From left to right: Dooper, Buckley, Tabitha and Eddie.
Slacker Cats is about two Funny Animal cats, Eddie and Buckley, and their strange and humourous adventures - often involving their two stranger "friends" Tabitha and Dooper. Main plots of the show revolve around Buckley and Eddie's schemes to escape the everyday monotony of being house cats by taking advantage of humans (as well as other cats) to freewheel themselves in the fictional city of Wendell, California.
While it was originally advertised as being for children, the themes certainly proved that wrong. The series originally lasted from August to September, 2007, on ABC Family with only six episodes broadcasted. It was revived in 2009, with 6 new episodes, only being shown on the ABC Family website. Resulting in a total of 12 episodes. While the animation style is similar to Family Guy, it was actually animated by Film Roman.
Tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Eddie puts a corpse in his place so he can go to Saving Private Ryan On Ice and Buckley gets sick of "him" following him around so he pushes him away... into the path of a speeding truck.
- Berserk Button: Mrs Boots gets angry quickly when asked about Mr Boots (because there isn't one) and Eddie uses this to his advantage.Eddie: "But where is Mr Boots?"
- Black Comedy: Runs on it.
- Blatant Lies: Allegedly a family-friendly comedy for kids. And then the trailers popped up...
- Butt-Monkey: Tabitha; she gets beaten up the most out of anyone.
- The Chew Toy: Once again, Tabitha.
- Cloudcuckoolander:Tabitha: "The night is like the day, only with fewer colours!"
- Compressed Vice: Buckley became a gambling addict for one episode in season one.
- Dissonant Serenity: "We're just being cremated; everything's fine."Tabitha: "Don't you think fire looks like pretty orange fairies?"
- Furry Confusion: When they meet the tiger he acts like a proper one but they note this is because he's a wild animal and close to nature. Eddie also owns a narwhal for several minutes.
- Buckley: (looking at a fast food advert) "And that chicken is eating a piece of chicken."
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Eddie parodies this by uses his hands to pretend to be the angel and devil - the "angel" points out that nobody listens to him and he's simply for show.
- Green Aesop: Averted during the episode about saving the woods. It's where the cats poop. They forget about it anyway.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Buckley towards the male tiger, he lists reasons why he totally doesn't have a crush on him... only to get caught up with his thoughts and sigh romantically.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Ingrid and Latoyah have different colour eye shadow and different shades of hair color to tell them apart.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Eddie begins to eat Tabitha's ear before they sew it back on.
- In the same episode Dooper believes Eddie and Buckley have been turned into spring rolls and waits for science to bring them back but eats them, believing he's become one.
Dooper: "I have become what I most fear... a cat cannibal. I have become the catanibal!" [Skyward Scream] - I Love the Dead: Tabitha, twice in the first episode!
- Buckley has also had sex with run-over cats he claims.
- Eddie made out with an identical dead cat of himself.
- Interspecies Romance: Buckley wants go out and marry Louise, his owner, but she continuously turns him down.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Tabitha when she and Dooper set Eddie's house on fire she makes innocent yet incredibly creepy comments about the flames.
- Of Corpse He's Alive: Buckley and Eddie have Dooper dress in a dead cat's skin to pretend he's alive and claim the reward money from the family.
- On Ice: Saving Private Ryan On Ice.
- Only Sane Man: Buckley is as close to one as any cat will get. Louise fits the trope better.
- Reset Button: Like most Western Animation. A notable case was during the first season when Buckley had a gambling addiction and lost all of Louise's furniture and part of the living room wall but it was all back to normal for the next episode.
- Right-Hand Cat: Mrs. Boots has portraits on the wall of her mansion that imply that she served as Right-Hand Cat to Saddam Hussein.
- Running Gag: Eddie consistently trolls Mrs. Boots about her name by asking where "Mr. Boots" is.
- Shout-Out: "I don't wanna sell hardware, I wanna be a disco dancer."
- "WAKA WAKA WAKA WAKA WAKA"
- Tabitha said that when she saw Eddie's ghost they made pottery together in a sexy way.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial:Buckley: "I never wear Louise's underwear!"
Eddie: "Who said you did?"Buckley: "Nobody... but people talk and they might say that I sneak into Louise's room, put on her underwear and dance to "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls... but I don't do that." - Twincest: Unclear, in that while they look alike, it wasn't stated that they were twins, however, Ingrid and Latoyah make out with each other on Eddie's coffin since it was his final wish, except he isn't dead.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Played With in the second episode when Buckley and Eddie forget about saving the woods and the concert they were organising to sew Tabitha's ear back on and were confused when people were in town for it.
