Line #34 Main/CatsAreSuperior


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11	->''"Cats have a scam going: you buy the food, they eat the food, they fuck off. That's the deal."''
12	-->-- '''Creator/SuzyEddieIzzard'''
13
14	Cats are the [[SuperiorSpecies elves]] of the animal kingdom. They're better than us -- [[CantArgueWithElves and they know it]].
15
16	Cats are almost always portrayed as particularly intelligent, cunning, and independent, and in works with [[SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism any degree of anthropomorphization]] a cat is likely to be TheChessmaster, a DeadpanSnarker (see also CoolCat and CatsAreSnarkers), or other Sub-Tropes of TheTrickster. Sometimes they are all but stated to be a SuperiorSpecies.
17
18	On the other hand, cats' perceived negative qualities -- such as aloofness, arrogance, [[SmugSnake smugness]], and [[CatsAreLazy laziness]] -- might be attributed to their [[ScrewTheRulesImBeautiful awareness of their exalted position]].
19
20	This can, but need not, overlap with CatsAreMean. Superior cats can have a wide range of attitudes toward lesser creatures: showing contempt for them, ignoring them, treating them with amused tolerance, or [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility taking pains to guide and protect them]]. There's also an overlap between this and CatsAreLazy, with cats thinking that they should be pampered.
21
22	This trope is approached from another direction through the [[CatsAreMagic traditional association between cats and magic]]. Whether MagicIsEvil or benign, it is yet another way for cats to show intelligence and wield power. Is it any wonder [[AllWitchesHaveCats that witches have long been associated with them?]]
23
24	This trope is often subverted when dog characters are the main characters of the story or are more major to the story than cat characters.
25
26	Compare PantheraAwesome, KingOfBeasts, CuteKitten, CunningLikeAFox. Contrast DogsAreDumb.
27
28	----
29	!!Examples:
30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:Advertisements]]
33	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YegEm2J73mM Commercials for Fancy Feast cat food]] emphasize the regal nature of cats. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GX-pCjJXO8 Commercials for Sheba cat food]] remind cat-owners that cats were once worshiped, claiming the product is "to be served by people who continue to cherish the cat".
34	* The ''Advertising/MorrisTheCat'' campaign revolves around a snarky, finicky cat that [[PickyEater won't eat anything]] but [=9Lives=]. Morris is a spoiled cat who looks upon humans with curiosity and thinks that he should only eat food fit for a king.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
38	* Yoruichi from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' falls into this trope. [[spoiler: And then you see her true form and it all makes sense]].
39	%%* ''Anime/TheCatReturns''.
40	* Beerus and his twin brother Champa in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''. They're ''Destroyer gods'', making them the most powerful [[spoiler:formerly mortal]] beings in their respective universes. There are very few beings in all of existence that even approach their power level. [[spoiler:Their vassals and mentors, Whis for Beerus and Vados for Champa, are a bit stronger than each of them. They all answer to Zen'O, the ruler of all creation.]]
41	* Meowth from ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' has commented more than a few times that he thinks of himself as superior to humans.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Comic Books]]
45	* This is, somewhat, the whole schtick in ''ComicBook/{{Katmandu}}'', as the anthro feline races that inhabit the titular planet are the predominant race in the setting, while the rodents are the other, less predominant one. Oddly enough, most of the FantasticRacism goes on between the felines (Velites and Hoplites, the first based on domestic cats, while the latter are based on wild felines like tigers, lions, cougars, etc.) rather than against the rodents, except in some isolated cases, and most of those cases [[YouDirtyRat involve the rats]].
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
49	* ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}, perhaps. He's definitely smarter than his human. [[WesternAnimation/GarfieldandFriends The cartoon]] takes it a step further, with cats actually being aliens that "rule" humans in that they get free food and don't have to do anything all day.
50	* A story in ''ComicStrip/MandrakeTheMagician'' has Narda, Mandrake's girlfriend, [[AllJustADream dream]] -- [[OrWasItADream or does she?]] -- that cats are descendants of aliens that got stuck on Earth and used the primitive humans to survive, having lost their technology. (The same applies to dogs -- the dog aliens and cat aliens were at war, and the hostility between cats and dogs is a remnant of this.)
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Fan Works]]
54	* ''Fanfic/BoldoresAndBoomsticks'': Mal initially assumes that Blake hides her cat ears so people don't get jealous of her feline superiority.
55	* Gray Ghost in ''Fanfic/ManehattansLoneGuardian'' has a deeply ingrained cat-like mindset to match [[spoiler:a significantly altered biology]], to the point that she cheerfully taunts Leviathan before a duel and--when warned not to underestimate her--shrugs it off by calling her "fish sticks".
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
59	* The black cat from ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}''. Snarky, deadpan, aloof, insulting, arrogant -- but willing to help in Coraline's time of need and vital to her confrontation with the Other Mother.
60	* Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon
61	** In ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', this is applied to both Shere Khan the tiger and Bagheera the leopard. The former overlaps with CatsAreMean by being portrayed as WickedCultured, whereas the latter subverts CatsAreMean by making Bagheera still a hero, but of the DeadpanSnarker[=/=]GoodIsNotNice variety. Which makes Bagheera meaner than in [[Literature/TheJungleBook the original books]] (seems like a Disney theme to make cats mean). In the source material, Bagheera was the one to spoil Mowgli and be overindulgent with him, while Baloo the bear was the overly strict teacher.
62	** ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'' has the song "Everybody Wants to Be A Cat", where the cats sing an ode to their species' superiority. The song is a pun on the Jazz term "cat", meaning a hip and swingin' musician.
63	* In ''WesternAnimation/IsleOfDogs'', cats tend to be owned by those in positions of power.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
67	* In ''Film/HomewardBoundTheIncredibleJourney'', Sassy is quite arrogant and condescending to Chance, often talking about how cats are superior to dogs. By contrast, Sassy does show respect toward the wise and grandfatherly Shadow. Her arguments with Chance are more of a RunningGag between the two of them.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Jokes]]
71	* There's a joke about the difference between cats and dogs:
72	-->Dogs think: Humans care about us, they feed us, treat us when we are ill, and stroke us when we are sad... [[GodIsGood They are gods for sure]]!
73	-->Cats think: Humans care about us, they feed us, treat us when we are ill, and stroke us when we are sad... [[AGodAmI We are gods for sure]]!
74	* "Dogs treat humans like other dogs. Cats treat humans like other dogs also."
75	* "Dogs have owners; cats have staff."
76	* "Dogs come when called; cats take a number and get back to you."
77	* "Dogs eat. Cats ''dine''."
78	* Creator/KevinSmith summed it up this way:
79	-->Dogs are man's best friend. Cats are like man's complacent roommate.
80	* There is a cartoon titled "Cat Tricks" with [[IdenticalPanelGag identical images]] of a lazing cat labeled "Sit", "Fetch", "Roll Over", etc, concluding with an image of the cat walking away labelled "Stay".
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Literature]]
84	* Creator/MercedesLackey [[AuthorAppeal loves this trope]]. Cats are usually intelligent, often wise, skillful at getting around in the world, and occasionally magical.
85	* Creator/HPLovecraft's works:
86	** The essay [[http://www.psy-q.ch/lovecraft/html/catsdogs.htm Cats and Dogs]] is all about this.
87	** In the novel ''Literature/TheDreamQuestOfUnknownKadath'', cats are high-powered, intelligent and benevolent.
88	* Novelist Haruki Murakami loves this trope; cats in his novels almost always hold symbolic or supernatural significance. In ''Literature/KafkaOnTheShore'', one of the cats comments "Cats know everything, unlike dogs."
89	%%* Creator/{{Saki}}'s "The Achievement of the Cat".
90	%%* The Cheshire Cat from ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' has this viewpoint.
91	* ''Literature/{{Bravelands}}'':
92	** Lions are one of the few animals who [[HollywoodAtheist don't worship]] the Great Spirit or respect the Great Parent. As a result, other animals dislike them for being haughty.
93	** Subverted with cheetahs. They worship the Great Spirit and generally aren't presented any worse than the other animals.
94	* In Alan Dean Foster's ''Catalyst'', some cats are powerful energy-based aliens that pose as cats and watch over other sentient beings. Of the three we meet, one attaches herself to the human protagonist, the second is actually evil and has a VillainousBreakdown near the end, and the last is run ragged by the absent-minded plant-like aliens who started everything a long time ago. It is the last that makes the main character somewhat suspicious -- how do ''aliens'' have house cats?
95	* ''Literature/CatPack'': The cats think cats are superior to other animals. They say that they wouldn't even need owners if they could open their own cans.
96	* [[Literature/JustSoStories "The Cat Who Walked By Himself"]] makes bargains with the first humans where other animals become servants, which makes this trope OlderThanRadio.
97	* In ''Literature/TheCinderSpires'', cats are fully sentient creatures who cohabit the Spires with humans. The chapters narrated by Rowl, [[WarriorPrince Prince of the Silent Paws clan]], show them to be incredibly arrogant and selfish, but nonetheless very brave, honourable (albeit with BlueAndOrangeMorality,) and capable of forming strong bonds with humans who earn their affection (though they usually find some way to justify their displays of affection to avoid acknowledging actual ''care'' for the lowly humans).
98	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': ''Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'': Amazing Maurice. He calls himself amazing for a reason.
99	** Nanny Ogg's cat Greebo is cunning enough to know he can push things up to a point with his indulgent owner. He is also bright enough to know that Nanny Ogg is a Witch and she has her limits, and that he shouldn't even ''think'' it around Granny Weatherwax.
100	* ''Literature/ADogsPurpose'': Bailey, the dog protagonist, thinks that cats believe this. He doesn't understand body language and just thinks his owner's cat is a self-important freeloader. After being reincarnated as Ellie and adopted into a home with several cats, her views on cats sway a bit, but she still doesn't like them.
101	* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
102	** Harry has a massive 20+ pound cat named Mister. Harry routinely comments on how "above-it-all" Mister holds himself. Upon having Mouse brought into the apartment as a puppy, Mister responded by creating a tradition of swatting him half way across the room with a paw. Since then Mouse has become a very large dog, but Mister sees no reason that should change his treatment of Mouse, ''and Mouse accepts it.''
103	*** The Sight allows Harry to see the true form of whatever he looks at. Mouse glows with hidden power, his cop friend looks like an angel, monsters look even more hideous...and Mister looks exactly the same as he does when this power is turned off.
104	*** Mister's continual intimidation of Mouse is made exponentially more impressive over the next few books when it is gradually revealed that [[spoiler: Mouse is a ''total badass'' powerful enough to be feared/respected by a 2000 year old terrorist and Harry's Faerie Godmother]].
105	** ''Literature/ColdDays'' presents Cat Sith, king of the malks, who is ordered by Queen Mab to serve Harry. He is an incredibly dangerous CombatPragmatist whose [[TheShadowKnows shadow]] is much larger than his already-large form.
106	* ''Literature/GuardianCatsAndTheLostBooksOfAlexandria'': Downplayed when Cicero mentions that cats generally have a major flaw about being too prideful.
107	%%* Werecats in the [[Literature/TheInheritanceCycle Inheritance Series]]. Especially Solembum.
108	* Subverted in ''Literature/TheJungleBook'': Bagheera is among the biggest badasses in the jungle (and not afraid to remind people of it), but even he can't stand Mowgli's gaze for more than a few seconds.
109	* In the ''Literature/LandOfOz'' books:
110	** Eureka is just as self-centered in ''Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz'' as in ''The Number of the Beast'', below.
111	** The Glass Cat also has this attitude, viewing herself as superior even to regular cats due to her pink brains - "you can see 'em work", and utterly contemptuous of the magician who brought her to life. She's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, though, at one point running to get help for her companions as soon as she's sure they can't see her do it.
112	* In ''Literature/TheLastUnicorn'', all cats can talk -- they just don't often feel inclined to do so.
113	-->"I am what I am. I would tell you what you want to know if I could, for you have been kind to me. But I am a cat, and no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer."
114	* Abigail Tucker's non-fiction book, ''The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World'', explores the history of this trope from Ancient Egypt to Website/YouTube cat videos.
115	* In one of ''Literature/TheLionKingSixNewAdventures'' stories, Nala's cubhood friend Chumvi believes that lions are superior to other animals.
116	* ''Literature/MagicKingdomOfLandover'': Edgewood Dirk believes felines to inherently superior animals. Of course in his case, he is actually ''literally'' a fairy, and in that world, fairies might as well as be [[StarfishAliens Starfish Aliens]] as well as aware of far more magic, knowledge, and philosophy than mere humans could, so some of this may be justified. Doesn't stop his SmugSnake, DeadpanSnarker, and HolierThanThou attitude from becoming very annoying sometimes, though. Though Dirk seems to identify himself as a cat first and Faerie second, to the point where any time he tries to explain or justify his attitude, it's always by reminding the person annoyed at him that he is a cat, never that he is a Faerie creature.
117	* ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast'': Eureka the cat has this attitude while eating dinner with Deety, the Cowardly Lion, and the Hungry Tiger.
118	-->'''Deety''': Eureka, do you have Dorothy's permission?\
119	'''Eureka''': What a silly way to talk. Dorothy must get my permission. Feed me the lobster first, then the shrimp. You may have the last piece of shrimp for yourself. [snip] Ignore these jungle beasts; they are not cats. Be it known that Felis domestica has been civilized more generations than all you lesser breeds combined. As my serene ancestress, Bubastis, Goddess of the Nile, was wont to say: "Where Cat is, is civilization." Hurry up with that lobster. [snip] Scratch behind my left ear -- gently. I shall sing, then I shall sleep. Maintain a respectful silence.
120	%%* ''Literature/{{Petaybee}}'': Coaxtl, the giant cat, loves this trope.
121	* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'': Cats tend to be evil (with a few exceptions) and think considerably more of themselves than the vermin they rule over (especially Ungatt Trunn, ANaziByAnyOtherName). Riggu Felis goes even further by reigning over other cats (he considers that he's superior to them by virtue of being a wildcat, while they're merely feral cats. The fascinating implication of there still being humans to tame cats this late in the series goes unexplored).
122	* ''Literature/TailchasersSong'': Cats believe themselves to be the superior species and the first species that was created by their cat goddess. Humans are deformed cats cursed to serve and worship cats for all of eternity. At worst they're looked down upon with scorn and at best they exist for cats' amusement. Feral cats do fear humans, however they're still seen as beneath them nevertheless.
123	* ''Literature/TomcatBlueEyesDiaries'': Blue Eyes is a very sweet little tom-cat who usually likes meeting other animals and respects more experienced cats but he is horrified when he meets a dog who belongs to his human's friend. He cannot understand how the dog can be so submissive and so satisfied taking orders. Eventually they become somewhat friendly but still, he's not Blue Eyes' favourite animal.
124	* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'':
125	** ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'': Faithful (or [[Literature/BekaCooper Pounce]]) is a very [[CatsAreSnarkers sarcastic]] companion to his humans, who he adopts largely out of boredom. He has a number of strange magical abilities and isn't above showing off.
126	** In ''Literature/TheImmortals'' we meet the goddess of cats, Queenclaw. She's incredibly smug.
127	* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': Most cats don't have particularly good views on other species. Even many of the kittypets think twolegs are dull; they rarely even identify them individually or gender them. Dogs are either annoying pests or dangerous brutes, badgers are frightening beasts, and prey animals like mice are dumb and cowardly.
128	* ''Literature/TheWayOfKings2021'' is a novel about lions. They believe themselves, or at least their original ancestor, to be King of Beasts.
129	* ''Literature/TheWorldAtTheEndOfTime'': Cats became extinct [[spoiler: until near the end of the book]] when a fatal plague affected Newmanhome and nobody could make a cat to wear a gauze mask impregnated with an awful-smelling fungicide -- the cat acknowledges no law but its own even if it dies for it.
130	[[/folder]]
131
132	[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
133	* The goddess Bastet from Myth/EgyptianMythology is an [[OlderThanDirt ancient example]] of this trope. Depicted as a human woman with a cat head, she was a soldier of [[ThePowerOfTheSun Ra]] in his daily battle against [[SnakesAreSinister Apep]]. Unlike Set, another soldier of Ra who was [[{{Demonization}} increasingly vilified]] after the New Kingdom period, Bastet retained her role as Ra's guardian and came to be seen as protector of kingship and fertility (because cats can give birth to dozens of kittens every year). The Egyptians built an entire city dedicated to the worship of Bastet, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubastis Bubastis]]. She might have been somewhat conflated with Sekhmet, another soldier of Ra who was depicted as a woman with a [[PantheraAwesome lion]] head and also had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leontopolis a city]] dedicated to worship her (so that's two cities revolving around felid power!).
134	[[/folder]]
135
136	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
137	* Infamously, in the third edition of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', an average housecat has a better than even chance of winning a fight with an average first level Commoner.
138	* This shows up in ''TabletopGame/{{Pugmire}}'', or rather, in the companion game ''TabletopGame/MonarchiesOfMau''. Where the dog CodeOfHonour (the Code of Man) asks the dog to obey a worthy master, the cat code (the Precepts of Mau) asks the cat to always reward loyalty -- or, in other words, to ''be'' a worthy master. Perhaps not surprisingly, the dog state is a fairly centralised kingdom, while the cat state is a loose confederation that only recently came together. It also shows up in their dominant religions: most dogs believe they were favoured servants of Man/the Old Ones. Cats usually believe the Old Ones were ''their'' favoured servants.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Theatre]]
142	* The finale song of (what else?) ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'' is all about the proper way for humans to suck up to cats, as the glorious creatures obviously deserve. Might be slightly tongue-in-cheek; it's hard to tell because of the style of the music.
143	[[/folder]]
144
145	[[folder:Video Games]]
146	* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'', some as the cats you can use the [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Speak With Animals]] spell on have very high opinions of themselves, such as the standoffish "His Majesty" met in Act 2. There's also SquishyWizard Gale's {{familiar}} Tara, a talking cat and JerkWithAHeartOfGold who has a quest in Act 3 in which you have to tell her to stop eating the local carrier pigeons. When met again in the epilogue she's rather condescending, convinced that Gale was the one who saved the world and Tav/Durge was just his assistant.
147	* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', cats are the only animals which you can't control the adoption of. Cats choose their owners, not vice versa; they can even adopt dwarves while the game is paused. You can't go ''without'' cats because they're the only creatures that can protect your food stocks from vermin. Thus, the "catsplosion," where cat breeding gets out of control because you can't get rid of pets like you can strays. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential Kittens, before they adopt make a great food source, however.]]
148	* Seems to be played at first in the ending of ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' with the cat [[spoiler: Sissel]] being a lot smarter than Missile (a dog), to the point that [[spoiler: everybody around him was convinced that he was a ''human'' spirit for a whole night]]. [[spoiler:{{Subverted\|Trope}} when Missile is revealed to be TheChessmaster in the end, who outsmarted Sissel on many levels.]]
149	* In ''VideoGame/GoldenTreasureTheGreatGreen'', [[CallARabbitASmeerp Slideclaws]] believe themselves to be perfect, having domesticated the No-Tails, being fed and stroked by them, and seeking only amusement in life. They'll only teach you how to Dream if you bow down to them (an abject humiliation for a mighty Draak-kin).
150	* ''VideoGame/HauntTheHouse: Terrortown'': [[spoiler:The Pharaoh,]] the ghost of highest status, is revealed to have been a cat in life.
151	* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', Creepers are the bane of any player's existence. But Creepers know better than to mess with cats.
152	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
153	** A number of cat Pokémon are like this, including Mewtwo for a bit in the anime. In Mewtwo's case it's justified, seeing as he's the UltimateLifeForm.
154	** Alolan Persian in particular embodies this trope, as they were historically the pets of Alolan royalty and became accustomed to it--after the monarchy fell and the Persian wound up in the wild, they still hold the same attitude to this day.
155	** Inverted with Perrserker, who is a BloodKnight and doesn't care about getting its paws dirty--or any other part of its body. They were raised by a seafaring people who engaged in a lot of violence, the Pokémon world's [[FantasyCounterpartCulture counterpart]] to the Vikings, and Perrserker hate living a pampered life as they deem it boring. Perrserker very much dislike Alolan Persian ''and'' Kantonian Persian, and the hatred is mutual.
156	[[/folder]]
157
158	[[folder:Web Comics]]
159	* ''Webcomic/DeanNalaVinny'': According to Nala, cats are classy and dignified. Stating so is often followed by her taking a pratfall, being caught with ComicalNapDrool, [[CatsHateWater returning from getting caught in the rain or under sprinklers]], or something else to take her ego down a few notches.
160	* ''Webcomic/TheFuzzyPrincess'': The main character is literally a cat princess. Although Princess Kat is generally pretty nice. Played straight with her mom, Queen Felicia, who is much more haughty.
161	* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' plays the concept for laughs with Emperor Krosp I, ruler of all cats. Krosp is a large, bipedal talking cat with a BadassLongcoat, the result of an experiment [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040315 intended to create somebody able to command ordinary cats to do the bidding of his creator]], and could be considered a perfect success...if, [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040317 much to his frustration]], the ''other'' cats [[SubvertedTrope weren't still perfectly normal animals nowhere near his own intellectual level]]! Ironically, it's only when the human protagonist sarcastically kinda-sorta offers her fealty to him and he accepts that he acquires a "subject" that he can actually relate to.
162	* ''Webcomic/KarateBears'' have a pet Karate Kat who is badass. here he is [[http://www.karatebears.com/2011/10/cats-and-dogs.html taking on 4 large dogs]] This one is also really badass: [[http://www.karatebears.com/2011/01/karate-kat-2011_02.html Kitty Kat smoking]]
163	* In the "Nature's Balance" arc from ''Webcomic/NerfNOW'', the cat gets dissed for its Charisma-focused build, and the bigger feline asks if it intends to ''charm'' the humans into submission. It does so, surviving comfortably while bigger cats are mounted on the wall.
164	* Most outdoor cats in ''Webcomic/PrinceOfCats'' talk down to Lee, whom they telepathically communicate with as part of an obligation to their princess who is smitten with him.
165	[[/folder]]
166
167	[[folder:Web Original]]
168	* ''WebVideo/AfterlifeSMP'': In his second life, Jimmy [[LampshadeHanging mentions this]] while bearing the Feline origin, saying if someone has a pet cat, "their house" would in actuality be the ''cat's'' house and no longer the person's.[[note]]In his defense, he's a cat owner in real life, so he'd ''know''.[[/note]] He himself displays that mentality by moving into Joel's house while he was on holiday in real life, meaning he could do nothing about the catboy that moved into his base, while proclaiming himself to be "adopted". [[spoiler:Sadly, Joel doesn't react quite as well to this, deciding to [[DisproportionateRetribution build a trap to murder Jimmy]] via TNT minecarts.]]
169	%%* Many ''WebOriginal/LOLCats''.
170	* ''Literature/{{Plonqmas}}'': In "A Plonqmas Tale -- 1998" and "A Plonqmas Tale -- 1999", Plonq's feline pets are depicted as stereotypically detached, self-absorbed, quarreling, and food obsessed. In other words, typical cats.
171	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP3gzee1cps This cat]] is caught by a human, and tries to weasel out.
172	* The blog ''We Three Cats'' is allegedly written from the perspective of three housepets, and they often espouse this trope.
173	-->[[http://wethreecats.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/making-exhibition-of-herself.html It has been a while since we posted.]] Not because we have been busy. We have just been being cats, which is the best thing to be.
174	%%* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcZp_cGVdtY Why You Need to Stop Touching a Cat's Tummy]]" is narrated from the viewpoint of a haughty Abyssinian cat.
175	[[/folder]]
176
177	[[folder:Western Animation]]
178	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' has Rita and Runt, a cats-rule-dogs-drool OddFriendship. However, Rita is more of a sympathetic nature as, despite her arrogance and selfishness, most of her misfortunes have been examples of [[DudeNotFunny unfair and unequal treatment]]. Still, others are brought on by her own ego, so there's a slight subversion there, and Runt is frequently saving her bacon.
179	* In the children's series ''WesternAnimation/DoctorSnuggles'' a recurring character is The Cosmos Cat, a perhaps SufficientlyAdvancedAlien that is a [[RubberForeheadAliens Rubber-Forehead Alien]] -- it's just that it is a cat that has the rubber forehead (antennas and such), not a human. (And at least in the Swedish dub, he speaks as an EruditeStoner.)
180	* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode,"That Darn Katz!", [[spoiler: cats are revealed to be a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien species who left their dying homeworld, got the Ancient Egyptians to worship them and [[AncientAstronauts help them construct the pyramids]] -- all while being {{Manipulative Bastard}}s towards humankind]].
181	* ''WesternAnimation/HeathcliffAndTheCatillacCats'' covers this in the ThemeTune:
182	-->So join in the jubilee!\
183	"The cats are great," they'll all agree!\
184	Find in each calamity\
185	The cats' superiority!
186	* Mr. Cat from ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}''. He has [[FantasticRacism shown contempt of other species]] (even naming the trope once), and he is [[SurroundedByIdiots the only actual smart person on the show]]; the other "smart" characters are {{Ditzy Genius}}es.
187	* On ''WesternAnimation/KittyIsNotACat'', the feline characters are generally very self-assured in their place as the superior creatures on the planet. King Tubby, in particular, often highlights this in his "lectures" about humans, satirically discussing how humans make everything unnecessarily complicated for themselves and are easily swayed by the far more easygoing and far less harried cats.
188	* You could make a case for Plagg from ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' -- he's not a cat, but a cat-themed, um, "kwami", but he tends to just want to sit around eating [[TrademarkFavoriteFood camembert cheese]] all day, regardless of what Adrien tries to tell him. That is, until an [[MonsterOfTheWeek Akuma]] shows up, upon which Plagg becomes one half of his TransformationTrinket and undergoes a sort-of FusionDance with Adrien into his superhero identity, Chat Noir.
189	* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', Steven's pet lion is a KingOfBeasts that's got all sorts of special powers and stuff and assists in battle, but rarely follows Steven's orders and tends to wander off on his own.
190	* Shere Khan is presented as a billionaire tycoon in ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'', and he definitely feels superior.
191	* In ''WesternAnimation/Thundercats2011'' this is {{deconstructed\|Trope}} and PlayedForDrama, since the {{Catfolk}} of TheEmpire of Thundera are a {{Proud Warrior Race\|Guy}} who are [[SuperiorSpecies genuinely excellent]] fighters, have an [[TheOrder order]] of KungFuWizard[=/=]{{Magic Knight}}s and possess powerful {{Ancient Artifact}}s. As a result, they do much CulturalPosturing around [[MasterRace believing]] their own press, that they were and are the great civilizers of their planet, who "brought law and order to a [[WorldOfFunnyAnimals world of warring animals]]." This is a deeply-rooted societal justification for [[AnimalJingoism jingoistic]] FantasticRacism against other [[BeastMan Animals]]. They place minorities like {{Dog\|faces}}s in a FantasticGhetto to be victimized by "Alley Cats" (the bottom rung of Cat society, who apparently distract themselves from their own low status by lording it over the even lower-status Dogs). In their war with the {{Lizard\|Folk}}s, the Cats [[MadeASlave enslave]] the hungry Lizards they catch raiding crops (due to the Cats' monopolization of arable land) even [[VigilanteExecution lynching]] them if they feel like it. It's only a matter of time until the Cats' sense of security undoes them. [[spoiler: It turns out that this is all due to the Cats being Mumm-Ra's most trusted lackeys back before crash landing on Third Earth when they overthrew Mumm-Ra. The cats were put in charge of the new society; generations later, it went to their heads.]]
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195	* The [[AncientEgypt ancient Egyptians]] would worship cats, seeing them as avatars of the goddess Bast/Bastet.
196	-->'''Creator/TerryPratchett:''' In ancient times, cats were worshiped as gods. They have never forgotten this.
197	** Interestingly, feral cats are still very common in Modern Egypt, roaming the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, and other Egyptian cities like it's nobody's business. Even more interestingly, while Egyptians don't worship cats anymore (they're mostly Muslim and Christian these days), they tend to treat cats with comparative respect, letting them just live (hey, they eat the garbage that the government's too cheap to provide collection for! And they're free pest control as they keep rodents in check). Dogs, for various reasons, do not get the same treatment.
198	** In most Muslim countries, cats are considered superior because they were the favorite animal of Muhammad, who owned several. They are considered ritually clean, and allowed to enter mosques. Dogs get a negative rap because many Muslim clerics believe they're suitable only for hunting, not as pets and dogs, especially black dogs, scared Muhammad (they're often considered unclean). Many striped or tabby cats have three black streaks on their head, and there's a (though fairly obscure) Muslim legend that when Muhammad petted his favorite cat, three of his fingerprints stayed on her head and those of her descendants to mark their favored status. It's highly unlikely that all the cats with that marking are descended from one cat, but it's a good story. In another story, Muhammad is said to have cut the sleeve off a favorite robe that he was wearing rather than risk disturbing the cat who was sleeping on it.
199	** There is a Christian legend that there was a tabby cat in the stable on the first Christmas, and it snuggled up to the Baby Jesus to keep him warm. The Blessed Mother placed her initials on the cat's forehead as a mark of her favor.
200	* As one episode of ''The Dog Whisperer'' showed, there's a reason for this trope. One couple owned two fairly large and very vicious dogs that attacked each other and others nearby. Who was the only one they listened to? The cat.
201	* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, in explaining his fondness for pigs, observed, "Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."
202	* The introduction of cats from Eurasia into the Americas 18.5 million years ago is thought to have drastically decreased the biodiversity of dogs, according to researchers. It is thought that competition from cats caused up to 40 species of dog to become extinct in the region millions of years ago. As competition became fierce between the native canids and newly introduced felids, researchers noticed the dogs of North America increased body size, becoming larger predators — some of them exceeded 66 pounds. While the ancient dogs dwindled and were forced to adapt, the cats of the time suffered little in their transition, indicating that they were more efficient predators. Scientists usually expect climate changes to play an overwhelming role in the evolution of biodiversity. Instead, competition among different carnivore species proved to be even more important for canids.
203	* The popular stereotype that cats are (much) smarter than dogs, their classical archenemies in fiction, is actually a difficult affair. In 2017, a studio published in ''Frontiers of Neuroanatomy'' showed that cats have "only" 250 million neurons in their brains, much less than the 530 million dogs have, which theoretically would make for less powerful brains for the felines. However, in the same ranking long finned pilot whales beat us humans in number of neurons, which means this doesn't necessarily prove cats are dumber than dogs. Measuring animal intelligence in experimental conditions is particularly difficult with cats because they don't easily pledge to the scientists' commands (in marked contrast to dogs, which are social animals that happily obey whoever they perceive as their masters), and thus getting them to show quantifiably their problem-solving skills is just as arduous as getting them to do any non-free will action in daily life. Cats also display a surprising amount of individual variation and personalities, which makes it even hard to find a veritable measure of their ethological intelligence. All of this said, it has been found that whenever they comply in experimental conditions, cats ''do'' tend to try more strategies and solutions on their own account than dogs, which often resort to just stare back to their human handlers in the hopes of receiving help if facing an apparently unsolvable situation. It can be concluded that, smarter or dumber, cats ultimately seek to act by themselves and for themselves in comparison to other species.
204	* Study of actual living felids suggests that they can regard the notion that you can't reproduce outside your species as quaintly provincial. For felids in general, species in the same Genus and of compatible sizes are more likely than not to be cross-fertile, and quite frequently the offspring are also fertile, unlike mules, which are another mammalian cross-species hybrid (half horsed and half assed/donkeyed), but are generally sterile. There are still fertility issues and male ligers are still generally sterile. Some exotic pet cat breeds are the result of crosses with smaller wild felines, such as servals, Asian leopard cats, jungle cats, and even sand cats.
205	* This is not just for interspecies breeding regarding cats. Cats are also not opposed to outbreeding the way humans are and are more vehemently opposed to inbreeding and incest than humans. Although ''Homo sapiens'' interbred with ''Homo neaderthalensis'' a big back when both were around, one of the reasons why the latter went extinct was because they inbred, and ''Homo sapiens'' since the agricultural revolutions (one in the Middle East, one in China, and one in the Andes) is not much better. The entire human population living today is descended from an astonishingly small population of ''Homo sapiens'' that lived 75,000 years ago, when fewer than 10,000 individuals (perhaps as low as '''2,000''') survived a supervolcano eruption in Sumatra. Inbreeding tends to be the trend for human royal families and there were times in history when humans criminalized racial mixing. Humans also foist their incestuous ways onto other species, especially onto domesticated animals like dogs and cultivated plants like bananas and crop plants. This is so bad with Cavendish bananas that they are clones of each other. Wildcats (Felis silvestris), on the other hand, happily breed between subspecies. Mother cats also have their male kittens set off to a different area to mate so as to prevent incest from occurring.
206	* Depending on your source, there are 6-8 [[https://www.livescience.com/33870-domesticated-animals-criteria.html criteria]] that animals must meet to be domesticated by humans. Cats do not meet the criteria. First of all, they're obligate carnivores, which makes them relatively difficult to feed -- you can't feed them pretty much anything you have lying around like you can dogs, pigs, or donkeys. Second, and more importantly, they're not pack/herd animals who live in hierarchical groups and thus know how to take orders and can be taught to see humans as the proverbial leader. While humans domesticated dogs long before the agricultural revolution and have since created many new dog breeds, cats are genetically still the same as their ancestors thousands of years ago. Not only did humans not intentionally breed cats the way they did dogs, but cats didn't start living with humans until long after the agricultural revolution. Cats were never intentionally captured, raised, and bred by humans to serve an intended purpose -- they simply began hanging out around human settlements to feast on the booming rodent populations therein and convinced the residents it was in humans' best interest to welcome them and their free pest control by providing them warmth and shelter. Cats truly ''aren't'' and never were pets the way dogs, fish, rabbits, etc. are -- since cats initiated the partnership, it wouldn't be entirely inaccurate to say that cats [[ThisIsMyHuman made humans their pets]]. How's that for superior?
207	** Recent archaeological studies however seems to call this into question as a Neolithic site dating back to 7500 BC and on an otherwise cat-less island nonetheless featured a grave with a human and a cat buried together, indicating that cats were actively brought there and suggesting that the Cat-Human partnership is much older than Ancient Egypt.
208	* If nothing else... a female dog is called a "bitch". A female cat is called a "queen".
209	* According to Creator/StephenKing, cats are the “amoral gunslingers of the animal world”.
210	* One common factoid is that cats rub their faces against objects to mark their territory, which is true. This then leads to the idea that cats rub on their owners because they think they own them. The truth may be up to interpretation, as cats also rub faces with ''other cats'' as a friendly greeting and to create a shared smell for the colony. So, cats doing this to a human either think they own the human or, more charitably, they think the human is part of their colony.
211	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlUyHogoyvE This kitten]] steals a bed from a fully grown golden retriever, and then uses the golden retriever as a bed.
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Context Main / CatsAreSuperior