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* TheMusical: ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie''.
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* TheMusical: ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie''.''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie''.
* MustacheVandalism: In ''Touche', Pussy Cat'', Nibbles uses an artist brush to paint a caricature of Tom Cat on a wall. When Nibbles realizes that Tom is glaring at him, Nibbles paints spectacles and a mustache on Tom's face.
* MustacheVandalism: In ''Touche', Pussy Cat'', Nibbles uses an artist brush to paint a caricature of Tom Cat on a wall. When Nibbles realizes that Tom is glaring at him, Nibbles paints spectacles and a mustache on Tom's face.
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** To prove a point, here's their [[http://ilarge.listal.com/image/1006726/936full-puss-gets-the-boot-screenshot.jpg debut]] to [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dzvwXGLrj00/T_frivTURrI/AAAAAAAAFEo/l-wv2jU_Ric/s1600/The+Night+Before+Christmas+(10).jpg the following cartoon in the early 40s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/101444.jpg the late 40s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/101476.jpg early 50s]] [[http://secretvortex.com/cartoons/tandjcins.jpg the following devolution in the mid 50s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/332834.jpg early 60s]] to [[http://www.goldenagecartoons.com/reviews/2009/jonestj/snowbody.jpg mid 60s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/332853.jpg late 60s]] to [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/Tom_and_jerry_comedy_show_title.jpg 70s]]
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** To prove a point, here's their [[http://ilarge.listal.com/image/1006726/936full-puss-gets-the-boot-screenshot.jpg debut]] to [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dzvwXGLrj00/T_frivTURrI/AAAAAAAAFEo/l-wv2jU_Ric/s1600/The+Night+Before+Christmas+(10).jpg the following cartoon in the early 40s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/101444.jpg the late 40s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/101476.jpg early 50s]] [[http://secretvortex.com/cartoons/tandjcins.jpg the following devolution in the mid 50s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/332834.jpg early 60s]] to [[http://www.goldenagecartoons.com/reviews/2009/jonestj/snowbody.jpg mid 60s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/332853.jpg late 60s]] to [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/Tom_and_jerry_comedy_show_title.jpg 70s]]70s]] to [[http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/2lhmVVC7V60/mqdefault.jpg 80s]] to [[http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/1/21086000/ngbbs4bd400ad46613.jpg 90s/youthified selves]] as well as [[http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/tom-and-jerry-the-movie/w448/tom-and-jerry-the-movie.jpg?1308650225 regular sizes]] before returning to their original look in the [[http://i25.fastpic.ru/big/2011/0825/cd/eb69c9d8528bdd70657e732c7e5d70cd.png 2000s]].
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** To prove a point, here's their [[http://ilarge.listal.com/image/1006726/936full-puss-gets-the-boot-screenshot.jpg debut]] to [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dzvwXGLrj00/T_frivTURrI/AAAAAAAAFEo/l-wv2jU_Ric/s1600/The+Night+Before+Christmas+(10).jpg the following cartoon in the early 40s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/101444.jpg the late 40s]]
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** To prove a point, here's their [[http://ilarge.listal.com/image/1006726/936full-puss-gets-the-boot-screenshot.jpg debut]] to [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dzvwXGLrj00/T_frivTURrI/AAAAAAAAFEo/l-wv2jU_Ric/s1600/The+Night+Before+Christmas+(10).jpg the following cartoon in the early 40s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/101444.jpg the late 40s]]40s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/101476.jpg early 50s]] [[http://secretvortex.com/cartoons/tandjcins.jpg the following devolution in the mid 50s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/332834.jpg early 60s]] to [[http://www.goldenagecartoons.com/reviews/2009/jonestj/snowbody.jpg mid 60s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/332853.jpg late 60s]] to [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/Tom_and_jerry_comedy_show_title.jpg 70s]]
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**To prove a point, here's their [[http://ilarge.listal.com/image/1006726/936full-puss-gets-the-boot-screenshot.jpg debut]] to [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dzvwXGLrj00/T_frivTURrI/AAAAAAAAFEo/l-wv2jU_Ric/s1600/The+Night+Before+Christmas+(10).jpg the following cartoon in the early 40s]] to [[http://cdn.static.ovimg.com/episode/101444.jpg the late 40s]]
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Karma Houdini is villain-only, designated hero is ymmv
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* TheHero: Jerry ([[DesignatedHero debatable]])
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* TheHero: Jerry ([[DesignatedHero debatable]])
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* KarmaHoudini: Jerry.
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* BeachEpisode: "Salt Water Tabby", the beginning and end of "The Cat and the Mermouse" and "Muscle Beach Tom".
* BearyFunny: The dancing bear from "Down Beat Bear".
* BearyFunny: The dancing bear from "Down Beat Bear".
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* In the banned short "Mouse Cleaning", Tom [[BlackFace pretends to be a random African American passerby]] when Mammy asks where Tom is, because his face his smeared with coal after Jerry floods the house with it. Mammy chases him into the sunset throwing coal at him, and in the distance one hits him in the head and he goes down.
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* In the banned short "Mouse Cleaning", Tom [[BlackFace pretends to be a random African American passerby]] when Mammy asks where Tom is, because his face his smeared with coal after Jerry floods the house with it. Mammy chases him into the sunset throwing coal at him, and in the distance one hits him in the head and he goes down.
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* ChasedOffIntoTheSunset: This is a typical ending.
** In "The Bodyguard," the dog catcher's truck drives away with Spike the bulldog penned inside. Jerry Mouse pursues the truck, hoping to free Spike a second time. Tom Cat pursues Jerry Mouse because that's what Tom ''does''.
** In "Part Time Pal," a drunken Tom Cat is chased under the moonlight by a vengeful Mammy Twoshoes.
** Inverted in "Doctor Jekyll And Mister Mouse," where it's Jerry chasing an ultra-miniaturized Tom around the house.
** Played with in "Texas Tom," where Jerry Mouse rides Tom Cat like a bronco into the western sunset.
** In "The Bodyguard," the dog catcher's truck drives away with Spike the bulldog penned inside. Jerry Mouse pursues the truck, hoping to free Spike a second time. Tom Cat pursues Jerry Mouse because that's what Tom ''does''.
** In "Part Time Pal," a drunken Tom Cat is chased under the moonlight by a vengeful Mammy Twoshoes.
** Inverted in "Doctor Jekyll And Mister Mouse," where it's Jerry chasing an ultra-miniaturized Tom around the house.
** Played with in "Texas Tom," where Jerry Mouse rides Tom Cat like a bronco into the western sunset.
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* MadeOfIron: Jerry can be amazingly tough at times. For instance while chasing him, Tom repeatedly hits him with a fireplace poker and finds to his astonishment that not only does he make a exact outline of the mouse's body each time he hits him without apparently hurting him, but each impression has the mouse taunting him by sticking his tongue in the outline as well.
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* MotiveDecay: Tom originally wanted to eat Jerry. Now he just mostly harasses him.
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cross-wicking Enormous Engagement Ring
* EnormousEngagementRing: In "Blue Cat Blues", Tom and an obscenely rich rival tom-cat are trying to impress their love, a lovely white cat lady. The ring from Tom's rival was so big and bright that you had to put on welder's glasses to look at it. For Tom's ring, however, you needed a magnifying glass. The kitty married Tom's rival.
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* HumansAreBastards: The extent of Mammy Two Shoes' abusive treatment of Tom (and how justified it is due to the latter's antics) varied DependingOnTheWriter. Various alternate owners were paired with Tom throughout the franchise's run, their treatment of the cat ranging from lenient or justified to [[ComedicSociopath outright psychotic]] (the latter being Deitch's unnamed owner character).
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* HumansAreBastards: HumansAreBastards:
** The extent of Mammy Two Shoes' abusive treatment of Tom (and how justified it is due to the latter's antics) varied DependingOnTheWriter. Various alternate owners were paired with Tom throughout the franchise's run, their treatment of the cat ranging from lenient or justified to [[ComedicSociopath outright psychotic]] (the latter being Deitch's unnamed owner character).
** The extent of Mammy Two Shoes' abusive treatment of Tom (and how justified it is due to the latter's antics) varied DependingOnTheWriter. Various alternate owners were paired with Tom throughout the franchise's run, their treatment of the cat ranging from lenient or justified to [[ComedicSociopath outright psychotic]] (the latter being Deitch's unnamed owner character).
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** How about the little girl who dresses Tom up as a baby and treats him as such, including putting him in a diaper and feeding him castor oil? The latter is particularly grating, since she walks into the room to discover Tom's [[WithFriendsLikeThese "friends"]] mocking and humiliating him and her immediate response is to blame and punish him.
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** How about the The little girl who dresses Tom up as a baby and treats him as such, including putting him in a diaper and feeding him castor oil? The latter is particularly grating, since she walks into the room to discover Tom's [[WithFriendsLikeThese "friends"]] mocking and humiliating him and her immediate response is to blame and punish him.
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* IronButtmonkey: Tom.
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* IronButtmonkey: Tom.IronButtmonkey:
** Tom. This cat is made of steel and survives everything.
** Tom. This cat is made of steel and survives everything.
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* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: "Casanova Cat" and "Mouse Cleaning", which won't be included in the second Golden Collection release, and weren't present on the Spotlight Collections either.
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* AntiHero: Jerry has been known to have shades of this, [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on the cartoon]].
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** When Tom woke up for real, he wasn't anywhere near the piano, suggesting the chase that resulted on him getting smashed was part of the dream but it was later treated as real when the characters were watching videos from that and other previous stories.
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** Later Hanna Barbara shorts did try to play this more straight, making Jerry more altrustic and often saving another animal friend from being victimized by Tom. The odd time he strayed from this he was more likely to suffer LaserGuidedKarma.
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** Later Hanna Barbara Hanna-Barbera shorts did try to play this more straight, making Jerry more altrustic and often saving another animal friend from being victimized by Tom. The odd time he strayed from this he was more likely to suffer LaserGuidedKarma.
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* AbsurdlyLongLimousine: The episode "Blue Cat Blues" has Tom competing with a rich cat for a kitty's heart. He eventually pulls up to his love interest's house in an old, broken-down car, only to be driven over by his competitor's limousine. It takes nearly 10 seconds before the front half of the whole thing drives into view (the driver's seat is in the middle), and another 8 before the back half drives out of view.
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** In "Mouse in Manhattan", most of the music is just variations of a single melody, matched to fit the mood of whatever's currently happening.
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** In "Mouse in Manhattan", most of the music is just variations of a single melody, matched to fit the mood of whatever's currently happening. ''TheGodfather'' would use some of the music from the short, however.
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* TheDogBitesBack: Or, rather, Tom Bites Back. Three episodes had Tom coming out on top. For instance, "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vanishing_Duck The Vanishing Duck]]" episode.
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* TheDogBitesBack: Or, rather, Tom Bites Back. Three episodes had Tom coming out on top. For instance, "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vanishing_Duck "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuS-uQgm-_0 The Vanishing Duck]]" episode.
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* TheDogBitesBack: Or, rather, Tom Bites Back. Three episodes had Tom coming out on top. For instance, the "Vanishing Creme" episode.
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* TheDogBitesBack: Or, rather, Tom Bites Back. Three episodes had Tom coming out on top. For instance, the "Vanishing Creme" "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vanishing_Duck The Vanishing Duck]]" episode.
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* TheDogBitesBack: Or, rather, Tom Bites Back. Three episodes had Tom coming out on top. For instance, the "Vanishing Creme" episode.
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Moved to the YMMV tab.
Deleted line(s) 132 (click to see context) :
* FridgeBrilliance: In the Sherlock Holmes movie, Red being so into the wolf seems odd. Then you realize she's most likely not intended to be the Red of the original RedHotRidingHood... but her Grandma in her youth, who is crazy for Wolfie.
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* FridgeBrilliance: In the Sherlock Holmes movie, Red being so into the wolf seems odd. Then you realize she's most likely not intended to be the Red of the original RedHotRidingHood... but her Grandma in her youth, who is crazy for Wolfie.
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** JerkassWoobie: Both characters fall in this trope rather sadly. Jerry, for exemple, may be [[DisproportionateRetribution exceedingly vindictive]] on Tom, but he generally is only trying to survive, and be honest, Tom generally [[AssholeVictim deserves what comes upon him]]. Tom, on the other hand, is often punished for his own cruelty towards Jerry, [[HoistbyHisOwnPetard usually ironically]], but there times were he becomes the victim of Jerry without provocation, and as said before, Jerry can go away [[DisproportionateRetribution too far in his retalation]] at times. Also, Tom tends to be threated like crap by several other characters (like his owners and Spike) for little to no reason, and for the most times, Tom chases Jerry away because he's '''ordered''' so, rather than any actual malice towards the mouse. So, he doesn't deserved ''all'' the shit that happens to him.
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* HollywoodMagnetism: In the episode ''The Framed Cat'', Jerry gets Tom to swallow a magnet and then drills a screw into Spike the bulldog's bone, so the bone flies at Tom from clear across the yard to make it look as if Tom's trying to steal it.
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!!''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' provides examples of:
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!!''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' provides examples of:
* AccordionMan
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: "Professor Tom" has Tom teaching mousing to a kitten. When the kitten does a good job, he gets a pat on the head.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: All those times Jerry took a hammer to Tom's foot or lit matches beneath his feet when he wasn't paying attention.
* AllJustADream: ''Heavenly Puss'' ends this way. Subverted earlier; when Tom gets sent back to his body, he's relieved, thinking it was only a dream... until he notices the "Certificate of Forgiveness" in his hand.
** ''The Cat and the Mermouse'' was this too, everything after Tom falls into the ocean is a hallucination Tom has while nearly drowning. Luckily at the end Tom wakes up to find that [[CPRCleanPrettyReliable Jerry rescued him and is pumping the water out of his lungs]].
* AllWitchesHaveCats: In one short Tom answers an ad to be a companion for someone who turns out to be a witch.
* AluminumChristmasTrees: In "Professor Tom", actually if a kitten is introduced to a mouse or rat early enough, [[InterspeciesFriendship they have been known to befriend them in real life.]]
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: Japanese ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' has a different [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56zZAzFB4KI&feature=related opening theme]].
* AmusingInjuries: Major aspect of the series, as it's not only the premise, but wouldn't work without it.
* AndIMustScream: Jerry once froze Tom in ice; only Tom's eyes could move.
** If AmusingInjuries weren't there, these instances would probably ruin the program.
* AngryGuardDog: Spike, Tom's nemesis.
* AnimalJingoism: Mouse vs. Cat, and occasionally Cat vs. Dog (though only in one episode does Spike ever also chase Jerry).
* AnimationBump: Granted, any halfway competent studio could have produced much better animation than what Gene Deitch's team churned out, but Chuck Jones's efforts are light-years ahead of Deitch's work (and even the final few Hanna-Barbera theatrical shorts) in overall animation quality.
** Deitch's first Tom and Jerry cartoon, "Switchin' Kitten" has noticeably better animation compared to his later efforts, due to the fact that Deitch produced that cartoon in the USA with the help of some of his former TerryToons colleagues, before departing to Czechoslovakia to make the rest of his cartoons with a much less experienced animation team.
** ''Tom and Jerry and The Wizard of Oz'' has this going for it compared to the other direct-to-video films.
* AnthropomorphicShift: Tom undergoes this. He looked like a real cat in the first short, but over time the change was striking. He began to walk upright more and more often. Other characters underwent a similar transformation, though Jerry himself changed very little over the course of the series, having always been somewhat humanoid.
** This is all DependingOnTheWriter instead of a shift over time, but occasionally cats wear clothes and live in houses with no humans in sight.
* AntiVillain: Tom. There have been times where he does not start the conflict, only trying to protect the house, doing his job, or other things.
* AnvilOnHead
* ArchEnemy: Tom and Jerry.
* ArtEvolution: Tom and Jerry looked far different in their first short (with Tom actually looking like a real cat), but over time their designs became far more slick and cartoonish. It then went through a de-evolution in the mid Fifties as the budget became smaller and LimitedAnimation was used, making them resemble Hanna-Barbera's later TV cartoons. Modern adaptations (and thus the way they're normally pictured these days) tend to give Tom and Jerry the look they had in the late Forties to early Fifties.
* AshFace
* AssInALionSkin: Several times the characters disguise themselves as other animals, as for instance when Tom disguises himself as a dog to find Jerry in a dog pound in "Puttin' on the Dog".
* TheBadGuyWins: Tom gets this in some episodes, though many times when Tom wins it's during an episode when Jerry has been particularly cruel.
* {{Badass}}: Jerry's cousin, [[MeaningfulName Muscles]].
* BadassMustache: Jerry's Uncle Pecos.
* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: The two occasionally end up trying to save a wandering baby, who's neglected by a bubble-headed teen babysitter.
** This is also often the case for Jerry whenever Nibbles is around, and both Tom and Jerry are badly battered when Tom is forced to babysit three bratty kittens in "Triplet Trouble".
* BeeBeeGun: "Tee for Two". Jerry directs a bee swarm straight to Tom via the bamboo breathing apparatus the cat is using while lying at the bottom of the lake.
* BerserkButton: In "The Milky Waif", Tom goes after Jerry's adopted nephew Nibbles after trapping Jerry in a jar. When Tom is foolish enough to (sort of) spank Nibbles while he's cowering, an enraged Jerry breaks free with adrenaline-powered super strength and begins [[PintsizedPowerhouse swinging Tom around by his tail]].
** Also qualifies as PapaWolf. [[OhCrap Yeeeesh.]]
** Do NOT disturb Spike while he's sleeping. And '''DO NOT''' [[PapaWolf screw with his son]].
** Tom at times gets violently infuriated by his outwittings by Jerry that even the latter [[OhCrap realizes the fun is over]] (eg. "The Million Dollar Cat"). This may apply more as being gradually pushed over the edge than a traditional Berserk Button however.
* BigEater: Nibbles. The letter he was left with warned "He's always hungry!" He even eats an entire turkey before Tom or Jerry even get a bite.
** Jerry himself can ingest food several times his size and keep eating. Same could be said of Tom whenever he actually gets to eat.
* BilingualBonus: Anything Tuffy says in the Mouseketeer episodes.
* BizarreAndImprobableGolfGame: ''Tee for Two''.
* BlackFace: Many shorts that still appear on [=DVDs=] and television, such as "The Milky Waif" and "Yankee Doodle Mouse", had blackface gags edited out, leaving the resulting cartoon very choppy. In the case of "The Milky Waif", we suddenly jump from Nibbles squirting milk in Tom's face to Tom suddenly being hit in the face with a frying pan. Also occurs in "The Mouse Came to Dinner" where they edit out Mammy's intro... which means Tom is coming out of a potted plant at the start for no reason whatsoever. It's rare to find unedited versions.
* BlessedAreTheCheeseMakers
* BlindAlley
* BloodlessCarnage - Despite the high levels of violence in the earlier shorts there was never any blood. (Unless it's faked with ketchup.)
** In ''Touché, Pussycat!'', when Jerry ''splits Tom in half'' with an axe, the two halves fall separate ways to the ground, and there's ''still'' no blood or gore.
*** The 2005 short ''The Karateguard'' has a disturbing variation -- Tom is facing us when the blade comes down. We don't see anything but we hear a very ''wet'' sound before Tom passes out. Occurs at 3:26-3:28 in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEPGpHADiKk the short.]] (He also gets mashed in a garbage truck compactor at 3:10.)
* {{Bowdlerized}}: Tom's owner, [[SassyBlackWoman Mammy]] [[JiveTurkey Two Shoes]] was considered racist during reruns, and occasionally episodes featuring her recolor her skin white and have a different person dub her voice.
** Less so on Boomerang in the UK, where the episodes are left as they were.
* ABoyAndHisX: Many episodes involve Jerry helping/protecting another animal from Tom, so it's A Mouse and His (Goldfish, Canary, Puppy, Elephant, Kitten, Duckling, Lion, Seal, Other Mouse...)
* BreakingTheFourthWall: A rare ShowWithinAShow version of this marks the end of the short with Jerry's country-singing uncle Pecos, whose guitar strings keep breaking and he plucks Tom's whiskers to replace them. For his big TV debut, the guitar string breaks yet again. Tom (watching it on TV) laughs out loud, only for Pecos to reach out of the TV to pluck one last whisker off his face.
** The characters often look directly at the viewer during moments of realisation.
* BreakoutCharacter: Spike and Tyke, who even had their own brief role in solo shorts. Some of their later appearances in the ''Tom and Jerry'' series also seem to be focused primarily on them, with the title duo's war as more of a side story.
* ButtMonkey: Tom. Jerry isn't immune to moments of this either.
* BuzzsawJaw
* TheCameo: In a lot of their more modern works (such as ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTales'') Droopy makes a guest appearance.
* CanonImmigrant: Nibbles, aka Tuffy, who was first introduced in the Tom and Jerry comics before he ever appeared in the theatrical shorts.
** ''Two Little Indians'' features ''two'' mice, presumably Nibbles and Tuffy, who take on Tom after he captures Jerry. So it's not impossible they both exist.
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: In the second cartoon, "The Midnight Snack", Jerry is beaten by Tom every time he tries to steal food, and Tom only starts losing once he starts stealing too.
* CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem: "The Night Before Christmas", "The Lonesome Mouse," "Snowbody Loves Me"
* CaptainErsatz: Tom's owner in three Deitch shorts looked and sounded an awful lot like Clint Clobber, a character from Deitch's tenure at TerryToons. However, unlike the [[ComedicSociopathy mean, abusive character]] presented here, the TerryToons character was a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
* CapturedByCannibals: "His Mouse Friday". This short is often heavily edited when it's shown at all (even the Spotlight Collection contains some cropping out of [[FacialProfiling offensive caricatures]]).
* CartoonConductor
* CartoonCheese: Possibly the TropeCodifier
* CartoonyEyes
* CatchPhrase: Tuffy ends each of the Mouseketeer shorts with "C'est la guerre!" (That's War!)
** OncePerEpisode Tuffy would stab Tom in the butt with a sword and say "Touché, pussycat!"
** Tom's 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA' scream. Created by recording one of the producers yelling, and chopping off the beginning and end.
** Though he only said it twice (in "Mouse Trouble" and "The Missing Mouse"), Tom's "Don't. You. Believe It." was something of a meme at the time. BugsBunny says it, too, in "Big Top Bunny".
** Tom's [[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench Charles Boyer impression]] got used more than once, as well.
** Spike saying "That's my boy" to Tyke.
* CatchThatPigeon
* CatsAreMean
** Occasionally subverted, in the occasional short where Jerry is the instigator and Tom the hapless victim.
* CaughtInASnare: In "Mouse Trouble", Tom gets caught in it (which was intended for Jerry) when Jerry switches the cheese used as bait for a bowl of cream. Also counts as HoistByHisOwnPetard.
* ChainedToARailway: In "Kitty Foiled", with a model train set.
* CharacterFocus: Spike and Tyke towards the late 50's, perhaps in order to sell the spinoff series Hanna-Barbara was trying to make with them.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In Spike's original appearances, he was more or less an non-anthropomorphic dog and even would attack Tom ''and'' Jerry without preference in his debut. Then, in "Quiet Please", the team developed the standard plot for Spike (telling Tom he would pound him if Tom did X only for Jerry to spend the rest of the short framing Tom for X) and gave him an actual personality. His voice was quite different, too, being voiced by Billy Bletcher. Later on, they gave him his son and the characterization [[PapaWolf we all know now]]. In these cartoons, Spike was voiced by Creator/DawsButler, who made Spike sound something like Jimmy Durante.
* ChekhovsGun: Literal instance in "Year of the Mouse". Early in the short, Jerry and his nameless partner in crime place a gun in Tom's hand and make him think he's pulled the trigger on himself. At the short's climax, the gun reappears [[spoiler:when Tom discovers and captures the mice, first holding them at gunpoint and then rigging a bottle trap so that they'll shoot themselves if they try to escape]].
* ChildrenAreInnocent: In "Professor Tom", Tom is trying to teach a kitten how to chase mice. Though the kitten chases Jerry around, it's only because that's what he's told to do, and he responds eagerly to Jerry's offers of friendship. Jerry is noticeably ''much'' nicer to the kitten than he is to Tom, and gets very upset when he sees Tom spanking the kitten near the end of the short.
** Reversed around in "The Little School Mouse" when Jerry tries to teach Nibbles how to outsmart a cat. Each of his demonstrations on Tom fail miserably while Nibbles naively just asks Tom to comply to his requests, and ''actually succeeds''.
* ChristmasEpisode: The early short "The Night Before Christmas", which [[CaptainObvious takes place on Christmas Eve]].
* CirclingBirdies
* ClipShow: More so around the time the series began to decline in quality, though Hanna and Barbera managed to keep some of them genuinely entertaining. It required an ArtShift whenever ChuckJones did one, so their look would match the clips. Tellingly, Tom and Jerry's ArtEvolution made the differences between the clips and the FramingDevice particularly jarring every time a ClipShow episode was done.
** Noticeable in the two clip-show shorts made during the Jones era, ''Matinee Mouse'' and ''Shutter Bugged Cat'', both directed by Tom Ray. The most discernible contrast between the new footage and the clips of the H-B shorts is the animation. The originals bristle with life and energy while Ray's looked lethargic by comparison.
* CockFight: Tom and Butch are often in competition over the affection of an attractive female cat.
* ConcussionsGetYouHigh: In "Nit-Witty Kitty" Tom gets hit on the head and afterwards thinks he's a mouse. Has elements of TraumaInducedAmnesia.
* ConspicuousConsumption: "Blue Cat Blues", where Tom keeps trying (and failing) to out-spend Butch in order to impress a female cat.
* ConstructionZoneCalamity: The short "Tot Watchers" has the duo try to protect a baby who wanders into a construction zone. A later ChuckJones short, "Bad Day at Cat Rock", has Tom chase Jerry into a construction zone.
* CousinOliver: Nibbles aka Tuffy.
** Admittedly, he's a decent example.
* CountryMouse: Both traditional and literal in "Mouse in Manhattan".
* CranialEruption
* CutASliceTakeTheRest: Used in a short, "The Truce Hurts", where Tom, Jerry and Spike are trying to figure out how to divide a steak they've found, and can't come to an agreement, thereby ruining their truce.
** In another short, "Baby Butch", Butch the alley cat cuts a small slice of ham for Tom and Jerry each, then takes the rest for himself.
** Done yet another time in the later shorts where Tom and Spike belonged to a married couple; in this case Tom was attempting to retrieve an incriminating photograph before his owners saw it.
* CuteKitten: Combined with [[ChildrenAreInnocent Kittens Are Innocent]] in "Professor Tom".
** Subverted in "Three Little Kittens", where the titular kittens do NOTHING but try to get in trouble.
* DagwoodSandwich: Tom eats these on occasion.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Two 1957 shorts ("Give and Tyke" and "Scat Cats") focused on Spike and Tyke.
** "Mouse in Manhattan" is virtually a solo Jerry short, with Tom limited to a brief appearance at the end.
* DeathIsCheap: It's almost never given a sign of death or anything much related to it since it's a slapstick comedy, but during a [[UniversalAdaptorCast time-warp episode]], ''The Two Mouseketeers'', Tom does (supposedly) get gulliotined in the end of the episode, which didn't stopped him from reappearing in the following shorts in the same setting. It may be explained with that [[FakingTheDead Tom escaped the execution before the said scene was shown]] or that [[SitCom the events between the shorts are not actually connected one to another anyway]].
* DelayedReaction: Happens often with Tom, which makes him realize too late that he's carrying a bomb, about to get hit, or that Jerry is right in front of him.
* DenserAndWackier: The scenarios and gags in the earlier shorts were more mundane compared to their later years.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Chuck Jones and Gene Deitch had their own takes on the characters. In some shorts, Tom is a {{Jerkass}}; in others he's TheWoobie (mostly Deitch's, thanks primarily to his HairTriggerTemper owner). Most of the worst examples of Jerry being a ScrewySquirrel come from the Chuck Jones shorts.
* DerangedAnimation: The Gene Deitch shorts.
* {{Determinator}}: Tom
* DinnerDeformation: This happened a lot to Jerry and Nibbles when they ate something larger than themselves, though only occasionally to Tom (either from his DagwoodSandwich or swallowing something large and inedible like an umbrella).
* DinosaurDoggieBone
* DisneyDeath: In the episode ''Heavenly Puss'', Tom gets hit by a piano and dies, ending up in heaven, but he won't be able to pass through the gates without Jerry's forgiveness. Tom is given a set amount of time to receive Jerry's signature on a certificate of forgiveness, but gets it seconds too late, and falls down to Hell. Turns out to be AllJustADream and Tom suddenly hugs a bewildered Jerry.
* DoorstopBaby: Nibbles was introduced as this.
** Butch pretends to be one in one short, just so he can steal all the food in Tom's fridge.
* DownerEnding: Would you believe there was a short (''Blue Cat Blues'', 1956) that ended with both Tom and Jerry sitting on a train track waiting to commit suicide by train? And just as it irises out, you hear the sound of a train whistle? Chilling.
** There's also a Mouseketeer episode that ends with Tom's execution and Jerry and Tuffy [[GoryDiscretionShot seeing the guillotine come down]]...
** While most episodes where [[TeamRocketWins Tom wins]] start out with Jerry initiating the conflict, the short ''Southbound Duckling'', where Jerry is trying to help Quakers fly south whilst avoid being eaten by Tom, ends with Tom sneaking up behind the pair as they relax at Miami beach, trapping them under a bucket then giving an EvilLaugh to the camera. Whatever he does to them next is up to your imagination.
* DrunkOnMilk: In Blue Cat Blues, Jerry's InnerMonologue describe that Tom 'started drinking'.
* DuckSeasonRabbitSeason: Done in "The Yankee Doodle Mouse", when Tom and Jerry throw a stick of dynamite back and forth.
* DuelToTheDeath: ''Duel Personality''
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The early shorts had a strong {{Disney}} influence, undoubtedly a hold-over from [[HarmanAndIsing Hugh Harman's]] influence on MGM's cartoon shorts. As such, the earlier shorts are very atmospheric and fluid in their animation, but to a point where its self-conscious, and as such hampers the timing and pacing of the cartoons. Tom and Jerry also had more of a sibling rivalry than a true cat-eats-mouse rivalry. Once TexAvery arrived at MGM, his influence starting taking hold of the shorts (although he never directing anything on the series), resulting in more streamlined designs, sharper timing, crisper pacing, and the sibling rivalry aspect of Tom and Jerry's relationship was abandoned altogether.
* EatingShoes: Tom eats his shoes and shoelaces in "His Mouse Friday".
* EekAMouse: Numerous times. [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Tom in "Trap Happy" when calling the mouse extermination service.
* TheElectricSlide: Used for laughs.
* EnemyMine: There are times Tom and Jerry are facing a common enemy.
* EnemyToAllLivingThings[=/=]FriendToAllLivingThings: Many shorts involve Jerry befriending a [[OneSceneWonder one shot character]] (usually another stray animal). Tom on the other hand usually ends up either provoking it's rather violent wrath, or deciding he wants to eat it, depending on the species. It doesn't help the large majority of alternate characters tend to sympathize more with the innocent little mouse being chased by the [[CatsAreMean big pussy cat]], in some cases ''even the humans that sent Tom after him in the first place''.
** The short "Yankee Doodle Mouse" may or may not have actually been using this reference.
** Though granted in some cases, Jerry's new "[[WithFriendsLikeThese friends]]" [[StopHelpingMe cause as much trouble for him unintentionally]] as they do for Tom.
* EverythingExplodesEnding: "The Missing Mouse" has Tom scared by a lab mouse that swallowed a powerful explosive. By the end a radio announcement declares that the mouse will not explode and Tom gives it a good kick. It explodes anyway.
* EyePop
* TheFaceless: Mammy Two Shoes (and some of the white housewives who replaced her)
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Some of Tom's injuries are surprisingly violent. These shorts have caught a lot of flack from MoralGuardians over the years for it (even moreso than the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes). Ironic that they were on TV more consistently in the period before WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes was brought back onto Creator/CartoonNetwork.
* FashionDissonance: ''The Zoot Cat'', which also has so many references to 1940's pop culture its an UnintentionalPeriodPiece.
* FireAndBrimstoneHell[=/=]FluffyCloudHeaven: Both featured in "Heavenly Puss".
* FreezeFrameBonus: In "Saturday Evening Puss", you get to see Mammy Two Shoes' face very briefly as she charges down the road towards the camera.
* FriendlyEnemies: Tom and Jerry can actually get along quite well when they're not beating the crap out of each other.
* FurIsClothing: Done on a few occasions, with Tom either being shaven or being scared out of his fur, wearing nothing but GoofyPrintUnderwear. It happened particularly often in the later Chuck Jones shorts.
** Similar when Tom runs over Mama Duck with a lawnmower in "Little Quacker", exposing her turquoise bra and bloomers, which she quickly covers with her now robe-like feathers.
* GenreSavvy: In "The Duck Doctor", an anvil is falling toward Tom. He runs in circles for a few seconds trying to escape, but then acknowledges that no matter ''what'' he does, he's going to get conked. So he digs a grave and stands next to it, smoking a cigarette as if he's waiting for the firing squad, until he gets hit and falls in.
** In "Million Dollar Cat", Tom gets Jerry to jump out of a penthouse window, then sits down for breakfast. He gets suspicious and peeks under the silver lid covering the dish, obviously expecting Jerry to be there. He's wrong; Jerry was hiding in the napkin.
* GloveSlap: In "Duel Personality".
* GoshHornet: "Tee for Two". See BeeBeeGun entry above.
* GravityIsAHarshMistress
* GrayAndGreyMorality: Neither Tom or Jerry are out and out innocent character and can be rather vindictive in their feud, however the shorts alternate with who is the most sympathetic and they both at the very least have some justified motives (Jerry needs food, Tom (and usually his owner) wants a pest out of his house).
* HammeredIntoTheGround: In one episode, Tom had a nightmare about a giant bulldog pounding him into the ground like a nail.
* HardHead
* HaveAGayOldTime: In the Mousketeer short ''Tom and Cherie'', just try listening to Tuffy call out "Pussy! Pussy pussy pussy!!" with a straight face.
* TheHero: Jerry ([[DesignatedHero debatable]])
** Later Hanna Barbara shorts did try to play this more straight, making Jerry more altrustic and often saving another animal friend from being victimized by Tom. The odd time he strayed from this he was more likely to suffer LaserGuidedKarma.
* HeroicComedicSociopath: Jerry, DependingOnTheWriter.
* HeWentThatWay
* HollywoodHealing: It takes about five seconds for Tom to grow his teeth back. And that's just one example among many.
** Somewhat averted in "Mouse Trouble", where Tom sports multiple bandages and a toupee (after he nearly blows his own head off with a shotgun) throughout the short.
* HonorableElephant: In "Jerry-Go-Round", an elephant loyally defends Jerry from Tom after Jerry pulls a nail from the elephant's foot.
* HonoraryUncle: Jerry becomes the adoptive Uncle of [[strike:Nibbles]] Tuffy.
* HotPotato: Only with bombs.
** DuckSeasonRabbitSeason
* HumansAreBastards: The extent of Mammy Two Shoes' abusive treatment of Tom (and how justified it is due to the latter's antics) varied DependingOnTheWriter. Various alternate owners were paired with Tom throughout the franchise's run, their treatment of the cat ranging from lenient or justified to [[ComedicSociopath outright psychotic]] (the latter being Deitch's unnamed owner character).
** In "Heavenly Puss", the feline St. Peter sadly shakes his head and mutters "What some people won't do..." when the next "person" in his line is a sack full of kittens who were apparently drowned.
** The babysitter takes the cake. She completely ignores the baby to talk on the phone instead. The only time she actually notices the kid is immediately after Tom has rescued the baby from killing itself, at which point she jumps to the conclusion that Tom is ''attacking'' the child and beats the stuffing out of him.
** How about the little girl who dresses Tom up as a baby and treats him as such, including putting him in a diaper and feeding him castor oil? The latter is particularly grating, since she walks into the room to discover Tom's [[WithFriendsLikeThese "friends"]] mocking and humiliating him and her immediate response is to blame and punish him.
* HumanoidFemaleAnimal: The cats that Tom usually lusts over.
* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: In the short "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse", near the end Tom finally drinks his own power potion which Jerry had been using throughout the short. Instead of growing stronger however, it backfires, and Tom shrinks until he's as tall to Jerry as Jerry normally is to him. The short ends with Jerry chasing after Tom with a fly swatter.
* InVinoVeritas: "Part Time Pal" has Tom actually befriending Jerry while drunk.
* InstantBandages
* InterspeciesRomance: In one Chuck Jones short, Jerry and a female fish appear to have a thing going on. In the end, a shark is crushing on her.
** At the end of ''Casonova Cat'' and a couple other shorts, Jerry runs off with the ''cat'' that Tom had been trying to woo all episode.
* IronButtmonkey: Tom.
** Jerry gets it bad a few times as well. Usually when paired with [[WithFriendsLikeThese haphazard allies like]] Little Quacker or Nibbles.
* ItAmusedMe: Tom and Jerry sometimes pick on one another for the sake of their own amusement.
* JerkAss: Both characters have plenty of moments.
* JustFollowingOrders: In some episodes, Tom only goes after Jerry because his owner tells him to, yet he is still treated as a villain for wanting to get rid of the possibly disease ridden mouse.
* JustWhistle: Spike makes this kind of an arrangement with Jerry in "The Bodyguard" and a couple later shorts.
* KarmicTrickster: In most shorts, Jerry doesn't start trouble until Tom wrongs him in some way. In some shorts he skews more towards a ScrewySquirrel and attacks Tom without being provoked, but usually Jerry is fighting for his survival, or at least unhappy with the unfair situation Tom is putting him in (i.e. using him as fish bait, dressing him in a bow and giving him to a girl cat as a present, using him as a paddleball, etc.).
* [[KillerRabbit Killer Mouse]]: Jerry. He may look adorable, but when threatened? Beware.
* KnifeOutline
* KungFoley: Some of the most legendary foley work in animation history, in fact.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Usually applied to Tom, particularly in episodes with Mammy Two Shoes involved, but occasionally hits Jerry. Generally, in episodes where Jerry gets just a little bit too vindictive when dealing with Tom the plot will deal him some kind of misfortune as well, even if Tom doesn't "win" per se.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Spike's voice is based on that of crooner Jimmy "Schnozzler" Durante.
** His current voice, anyway. He just sounded like a gruff man in his first speaking role.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Beginning with 1949's "Polka-dot Puss", every T&J short opened with one of these composed by Scott Bradley.
** In "Mouse in Manhattan", most of the music is just variations of a single melody, matched to fit the mood of whatever's currently happening.
* LiteralAssKicking: Probably at least OncePerEpisode.
* LiveActionAdaptation: In development.
* {{Lolicon}}: "Toots" from "The Zoot Cat" dosen't quite fit this trope (it's implied that she may be a teenager, due to her mature Southern voice, since the short is supposed to parody the teenagers of that time period) but you sure wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at her—especially considering she looks like a child and wears an equally small dress.
* LongLostRelative: Jerry's Uncle Pecos, a country singer that even Jerry can't stand, and Jerry's cousin Muscles, who is identical to Jerry but super strong.
* LoudGulp: Happens very often, usually during an OhCrap situation.
* LowerDeckEpisode: "Mouse in Manhattan" is a Jerry solo short, with Tom only appearing in the opening and ending. The two shorts centered around Spike and Tyke also count.
* LullDestruction: In Japanese dubs, Tom and Jerry are sometimes given voice actors along with a narrator. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1--U1GYj4w&feature=related An example.]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp_HHa7DakU And]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsbfwBrkVQI&feature=related some]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iafcWCgskCU&feature=related more]].
* MatryoshkaObject: "The Yankee Doodle Mouse" has Tom cornered by a large firecracker. Instead of blowing up, it breaks apart to reveal a smaller firecracker, which then reveals a smaller firecracker, and so on until all that is left is a tiny firecracker. Tom holds it in his hand, laughs in amusement, and then it blows up in a huge explosion.
* MamaBear: In one ChuckJones toon, Tom offers Jerry to a female cat as a present, but Jerry invokes this trope by acting cute, causing her to treat him like her child. It only lasts until she gives him a kiss, at which point she realizes he tastes pretty good.
* MetronomicManMashing: Jerry did this to Tom once when he (Jerry) got super-strength.
* MickeyMousing: Very widespread in just about every short.
* MissingMom: One wonders if Tyke even has a mother.
* MimeAndMusicOnlyCartoon: Most episodes.
* MindScrew: In "Timid Tabby", Tom and his cowardly identical cousin pull this on Jerry by switching around and eventually pretending Tom has turned into a [[TookALevelInBadass two-headed, four-armed-and-legged monstrosity]], sending Jerry running to the Home for Mice Suffering from Nervous Breakdowns.
* MoodWhiplash: The 1956 cartoon "Blue Cat Blues" is rather depressing compared to the rest of the series, as it begins with Tom sitting on a railroad track preparing to commit suicide. Jerry tells us how Tom was [[DrivenToSuicide driven to this state]] by a love affair gone sour, and the cartoon ends with Jerry realizing his girlfriend has been unfaithful and joining Tom on the tracks. Cue the sound of a train whistle, iris out.
* MouseHole: Sometimes Jerry's mouse hole even has a little door, or fancy decorations around it, as if the architects of the house Tom and Jerry are in specifically built the mouse hole into the wall.
* MouseTrap: Used a lot.
* TheMovie: ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie''.
* TheMusical: ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie''.
* AccordionMan
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: "Professor Tom" has Tom teaching mousing to a kitten. When the kitten does a good job, he gets a pat on the head.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: All those times Jerry took a hammer to Tom's foot or lit matches beneath his feet when he wasn't paying attention.
* AllJustADream: ''Heavenly Puss'' ends this way. Subverted earlier; when Tom gets sent back to his body, he's relieved, thinking it was only a dream... until he notices the "Certificate of Forgiveness" in his hand.
** ''The Cat and the Mermouse'' was this too, everything after Tom falls into the ocean is a hallucination Tom has while nearly drowning. Luckily at the end Tom wakes up to find that [[CPRCleanPrettyReliable Jerry rescued him and is pumping the water out of his lungs]].
* AllWitchesHaveCats: In one short Tom answers an ad to be a companion for someone who turns out to be a witch.
* AluminumChristmasTrees: In "Professor Tom", actually if a kitten is introduced to a mouse or rat early enough, [[InterspeciesFriendship they have been known to befriend them in real life.]]
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: Japanese ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' has a different [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56zZAzFB4KI&feature=related opening theme]].
* AmusingInjuries: Major aspect of the series, as it's not only the premise, but wouldn't work without it.
* AndIMustScream: Jerry once froze Tom in ice; only Tom's eyes could move.
** If AmusingInjuries weren't there, these instances would probably ruin the program.
* AngryGuardDog: Spike, Tom's nemesis.
* AnimalJingoism: Mouse vs. Cat, and occasionally Cat vs. Dog (though only in one episode does Spike ever also chase Jerry).
* AnimationBump: Granted, any halfway competent studio could have produced much better animation than what Gene Deitch's team churned out, but Chuck Jones's efforts are light-years ahead of Deitch's work (and even the final few Hanna-Barbera theatrical shorts) in overall animation quality.
** Deitch's first Tom and Jerry cartoon, "Switchin' Kitten" has noticeably better animation compared to his later efforts, due to the fact that Deitch produced that cartoon in the USA with the help of some of his former TerryToons colleagues, before departing to Czechoslovakia to make the rest of his cartoons with a much less experienced animation team.
** ''Tom and Jerry and The Wizard of Oz'' has this going for it compared to the other direct-to-video films.
* AnthropomorphicShift: Tom undergoes this. He looked like a real cat in the first short, but over time the change was striking. He began to walk upright more and more often. Other characters underwent a similar transformation, though Jerry himself changed very little over the course of the series, having always been somewhat humanoid.
** This is all DependingOnTheWriter instead of a shift over time, but occasionally cats wear clothes and live in houses with no humans in sight.
* AntiVillain: Tom. There have been times where he does not start the conflict, only trying to protect the house, doing his job, or other things.
* AnvilOnHead
* ArchEnemy: Tom and Jerry.
* ArtEvolution: Tom and Jerry looked far different in their first short (with Tom actually looking like a real cat), but over time their designs became far more slick and cartoonish. It then went through a de-evolution in the mid Fifties as the budget became smaller and LimitedAnimation was used, making them resemble Hanna-Barbera's later TV cartoons. Modern adaptations (and thus the way they're normally pictured these days) tend to give Tom and Jerry the look they had in the late Forties to early Fifties.
* AshFace
* AssInALionSkin: Several times the characters disguise themselves as other animals, as for instance when Tom disguises himself as a dog to find Jerry in a dog pound in "Puttin' on the Dog".
* TheBadGuyWins: Tom gets this in some episodes, though many times when Tom wins it's during an episode when Jerry has been particularly cruel.
* {{Badass}}: Jerry's cousin, [[MeaningfulName Muscles]].
* BadassMustache: Jerry's Uncle Pecos.
* BadlyBatteredBabysitter: The two occasionally end up trying to save a wandering baby, who's neglected by a bubble-headed teen babysitter.
** This is also often the case for Jerry whenever Nibbles is around, and both Tom and Jerry are badly battered when Tom is forced to babysit three bratty kittens in "Triplet Trouble".
* BeeBeeGun: "Tee for Two". Jerry directs a bee swarm straight to Tom via the bamboo breathing apparatus the cat is using while lying at the bottom of the lake.
* BerserkButton: In "The Milky Waif", Tom goes after Jerry's adopted nephew Nibbles after trapping Jerry in a jar. When Tom is foolish enough to (sort of) spank Nibbles while he's cowering, an enraged Jerry breaks free with adrenaline-powered super strength and begins [[PintsizedPowerhouse swinging Tom around by his tail]].
** Also qualifies as PapaWolf. [[OhCrap Yeeeesh.]]
** Do NOT disturb Spike while he's sleeping. And '''DO NOT''' [[PapaWolf screw with his son]].
** Tom at times gets violently infuriated by his outwittings by Jerry that even the latter [[OhCrap realizes the fun is over]] (eg. "The Million Dollar Cat"). This may apply more as being gradually pushed over the edge than a traditional Berserk Button however.
* BigEater: Nibbles. The letter he was left with warned "He's always hungry!" He even eats an entire turkey before Tom or Jerry even get a bite.
** Jerry himself can ingest food several times his size and keep eating. Same could be said of Tom whenever he actually gets to eat.
* BilingualBonus: Anything Tuffy says in the Mouseketeer episodes.
* BizarreAndImprobableGolfGame: ''Tee for Two''.
* BlackFace: Many shorts that still appear on [=DVDs=] and television, such as "The Milky Waif" and "Yankee Doodle Mouse", had blackface gags edited out, leaving the resulting cartoon very choppy. In the case of "The Milky Waif", we suddenly jump from Nibbles squirting milk in Tom's face to Tom suddenly being hit in the face with a frying pan. Also occurs in "The Mouse Came to Dinner" where they edit out Mammy's intro... which means Tom is coming out of a potted plant at the start for no reason whatsoever. It's rare to find unedited versions.
* BlessedAreTheCheeseMakers
* BlindAlley
* BloodlessCarnage - Despite the high levels of violence in the earlier shorts there was never any blood. (Unless it's faked with ketchup.)
** In ''Touché, Pussycat!'', when Jerry ''splits Tom in half'' with an axe, the two halves fall separate ways to the ground, and there's ''still'' no blood or gore.
*** The 2005 short ''The Karateguard'' has a disturbing variation -- Tom is facing us when the blade comes down. We don't see anything but we hear a very ''wet'' sound before Tom passes out. Occurs at 3:26-3:28 in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEPGpHADiKk the short.]] (He also gets mashed in a garbage truck compactor at 3:10.)
* {{Bowdlerized}}: Tom's owner, [[SassyBlackWoman Mammy]] [[JiveTurkey Two Shoes]] was considered racist during reruns, and occasionally episodes featuring her recolor her skin white and have a different person dub her voice.
** Less so on Boomerang in the UK, where the episodes are left as they were.
* ABoyAndHisX: Many episodes involve Jerry helping/protecting another animal from Tom, so it's A Mouse and His (Goldfish, Canary, Puppy, Elephant, Kitten, Duckling, Lion, Seal, Other Mouse...)
* BreakingTheFourthWall: A rare ShowWithinAShow version of this marks the end of the short with Jerry's country-singing uncle Pecos, whose guitar strings keep breaking and he plucks Tom's whiskers to replace them. For his big TV debut, the guitar string breaks yet again. Tom (watching it on TV) laughs out loud, only for Pecos to reach out of the TV to pluck one last whisker off his face.
** The characters often look directly at the viewer during moments of realisation.
* BreakoutCharacter: Spike and Tyke, who even had their own brief role in solo shorts. Some of their later appearances in the ''Tom and Jerry'' series also seem to be focused primarily on them, with the title duo's war as more of a side story.
* ButtMonkey: Tom. Jerry isn't immune to moments of this either.
* BuzzsawJaw
* TheCameo: In a lot of their more modern works (such as ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTales'') Droopy makes a guest appearance.
* CanonImmigrant: Nibbles, aka Tuffy, who was first introduced in the Tom and Jerry comics before he ever appeared in the theatrical shorts.
** ''Two Little Indians'' features ''two'' mice, presumably Nibbles and Tuffy, who take on Tom after he captures Jerry. So it's not impossible they both exist.
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: In the second cartoon, "The Midnight Snack", Jerry is beaten by Tom every time he tries to steal food, and Tom only starts losing once he starts stealing too.
* CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem: "The Night Before Christmas", "The Lonesome Mouse," "Snowbody Loves Me"
* CaptainErsatz: Tom's owner in three Deitch shorts looked and sounded an awful lot like Clint Clobber, a character from Deitch's tenure at TerryToons. However, unlike the [[ComedicSociopathy mean, abusive character]] presented here, the TerryToons character was a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
* CapturedByCannibals: "His Mouse Friday". This short is often heavily edited when it's shown at all (even the Spotlight Collection contains some cropping out of [[FacialProfiling offensive caricatures]]).
* CartoonConductor
* CartoonCheese: Possibly the TropeCodifier
* CartoonyEyes
* CatchPhrase: Tuffy ends each of the Mouseketeer shorts with "C'est la guerre!" (That's War!)
** OncePerEpisode Tuffy would stab Tom in the butt with a sword and say "Touché, pussycat!"
** Tom's 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA' scream. Created by recording one of the producers yelling, and chopping off the beginning and end.
** Though he only said it twice (in "Mouse Trouble" and "The Missing Mouse"), Tom's "Don't. You. Believe It." was something of a meme at the time. BugsBunny says it, too, in "Big Top Bunny".
** Tom's [[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench Charles Boyer impression]] got used more than once, as well.
** Spike saying "That's my boy" to Tyke.
* CatchThatPigeon
* CatsAreMean
** Occasionally subverted, in the occasional short where Jerry is the instigator and Tom the hapless victim.
* CaughtInASnare: In "Mouse Trouble", Tom gets caught in it (which was intended for Jerry) when Jerry switches the cheese used as bait for a bowl of cream. Also counts as HoistByHisOwnPetard.
* ChainedToARailway: In "Kitty Foiled", with a model train set.
* CharacterFocus: Spike and Tyke towards the late 50's, perhaps in order to sell the spinoff series Hanna-Barbara was trying to make with them.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In Spike's original appearances, he was more or less an non-anthropomorphic dog and even would attack Tom ''and'' Jerry without preference in his debut. Then, in "Quiet Please", the team developed the standard plot for Spike (telling Tom he would pound him if Tom did X only for Jerry to spend the rest of the short framing Tom for X) and gave him an actual personality. His voice was quite different, too, being voiced by Billy Bletcher. Later on, they gave him his son and the characterization [[PapaWolf we all know now]]. In these cartoons, Spike was voiced by Creator/DawsButler, who made Spike sound something like Jimmy Durante.
* ChekhovsGun: Literal instance in "Year of the Mouse". Early in the short, Jerry and his nameless partner in crime place a gun in Tom's hand and make him think he's pulled the trigger on himself. At the short's climax, the gun reappears [[spoiler:when Tom discovers and captures the mice, first holding them at gunpoint and then rigging a bottle trap so that they'll shoot themselves if they try to escape]].
* ChildrenAreInnocent: In "Professor Tom", Tom is trying to teach a kitten how to chase mice. Though the kitten chases Jerry around, it's only because that's what he's told to do, and he responds eagerly to Jerry's offers of friendship. Jerry is noticeably ''much'' nicer to the kitten than he is to Tom, and gets very upset when he sees Tom spanking the kitten near the end of the short.
** Reversed around in "The Little School Mouse" when Jerry tries to teach Nibbles how to outsmart a cat. Each of his demonstrations on Tom fail miserably while Nibbles naively just asks Tom to comply to his requests, and ''actually succeeds''.
* ChristmasEpisode: The early short "The Night Before Christmas", which [[CaptainObvious takes place on Christmas Eve]].
* CirclingBirdies
* ClipShow: More so around the time the series began to decline in quality, though Hanna and Barbera managed to keep some of them genuinely entertaining. It required an ArtShift whenever ChuckJones did one, so their look would match the clips. Tellingly, Tom and Jerry's ArtEvolution made the differences between the clips and the FramingDevice particularly jarring every time a ClipShow episode was done.
** Noticeable in the two clip-show shorts made during the Jones era, ''Matinee Mouse'' and ''Shutter Bugged Cat'', both directed by Tom Ray. The most discernible contrast between the new footage and the clips of the H-B shorts is the animation. The originals bristle with life and energy while Ray's looked lethargic by comparison.
* CockFight: Tom and Butch are often in competition over the affection of an attractive female cat.
* ConcussionsGetYouHigh: In "Nit-Witty Kitty" Tom gets hit on the head and afterwards thinks he's a mouse. Has elements of TraumaInducedAmnesia.
* ConspicuousConsumption: "Blue Cat Blues", where Tom keeps trying (and failing) to out-spend Butch in order to impress a female cat.
* ConstructionZoneCalamity: The short "Tot Watchers" has the duo try to protect a baby who wanders into a construction zone. A later ChuckJones short, "Bad Day at Cat Rock", has Tom chase Jerry into a construction zone.
* CousinOliver: Nibbles aka Tuffy.
** Admittedly, he's a decent example.
* CountryMouse: Both traditional and literal in "Mouse in Manhattan".
* CranialEruption
* CutASliceTakeTheRest: Used in a short, "The Truce Hurts", where Tom, Jerry and Spike are trying to figure out how to divide a steak they've found, and can't come to an agreement, thereby ruining their truce.
** In another short, "Baby Butch", Butch the alley cat cuts a small slice of ham for Tom and Jerry each, then takes the rest for himself.
** Done yet another time in the later shorts where Tom and Spike belonged to a married couple; in this case Tom was attempting to retrieve an incriminating photograph before his owners saw it.
* CuteKitten: Combined with [[ChildrenAreInnocent Kittens Are Innocent]] in "Professor Tom".
** Subverted in "Three Little Kittens", where the titular kittens do NOTHING but try to get in trouble.
* DagwoodSandwich: Tom eats these on occasion.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Two 1957 shorts ("Give and Tyke" and "Scat Cats") focused on Spike and Tyke.
** "Mouse in Manhattan" is virtually a solo Jerry short, with Tom limited to a brief appearance at the end.
* DeathIsCheap: It's almost never given a sign of death or anything much related to it since it's a slapstick comedy, but during a [[UniversalAdaptorCast time-warp episode]], ''The Two Mouseketeers'', Tom does (supposedly) get gulliotined in the end of the episode, which didn't stopped him from reappearing in the following shorts in the same setting. It may be explained with that [[FakingTheDead Tom escaped the execution before the said scene was shown]] or that [[SitCom the events between the shorts are not actually connected one to another anyway]].
* DelayedReaction: Happens often with Tom, which makes him realize too late that he's carrying a bomb, about to get hit, or that Jerry is right in front of him.
* DenserAndWackier: The scenarios and gags in the earlier shorts were more mundane compared to their later years.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Chuck Jones and Gene Deitch had their own takes on the characters. In some shorts, Tom is a {{Jerkass}}; in others he's TheWoobie (mostly Deitch's, thanks primarily to his HairTriggerTemper owner). Most of the worst examples of Jerry being a ScrewySquirrel come from the Chuck Jones shorts.
* DerangedAnimation: The Gene Deitch shorts.
* {{Determinator}}: Tom
* DinnerDeformation: This happened a lot to Jerry and Nibbles when they ate something larger than themselves, though only occasionally to Tom (either from his DagwoodSandwich or swallowing something large and inedible like an umbrella).
* DinosaurDoggieBone
* DisneyDeath: In the episode ''Heavenly Puss'', Tom gets hit by a piano and dies, ending up in heaven, but he won't be able to pass through the gates without Jerry's forgiveness. Tom is given a set amount of time to receive Jerry's signature on a certificate of forgiveness, but gets it seconds too late, and falls down to Hell. Turns out to be AllJustADream and Tom suddenly hugs a bewildered Jerry.
* DoorstopBaby: Nibbles was introduced as this.
** Butch pretends to be one in one short, just so he can steal all the food in Tom's fridge.
* DownerEnding: Would you believe there was a short (''Blue Cat Blues'', 1956) that ended with both Tom and Jerry sitting on a train track waiting to commit suicide by train? And just as it irises out, you hear the sound of a train whistle? Chilling.
** There's also a Mouseketeer episode that ends with Tom's execution and Jerry and Tuffy [[GoryDiscretionShot seeing the guillotine come down]]...
** While most episodes where [[TeamRocketWins Tom wins]] start out with Jerry initiating the conflict, the short ''Southbound Duckling'', where Jerry is trying to help Quakers fly south whilst avoid being eaten by Tom, ends with Tom sneaking up behind the pair as they relax at Miami beach, trapping them under a bucket then giving an EvilLaugh to the camera. Whatever he does to them next is up to your imagination.
* DrunkOnMilk: In Blue Cat Blues, Jerry's InnerMonologue describe that Tom 'started drinking'.
* DuckSeasonRabbitSeason: Done in "The Yankee Doodle Mouse", when Tom and Jerry throw a stick of dynamite back and forth.
* DuelToTheDeath: ''Duel Personality''
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The early shorts had a strong {{Disney}} influence, undoubtedly a hold-over from [[HarmanAndIsing Hugh Harman's]] influence on MGM's cartoon shorts. As such, the earlier shorts are very atmospheric and fluid in their animation, but to a point where its self-conscious, and as such hampers the timing and pacing of the cartoons. Tom and Jerry also had more of a sibling rivalry than a true cat-eats-mouse rivalry. Once TexAvery arrived at MGM, his influence starting taking hold of the shorts (although he never directing anything on the series), resulting in more streamlined designs, sharper timing, crisper pacing, and the sibling rivalry aspect of Tom and Jerry's relationship was abandoned altogether.
* EatingShoes: Tom eats his shoes and shoelaces in "His Mouse Friday".
* EekAMouse: Numerous times. [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Tom in "Trap Happy" when calling the mouse extermination service.
* TheElectricSlide: Used for laughs.
* EnemyMine: There are times Tom and Jerry are facing a common enemy.
* EnemyToAllLivingThings[=/=]FriendToAllLivingThings: Many shorts involve Jerry befriending a [[OneSceneWonder one shot character]] (usually another stray animal). Tom on the other hand usually ends up either provoking it's rather violent wrath, or deciding he wants to eat it, depending on the species. It doesn't help the large majority of alternate characters tend to sympathize more with the innocent little mouse being chased by the [[CatsAreMean big pussy cat]], in some cases ''even the humans that sent Tom after him in the first place''.
** The short "Yankee Doodle Mouse" may or may not have actually been using this reference.
** Though granted in some cases, Jerry's new "[[WithFriendsLikeThese friends]]" [[StopHelpingMe cause as much trouble for him unintentionally]] as they do for Tom.
* EverythingExplodesEnding: "The Missing Mouse" has Tom scared by a lab mouse that swallowed a powerful explosive. By the end a radio announcement declares that the mouse will not explode and Tom gives it a good kick. It explodes anyway.
* EyePop
* TheFaceless: Mammy Two Shoes (and some of the white housewives who replaced her)
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Some of Tom's injuries are surprisingly violent. These shorts have caught a lot of flack from MoralGuardians over the years for it (even moreso than the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes). Ironic that they were on TV more consistently in the period before WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes was brought back onto Creator/CartoonNetwork.
* FashionDissonance: ''The Zoot Cat'', which also has so many references to 1940's pop culture its an UnintentionalPeriodPiece.
* FireAndBrimstoneHell[=/=]FluffyCloudHeaven: Both featured in "Heavenly Puss".
* FreezeFrameBonus: In "Saturday Evening Puss", you get to see Mammy Two Shoes' face very briefly as she charges down the road towards the camera.
* FriendlyEnemies: Tom and Jerry can actually get along quite well when they're not beating the crap out of each other.
* FurIsClothing: Done on a few occasions, with Tom either being shaven or being scared out of his fur, wearing nothing but GoofyPrintUnderwear. It happened particularly often in the later Chuck Jones shorts.
** Similar when Tom runs over Mama Duck with a lawnmower in "Little Quacker", exposing her turquoise bra and bloomers, which she quickly covers with her now robe-like feathers.
* GenreSavvy: In "The Duck Doctor", an anvil is falling toward Tom. He runs in circles for a few seconds trying to escape, but then acknowledges that no matter ''what'' he does, he's going to get conked. So he digs a grave and stands next to it, smoking a cigarette as if he's waiting for the firing squad, until he gets hit and falls in.
** In "Million Dollar Cat", Tom gets Jerry to jump out of a penthouse window, then sits down for breakfast. He gets suspicious and peeks under the silver lid covering the dish, obviously expecting Jerry to be there. He's wrong; Jerry was hiding in the napkin.
* GloveSlap: In "Duel Personality".
* GoshHornet: "Tee for Two". See BeeBeeGun entry above.
* GravityIsAHarshMistress
* GrayAndGreyMorality: Neither Tom or Jerry are out and out innocent character and can be rather vindictive in their feud, however the shorts alternate with who is the most sympathetic and they both at the very least have some justified motives (Jerry needs food, Tom (and usually his owner) wants a pest out of his house).
* HammeredIntoTheGround: In one episode, Tom had a nightmare about a giant bulldog pounding him into the ground like a nail.
* HardHead
* HaveAGayOldTime: In the Mousketeer short ''Tom and Cherie'', just try listening to Tuffy call out "Pussy! Pussy pussy pussy!!" with a straight face.
* TheHero: Jerry ([[DesignatedHero debatable]])
** Later Hanna Barbara shorts did try to play this more straight, making Jerry more altrustic and often saving another animal friend from being victimized by Tom. The odd time he strayed from this he was more likely to suffer LaserGuidedKarma.
* HeroicComedicSociopath: Jerry, DependingOnTheWriter.
* HeWentThatWay
* HollywoodHealing: It takes about five seconds for Tom to grow his teeth back. And that's just one example among many.
** Somewhat averted in "Mouse Trouble", where Tom sports multiple bandages and a toupee (after he nearly blows his own head off with a shotgun) throughout the short.
* HonorableElephant: In "Jerry-Go-Round", an elephant loyally defends Jerry from Tom after Jerry pulls a nail from the elephant's foot.
* HonoraryUncle: Jerry becomes the adoptive Uncle of [[strike:Nibbles]] Tuffy.
* HotPotato: Only with bombs.
** DuckSeasonRabbitSeason
* HumansAreBastards: The extent of Mammy Two Shoes' abusive treatment of Tom (and how justified it is due to the latter's antics) varied DependingOnTheWriter. Various alternate owners were paired with Tom throughout the franchise's run, their treatment of the cat ranging from lenient or justified to [[ComedicSociopath outright psychotic]] (the latter being Deitch's unnamed owner character).
** In "Heavenly Puss", the feline St. Peter sadly shakes his head and mutters "What some people won't do..." when the next "person" in his line is a sack full of kittens who were apparently drowned.
** The babysitter takes the cake. She completely ignores the baby to talk on the phone instead. The only time she actually notices the kid is immediately after Tom has rescued the baby from killing itself, at which point she jumps to the conclusion that Tom is ''attacking'' the child and beats the stuffing out of him.
** How about the little girl who dresses Tom up as a baby and treats him as such, including putting him in a diaper and feeding him castor oil? The latter is particularly grating, since she walks into the room to discover Tom's [[WithFriendsLikeThese "friends"]] mocking and humiliating him and her immediate response is to blame and punish him.
* HumanoidFemaleAnimal: The cats that Tom usually lusts over.
* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: In the short "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse", near the end Tom finally drinks his own power potion which Jerry had been using throughout the short. Instead of growing stronger however, it backfires, and Tom shrinks until he's as tall to Jerry as Jerry normally is to him. The short ends with Jerry chasing after Tom with a fly swatter.
* InVinoVeritas: "Part Time Pal" has Tom actually befriending Jerry while drunk.
* InstantBandages
* InterspeciesRomance: In one Chuck Jones short, Jerry and a female fish appear to have a thing going on. In the end, a shark is crushing on her.
** At the end of ''Casonova Cat'' and a couple other shorts, Jerry runs off with the ''cat'' that Tom had been trying to woo all episode.
* IronButtmonkey: Tom.
** Jerry gets it bad a few times as well. Usually when paired with [[WithFriendsLikeThese haphazard allies like]] Little Quacker or Nibbles.
* ItAmusedMe: Tom and Jerry sometimes pick on one another for the sake of their own amusement.
* JerkAss: Both characters have plenty of moments.
* JustFollowingOrders: In some episodes, Tom only goes after Jerry because his owner tells him to, yet he is still treated as a villain for wanting to get rid of the possibly disease ridden mouse.
* JustWhistle: Spike makes this kind of an arrangement with Jerry in "The Bodyguard" and a couple later shorts.
* KarmicTrickster: In most shorts, Jerry doesn't start trouble until Tom wrongs him in some way. In some shorts he skews more towards a ScrewySquirrel and attacks Tom without being provoked, but usually Jerry is fighting for his survival, or at least unhappy with the unfair situation Tom is putting him in (i.e. using him as fish bait, dressing him in a bow and giving him to a girl cat as a present, using him as a paddleball, etc.).
* [[KillerRabbit Killer Mouse]]: Jerry. He may look adorable, but when threatened? Beware.
* KnifeOutline
* KungFoley: Some of the most legendary foley work in animation history, in fact.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Usually applied to Tom, particularly in episodes with Mammy Two Shoes involved, but occasionally hits Jerry. Generally, in episodes where Jerry gets just a little bit too vindictive when dealing with Tom the plot will deal him some kind of misfortune as well, even if Tom doesn't "win" per se.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Spike's voice is based on that of crooner Jimmy "Schnozzler" Durante.
** His current voice, anyway. He just sounded like a gruff man in his first speaking role.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Beginning with 1949's "Polka-dot Puss", every T&J short opened with one of these composed by Scott Bradley.
** In "Mouse in Manhattan", most of the music is just variations of a single melody, matched to fit the mood of whatever's currently happening.
* LiteralAssKicking: Probably at least OncePerEpisode.
* LiveActionAdaptation: In development.
* {{Lolicon}}: "Toots" from "The Zoot Cat" dosen't quite fit this trope (it's implied that she may be a teenager, due to her mature Southern voice, since the short is supposed to parody the teenagers of that time period) but you sure wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at her—especially considering she looks like a child and wears an equally small dress.
* LongLostRelative: Jerry's Uncle Pecos, a country singer that even Jerry can't stand, and Jerry's cousin Muscles, who is identical to Jerry but super strong.
* LoudGulp: Happens very often, usually during an OhCrap situation.
* LowerDeckEpisode: "Mouse in Manhattan" is a Jerry solo short, with Tom only appearing in the opening and ending. The two shorts centered around Spike and Tyke also count.
* LullDestruction: In Japanese dubs, Tom and Jerry are sometimes given voice actors along with a narrator. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1--U1GYj4w&feature=related An example.]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp_HHa7DakU And]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsbfwBrkVQI&feature=related some]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iafcWCgskCU&feature=related more]].
* MatryoshkaObject: "The Yankee Doodle Mouse" has Tom cornered by a large firecracker. Instead of blowing up, it breaks apart to reveal a smaller firecracker, which then reveals a smaller firecracker, and so on until all that is left is a tiny firecracker. Tom holds it in his hand, laughs in amusement, and then it blows up in a huge explosion.
* MamaBear: In one ChuckJones toon, Tom offers Jerry to a female cat as a present, but Jerry invokes this trope by acting cute, causing her to treat him like her child. It only lasts until she gives him a kiss, at which point she realizes he tastes pretty good.
* MetronomicManMashing: Jerry did this to Tom once when he (Jerry) got super-strength.
* MickeyMousing: Very widespread in just about every short.
* MissingMom: One wonders if Tyke even has a mother.
* MimeAndMusicOnlyCartoon: Most episodes.
* MindScrew: In "Timid Tabby", Tom and his cowardly identical cousin pull this on Jerry by switching around and eventually pretending Tom has turned into a [[TookALevelInBadass two-headed, four-armed-and-legged monstrosity]], sending Jerry running to the Home for Mice Suffering from Nervous Breakdowns.
* MoodWhiplash: The 1956 cartoon "Blue Cat Blues" is rather depressing compared to the rest of the series, as it begins with Tom sitting on a railroad track preparing to commit suicide. Jerry tells us how Tom was [[DrivenToSuicide driven to this state]] by a love affair gone sour, and the cartoon ends with Jerry realizing his girlfriend has been unfaithful and joining Tom on the tracks. Cue the sound of a train whistle, iris out.
* MouseHole: Sometimes Jerry's mouse hole even has a little door, or fancy decorations around it, as if the architects of the house Tom and Jerry are in specifically built the mouse hole into the wall.
* MouseTrap: Used a lot.
* TheMovie: ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie''.
* TheMusical: ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie''.
