked Foghorn Leghorn on the head for being pedantic and loudmouthed, and for saving Barnyard Dawg from getting murdered by Sylvester via an ax to the stomach, as he had trapped Barnyard Dawg via a noose.
  • In "Toon Marooned", he cheated in the competition and set many dangerous traps for trapping or killing Daffy Duck.
    • It doesn't help that in the 2016 game Looney Tunes World of Mayhem, Sylvester is seen being ferocious and violent towards Daffy in a more threatening way.
  • In a episode of "Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries", he kicked a kid when he didn't want to give him peanuts.
  • In "Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries", Looney Tunes", and Looney Tunes Cartoons", there were times when he beats up Hector and Lion just because he tried to eat Tweety.
  • In "Tweet Zoo", "Pester Coaster" and "Rhino Ya Don't", he abuses and assaults animals in the zoo for no reason.

Quotes[]

♪I am that great, big, bad ol' cat; Sylvester is my name!
I only have one aim in life and that is very plain!
I'd like to catch that little bird and eat him right away.
But just as I get close to him,
this is what he'll say!
"I tawt I taw a puddy tat a-creeping up on me!"
You bet he saw a puddy cat! That puddy cat is ME!♪
~ Sylvester's lyrics in "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat".
Uh-oh! Back to the kitchen! I smelled something burning!
~ Sylvester having a dynamite exploded on his face and passing out in the kitchen door in "I Taw a Puddy Tat".
I slip-thht-bpp-thh-tht-td.
~ Sylvester having landed on a trash can after his cover is been blown in "Catty Cornered".
I forgot all about that silly thing!
~ Sylvester having his fur back accidentally shaved off by the guillotine in "Here Today, Gone Tamale".
Spoiled brat cat!
~ Sylvester annoyed at Sylvester Jr's childish tantrum and spoiled attitude in "Goldimouse and The Three Cats".
Sylvester Junior: Oh father, what are we? Cannibals??
Sylvester: YEAH HEHEHEH (clears throat) Uh, that's the way we cats
survive.
~ Sylvester towards Sylvester Jr's remorseful attitude in "Birds of a Father".
Tweety: What are you gonna do Putty Cat?
Sylvester: What am I gonna do???? How
naive can you get? I'll tell you what we'll do, we'll PLAY "sandwich"
Tweety: Sandwich? Ohhh! Tootie Tootie! How do you play it?
Sylvester: NOW first, YOU step on
THIS slice of bread. Then, I cover you, with the other slice, like this!
Tweety: Now what I do now Putty? What do I do
now???
Sylvester: NAAHAAHAAAHH!!!
NO peeking!! (sadistic chuckling)
Tweety: What did you say Putty what did you say? I can't hear you!
Sylvester takes bite.
Tweety: Ooohh!! I don't like that game!!!
~ Sylvester to Tweety in "A Bird in a Guilty Cage".
(Gorilla angered) Ahhh Shut your ray POLE!
~ Sylvester slapping a gorilla's face in "Tweet Zoo"/"Rhino Ya Don't!".
Hello, breakfast.
~ Sylvester greeting Tweety in "Tweety S.O.S." and also in "Sylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers".
Now, I gotcha!
~ Sylvester successfully catching Tweety after finishing every stage in "Sylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers".

Gallery[]

Images[]

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • Sylvester's name comes from Felis silvestris", the scientific name for the European wildcat. Oddly, in his first appearance with Tweety, he was named Thomas, which was changed due to Tom already being used by MGM for the other famous tuxedo cat, who'd existed some years prior. Also, the first part of the Latin name was used as the basis for another famous cat, Felix.
  • Sylvester's trademark exclamation, "Sufferin' succotash!", is said to be a minced oath of "Suffering savior".
  • Sylvester's voice is based on that of Daffy Duck, plus the even more slobbery lisp it gets and minus the post-production speed-up that was done with Daffy's.
  • Sylvester died more times than any other Looney Tunes character ever made, specifically in the following episodes: "Peck Up Your Troubles", "I Taw a Putty Tat", "Back Alley Oproar", "Mouse Mazurka", "Bad Ol' Putty Tat", "Ain't She Tweet", "Satan's Waitin'", "Muzzle Tough", "Sandy Claws", "Tweety's Circus", "Too Hop to Handle", "Tree Cornered Tweety", "Tweet and Lovely", "Trick or Tweet", "The Rebel Without Claws", "The Wild Chase", and "Museum Scream".
  • Sylvester's character design (according to his original creator Friz Freleng) is based on a typical circus clown (evidenced by the messy hair, red nose, and baggy legs).
  • The worst thing we ever see Sylvester do is eat one of Speedy's Friends in the SNES Speedy Gonzales Game. Video.

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