History TomAndJerry / TropesAToM

* CatchPhrase:
** Tuffy ends each of the Mouseketeer shorts with "C'est la guerre!" (That's War!), except in ''Tom and Cherie''.
** OncePerEpisode, Tuffy would stab Tom in the butt with a sword and say "Touché, pussycat!" (This was parodied by Quacker in "Happy Go Ducky", but this time the sword became a knife.)
** Tom's 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA' scream. Created by recording one of the producers yelling, and chopping off the beginning and end. Ironically, Butch was the first to use this scream as a result being jabbed in the rear by a hat pin in ''Springtime for Thomas''.
** Tom's Creator/CharlesBoyer [[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench impression]] got used more than once, as well.
** Spike saying "''That's'' my boy" to Tyke.
** Whenever Spike delivers a threatening speech to Tom, it's always prefaced with "Listen, pussycat..."

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

* IKissYourFoot: Towards the end of one episode, [[spoiler:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAlJCuUretI&t=1s Tom kisses Muscle Mouse's foot. He also later does the same to Jerry, while he was disguised as Muscle Mouse]]]].

* 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, the maid 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.

* CousinOliver: Nibbles (aka, "Tuffy").

* CranialEruption

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Tom, and to the same extent other cats in the series, are seen enjoying dairy products such as milk or cream. In reality, adult cats are [[https://www.four-paws.org/our-stories/publications-guides/milk-is-not-good-for-cats lactose intolerant.]] In all fairness, this is a common misconception that also applies to most other fictional works.

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

** Spike saying "That's my boy" to Tyke.

** Tom by default, natch. Butch tends to be even ''meaner''.

* MamaBear: In "Love Me, Love My Mouse", 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.

* CookingTheLiveMeal: In the short "That's My Mommy!", Tom exploits the naiveté of the duckling Quacker, who believes Tom to be his mother, by trying to cook him by successively tying him to a spit and roasting him on an open fire (which Quacker believes is meant to keep him warm), baking him as a pastry (by tucking him into a "bed" of dough), and by fattening him up and oven-roasting him as a "stuffed duckling" (which Quacker interprets as having dinner and then going to sleep in his bedroom). Each time Quacker is saved by Jerry, but runs back to his "mother", until finally Quacker learns the truth by reading Tom's cookbook while the latter is preparing to cook Quacker in a stew. When a heartbroken Quacker wants to jump into the bubbling pot to please his "mother", Tom has a change of heart and saves Quacker.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Tom, and to the same extent other cats in the series, are seen enjoy dairy products such as milk or cream. In reality, adult cats are [[https://www.four-paws.org/our-stories/publications-guides/milk-is-not-good-for-cats lactose intolerant.]] In all fairness, this is a common misconception that also applies to most other fictional works.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Tom, and to the same extent other cats in the series, are seen enjoy dairy products such as milk or cream. In reality, adult cats are [[https://www.four-paws.org/our-stories/publications-guides/milk-is-not-good-for-cats lactose intolerant.]] In all fairness, this is a common misconception
that's also applied in most other fictional works.

** 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 Creator/ChuckJones shorts.

** In ''Jerry's Cousin'', [[PintSizedPowerhouse Muscles Mouse]] [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom punches Tom across the room]] and into a cuckoo clock on the wall. This leaves Tom with the roof on his head, and he sticks his tongue in and out to reveal the bird.
** In ''Designs on Jerry'', Tom uses a cuckoo clock as part of his [[RubeGoldbergDevice "modern mousetrap"]]. A knife is attached to the bird so it can cut an overhead rope carrying a safe and have it fall on Jerry.
** In ''A-Tom-inable Snowman'', Jerry hides inside a cuckoo clock, and Tom winds the clock to the top of the hour so he can emerge and make cuckoo sounds. Tom does this a few times to taunt Jerry before devouring him, but when he finally goes for him, Jerry is gone and replaced with a stick of dynamite.

** Double subverted in "WesternAnimation/HeavenlyPuss". 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. Then all the drama happening in this short is revealed to be a dream in the end.

* DanBrowned:
** ''Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes'' gets a pretty noticeable case of this if you happen to be a ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' fan. In one scene, Holmes mentions the case of the Red-Headed League and Watson responds it was a crime perpetrated by Holmes' nemesis, Moriarity. The Red-Headed League caper was actually masterminded by a criminal named John Clay. However, this could be a reference to the 1985 adaption starring Jeremy Brett, where Moriarty was the mastermind, with Clay being his pupil.
** "Rock'n'Rodent" really should've been called "Jazzin' Jerry"; the music in the cartoon sounded closer to upbeat jazz than what rock & roll sounded like when the cartoon was released in 1967.

* GloveSlap: In "Duel Personality", Jerry slaps Tom with a glove twice while issuing duel challenges. The first time, Tom accepts. The second time however, he snatches the glove out of his hand and [[ATasteOfHisOwnMedicine hits him with it]]. Also, he begins chases him with it.

* 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's TheChewToy who can comically lack some common-sense in [[TheKlutz his clumsiness]] or his [[{{Pun}} tomfoolery]].

** In ''The Million Dollar Cat'', Tom reaches his breaking point with Jerry by the episode's end after the mouse takes far too many liberties, knowing Tom can't retaliate without losing his fortune. Jerry is legitimately scared when Tom finally blows his top before tearing up the contract and forcing Jerry to literally eat his words.

* MickeyMousing: Very widespread in the Hanna-Barbera shorts, where the music often provides more sound effects for characters' actions than the actual sound effects, especially when walking or running.

** When the cartoons came on CBS, Chuck Jones, who was in control of the shorts at the time, and his team reanimated blackface scenes to make it look like nothing happen. In "The Little Orphan", for example, Tom kept his Indian headdress when he was burned by a candle instead of him turning into blackface and gaining pickaninny braids.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: A rare same-sex version in ''Flirty Birdy'', wherein Tom earns the unwanted attentions of a male eagle whilst [[DisguisedInDrag disguised as a female]].
* AccidentalKiss: One of these kickstarts the whole plot of ''Dog Trouble'', when Tom crashes into the sleeping bulldog and ends up locking lips. Needless to say, the dog is far from amused.

* 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.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** In "Heavenly Puss", as seen in Cat Heaven, most cats died in a comedic way, but the last one has a dark twist. A wet sack rolls up to the gate and opens, and out come three kittens, gaily meowing as they bound into Heaven. Basically, three young kittens were drowned, and judging from the gatekeepers's unsuprised reaction, [[FridgeHorror this isn't uncommon]].

* 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}}.