History TomAndJerry / TropesNToZ

* NearDeathExperience: Depending on the interpretation, in "Snowbody Loves Me". Tom throws Jerry out into the cold and shortly sees Jerry's ghost floating past. He goes out, brings a frozen Jerry in, and revives him with super-strong alcohol. It could be that Tom was just imagining the ghost, but the point is never made clear.
** Most of "The Cat and the Mermouse" is this for Tom. After falling into the sea, he struggles, goes still, then reawakens. In the end, when he's stuck in a shipwreck and being tugged by an octopus, it fades to [[CPRCleanPrettyReliable Jerry resuscitating him with Holger-Nielsen]].

* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: PlayedForLaughs, but heaven forbid you listen to Jerry's high-pitched scream in "Baby Puss" with headphones.

** Tom has lots of dialogue (but, with the exception of one line, Jerry doesn't) in "Zoot Cat".

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: ''Mouse in Manhattan'' (which focuses on Jerry going to New York rather than the usual cat and mouse antics) and ''Blue Cat Blues'' (told in flashback, very little slapstick -- or comedy of any kind, and ends with [[DownerEnding Tom and Jerry sitting on a train track waiting to die]] after being heartbroken by the women in their lives).

* WorthLivingFor: "Downhearted Duckling", casting Little Quacker in a unique take on the Ugly Duckling story, sees the suicidal Quacker discover meaning in his life when a lady duck takes romantic interest in him.

* WorthLivingFor: "Downhearted Duckling", casting "Little Quacker" in a unique take on the Ugly Duckling story, sees the suicidal Quacker discover meaning in his life when a lady duck takes romantic interest in him.

** Jerry is this to Nibbles. Special note goes to in ''The Milky Waif''; when Tom makes [[WouldHurtAChild spanks Nibbles with a flyswatter]], Jerry [[BerserkButton snaps]] and shows him [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown how much pain he can deliver when angered enough]].

* PepperSneeze

* SexyWalk: Gender-inverted, likely invoked, yet apparently PlayedForLaughs in "Flirty Bird". While going DisguisedInDrag to take back Jerry from a horny male hawk, Tom shakes his hips back and forth, likely to make himself come off as more appealing.

* WhaleEgg: [[spoiler:In RealLife, cats can't lay eggs. However, [[BuffoonishTomcat Tom]] lays some himself in "Flirty Birdy"]].

* TheSpeechless: Jerry. Even in shorts where Tom speaks (like "The Zoot Cat" or "The Million Dollar Cat"), Jerry never speaks. The closest to an aversion is "Cat and Dupli-Cat", where following Tom's operatic entrance of piloting a gondola while singing "Santa Lucia", Jerry can be seen imitating him in a tea cup but SpeakingSimlish.

* TheSpeechless: Jerry.

* NameAndName

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: One of Tom's love interests was a caricature of [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iugexeWqLbs/RowVGgiiSQI/AAAAAAAABHE/KQ-Le2JbFms/s320/lanaturner.jpg Lana Turner.]]

* PapaWolf: Harm, or even touch Tyke, and Spike will skin you alive!
** Jerry is this to Nibbles, as seem in ''The Milky Waif'', where the two tried to flee away from Tom for stealing his milk, but when Tom makes [[TooDumbToLive the mistake]] of spanking Nibbles with a flyswatter, Jerry [[BerserkButton gets mad]] and shows Tom [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown how much pain he can deliver when angered enough]].

* PullingTheRugOut: In "Mouse Cleaning", Tom is trying desperately to keep the house tidy while Mammy is out. At one point, Jerry juggles lots of eggs, then throws them; Tom catches and juggles them himself, but Jerry has also started spinning a pie plate on a fork. Tom manages to take that over, too, but then Jerry pulls the rug out (literally). Tom catches the eggs in a carton, but the pie hits him.

** Mammy Two Shoes, Tom's original owner, was fazed out of the series by the early 1950s, with more politically correct replacements taking her role instead.
** Pretty much all of the supporting cast suffered this when Hanna Barbera left the series, with both Gene Deitch and Chuck Jones favouring pairing their own original characters with the title duo. Most revivals afterwards favour utilising the Hanna Barbera characters.

* RealityEnsues:
** In "Just Ducky", after he's saved from drowning, Tom gets sick. TruthInTelevision, as pneumonia is frequently found in near-drowning victims due to lingering water in the lungs.
** In "Professor Tom," Tom smokes from a thick cigar. He starts coughing and wheezing immediately after doing so. He [[RuleOfFunny even changes colors]].

* SassyBlackWoman: Mammy Two Shoes.

* SpellingForEmphasis: In the first episode, "Puss Gets the Boot", the homeowner Mammy Two-Shoes tells Tom that she will not tolerate any more destruction caused by chasing Jerry by saying that "one more breakin' and it's O-W-T, out you go!". Later versions will have her spell the word correctly.

* SquashedFlat: And occasionally other shapes.

* SuddenlySpeaking: Throughout ''[[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie The Movie]]'', but also applied to the original shorts as well, though it's only done for about a line or two, and generally {{played for laughs}}. In fact, the short with the most dialogue between the two is "The Lonesome Mouse" (which doesn't get much airtime because of the racist caricature Mammy Two-Shoes playing a large part in it).

** Jerry is also voiced in his and Tom's cameo in ''Film/AnchorsAweigh'' by Sara Berner.

* UniversalAdaptorCast: In most episodes, they are just in some random house (usually belonging to Mammy Two Shoes or a skinny, white housewife). But then there are times where they are in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the future...

* WeirdAlEffect: Tom and Jerry are named for two characters from a 1932 short story by Damon Runyon, who in turn named his characters after a Christmas-time cocktail, which is itself named for two characters from the 19th century play ''Tom and Jerry, or Life in London'' by William Moncrieff which is itself adapted from the novel ''Life in London'' by Pierce Egan. Prior to MGM's ''Tom and Jerry'' there had been a previous short-lived animated duo, a pair of Mutt and Jeff types, called Tom and Jerry from the early 30's. These days you'd be hard pressed to find many people who, upon hearing the names "Tom and Jerry," wouldn't think of the animated cat and mouse first, if they thought, or even knew, of the names' previous uses at all.

* "WeirdAl"Effect: Tom and Jerry are named for two characters from a 1932 short story by Damon Runyon, who in turn named his characters after a Christmas-time cocktail, which is itself named for two characters from the 19th century play ''Tom and Jerry, or Life in London'' by William Moncrieff which is itself adapted from the novel ''Life in London'' by Pierce Egan. Prior to MGM's ''Tom and Jerry'' there had been a previous short-lived animated duo, a pair of Mutt and Jeff types, called Tom and Jerry from the early 30's. These days you'd be hard pressed to find many people who, upon hearing the names "Tom and Jerry," wouldn't think of the animated cat and mouse first, if they thought, or even knew, of the names' previous uses at all.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Nibbles at the end of "Tom & Cherie".

* RuleOfFunny: Tom has human-like screams and occasionally speaks in English. This is to create a deliberate UncannyValley, since if Tom acted like a ''real'' cat, it wouldn't be funny. Just the opposite, it would be ''disturbing''.

** SceneryGorn: Then there's [[NightmareFuel the back alleys and the]] ''[[NightmareFuel hundreds]]'' [[NightmareFuel of mangy alley cats]].

* SuddenlySpeaking: Throughout ''[[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie The Movie]]'', but also applied to the original shorts as well, though it's only done for about a line or two, and generally {{played for laughs}}. In fact, the short with the most dialogue between the two is "The Lonesome Mouse" (which doesn't get much airtime but not for the [[ValuesDissonance reason you might think]]).

* UnderTheMistletoe: In "WesternAnimation/{{The Night Before Christmas|1941}}", Jerry stops Tom from chasing him by holding up the mistletoe and making a cute smoochy face at him. Tom then blushes and turns away shyly, only to have Jerry kick him in the rear. Truly one of the biggest FoeYay moments in the series.

* VillainProtagonist: Both the "[[LaserGuidedKarma villain]]" and "[[SympatheticPOV protagonist]]" parts alternate between both characters from short to short. There are different points you can root for them both.

* TheVoiceless: Almost all of the shorts have the titular characters not speaking at all. Few are subversions, especially if their singing. And all this ''before'' [[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie the animated movie in 1993]].

** Tom and Butch.
** Tom and Jerry themselves.