History TomAndJerry / TropesAToM

* DarkerAndEdgier: "Heavenly Puss" and "Blue Cat Blues" are ''way'' sadder and scarier than most shorts. At least the former is still PlayedForLaughs.
** The shorts are already violent but the Creator/GeneDeitch era really increases the level of violence, how realistic it is and [[SadistShow adds a whole new level of sadism]].

** The shorts are already violent but the Creator/GeneDeitch era really [[UpToEleven increases the level of violence]], how realistic it is and [[SadistShow adds a whole new level of sadism]].

* AshFace

* TheDogBitesBack: Or, rather, Tom Bites Back. Three shorts had Tom coming out on top. For instance, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuS-uQgm-_0 The Vanishing Duck]]".

* HumiliationConga: For instance, Tom gets one in "Baby Puss". A BrattyHalfPint forcibly dresses him as a baby and he tries escaping her via running under a drawer. But she grabs him, puts him back in a bed, and commands him to stay there. Soon, [[ArchEnemy Jerry]] catches him acting like a baby and [[{{Troll}} he infantilizes him]]. When Tom tries chasing Jerry, the latter runs inside a doll house which the former is too big to enter. When he later tries lifting its roof, the [[BrattyHalfPint brat]] returns, causing him to accidentally drop the roof on his neck. Subsequently, she forces him back in his bed and leaves again. Butch, Topsy, and Meathead soon catch him acting like a baby (courtesy of Jerry) again and they repeatedly infantilize him. Special note goes to when they start [[TheVillainSucksSong singing]] him [[Creator/CarmenMiranda "Mamãe Eu Quero"]] with Butch and Meathead using his body as a musical instrument during part of it... which is interrupted by the girl returning. Due to unknowingly getting Jerry's help, she "punishes" Tom via [[ForceFeeding making him swallow some castor oil]]. This causes him to run to the window and start vomitting. His only saving grace (assuming he noticed it) is that [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty Jerry joined him]] as he [[StealthPun accidentally swallowed a bunch of the oil as it dripped in his mouth]].

* KnifeNut: [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible It doesn't work, nor is it intimidating or badass]], but Tom tries stabbing Jerry with a knife in "The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit".

* FoulMedicine: Near the end of "Baby Puss", Nancy is trying to give Tom some castor oil. He refuses to open his mouth until [[AttackTheTail Jerry pinches his tail]] and causes him to yelp. The girl stuffs the spoonful into Tom's mouth, and he hates the taste so much that [[VomitDiscretionShot he pukes out the window]]. Jerry laughs at him, but [[LaserGuidedKarma the tipped-over bottle of oil drips into his mouth]] and he also rushes to the window to vomit.

* DinosaurDoggieBone

* ElongatingArmGag: The shorts "Busy Buddies" and "Tot Watchers" feature a gag where the babysitter stretches her arm across the room to clutch the phone and is then pulled towards it via Newton's second law.

* GravityIsAHarshMistress

* HardHead

* TheHero: Jerry, at least [[NominalHero nominally]]. Later 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 KarmaHoudiniWarranty.

-->'''Tuffy''': ''Pauvre, pauvre pussycat. C'est la guerre.''[[note]]Poor, poor pussycat. Such is war.[[/note]]

* BlackComedyAnimalCruelty: The titular Tom, who's a cat, has been on the recipient of this.

* BreakTheCutie: "Downhearted Duckling" is a ''huge'' one for Quacker after he reads the "Ugly Duckling". Since the duckling looks like him, Quacker thinks that he's ugly too.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Many of Tom's traps end up injuring him instead of their intended targets. All Jerry really needs to do is manipulate them & watch [[TooDumbToLive Tom fall for them]].

* HumiliationConga: For instance, Tom gets one in "Baby Puss". A BrattyHalfPint forcibly dresses him as a baby and he tries escaping her via running under a drawer. But she grabs him, puts him back in a bed, and commands him to stay there. Soon, [[ArchEnemy Jerry]] catches him acting like a baby and [[{{Troll}} he infantilizes him]]. When Tom tries chasing Jerry, the latter runs inside a doll house which the former is too big to enter. When he later tries lifting its roof, the [[BrattyHalfPint brat]] returns, causing him to accidentally drop the roof on his neck. Subsequently, she forces him back in his bed and leaves again. Butch, Topsy, and Meathead soon catch him acting like a baby (courtesy of Jerry) again and they repeatedly infantilize him. Special note goes to when they start [[TheVillainSucksSong singing]] him [[Creator/CarmenMiranda "Mamãe Eu Quero"]] with Butch and Meathead using his body as a musical instrument during part of it... which is interrupted by the girl returning. Due to Jerry's help, she "punishes" Tom via making him swallow some castor oil. This causes him to run to the window and start vomitting. His only saving grace is that [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty Jerry joined him]] as he [[StealthPun accidentally swallowed a bunch of the oil as it dripped in his mouth]].
* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: In the short "WesternAnimation/DrJekyllAndMrMouse", 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.

** Tom's 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA' scream. Created by recording one of the producers yelling, and chopping off the beginning and end.

* BadassMustache: Jerry's Uncle Pecos.

* BigNo: Tom lets out one right before going to save Quackers from jumping into boiling water in "That's My Mommy".

* AlcoholHic: Tom often does this when inebriated. He spends nearly the whole of "Part Time Pal" quite drunk, for example — first on hard cider, than some errantly-spilled bay rum. The hiccups actually help him avoid Mammy's swinging broom.

* BlackComedyAnimalCruelty:
** Whenever Mammy Two Shoes beats up Tom (usually with a broomstick), it will be PlayedForLaughs.
** The Gene Deitch shorts have Tom's master beating him up, grilling his face and [[ShellShockSilence deafening him with his gun]].
* BlackFace: Many shorts that still appear on [=DVDs=] and television, such as "The Milky Waif" and "Yankee Doodle Mouse"[[note]]The blackface gag has been reinstated since 2002[[/note]], 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 [[note]] though this is justified as Jerry roams around the table with an Indian headdress which is considered offensive, but then again, Tom spends nearly the entirety of "WesternAnimation/TheLittleOrphan" in one [[/note]]. It's rare to find unedited versions.

** 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. It's actually June Foray, speaking in an Irish accent!
*** Subverted on the versions that come on Cartoon Network and Boomerang. The original Mammy design is still there but her voice is redubbed by Thea Vidale to remove the [[SassyBlackWoman stereotypical voice]]. As of 2011, they are mostly absent from regular rotation however.

* ButtMonkey: Tom. Jerry isn't immune to moments of this either.
* BuffoonishTomcat: There TONS of cats are prone to slapstick and comical foolery in the film series, the titular Tom is the most well known cat that was prone to this since he is an aforementioned ButtMonkey who can comically lack some common-sense in [[TheKlutz his clumsiness]] or his foolery.

** In "Part Time Pal," a drunken Tom Cat is chased under the moonlight by a vengeful Mammy Twoshoes.
** Inverted in ""WesternAnimation/DrJekyllAndMrMouse"," where it's Jerry chasing an ultra-miniaturized Tom around the house.

** 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 is smeared with coal after Jerry floods the house with it. Mammy chases him into the sunset throwing coal at him, and in the distance [[TapOnTheHead one hits him in the head and he goes down]].

* TheChewToy: Tom.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: “Sleepy-Time Tom.” In this short, Tom stays out all night with his alley-cat pals instead of doing his job of keeping Jerry out of the refrigerator. When he finally gets home, Mammy Two-Shoes threatens to throw him out if she catches him asleep on the job, which Jerry naturally overhears. Tom is so tired that Jerry succeeds in his schemes to get Tom thrown out! Had Tom just returned home during the night instead of at dawn, the whole thing could have been avoided.

* DomesticApplianceDisaster: In the cartoon "Push Button Kitty", Mammy Two-Shoes purchases Mechano, the Cat of Tomorrow, to replace the ineffective Tom. Against a single mouse, Mechano jettisons Jerry with maximum efficiency and zero damage. However, when presented with a dozen wind-up mice, Mechano goes haywire, turning a row of commemorative plates into a shooting gallery and circular-sawing a mahogany coffee table in two, among other destructive efforts. Mammy is screaming for Tom to return by the cartoon's end.

* TheFaceless: Mammy Two-Shoes (and some of the white housewives who replaced her).

* FreezeFrameBonus: In "Saturday Evening Puss", you get to see Mammy Two-Shoes' face very briefly as she charges down the road towards the camera.

* GloveSlap: In "Duel Personality", Jerry slaps Tom with a glove twice while issuing duel challenges. The first time, Tom accepts; the second time, he snatches the glove out of Jerry's hand and chases him with it.

* TheHero: Jerry, at least [[NominalHero nominally]]. Later 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.

** 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).

* InjuryBookend: On one episode, Tom gets a TapOnTheHead and thinks he's a mouse. Jerry tries to get Tom hit again to return him to normal, and eventually succeeds. Unfortunately, Mammy has the same idea, and Tom is back as a mouse for the IrisOut.

* 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.

** The later Hanna-Barbera shorts were leaning this direction to a lesser degree. While the slapstick rivalry was still present, it was less brutal in execution, LaserGuidedKarma was more prevalent (which also worked in Tom's favour, [[TeamRocketWins he won far more often]] in this era fact), and there were more frequent instances of the duo being [[FriendlyEnemy Friendly Enemies]] or having truces, or focusing on supporting characters who were less adversarial.