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Cats Are Lazy
(aka: Fat Cat)

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Cats Are Lazy (trope)
Garfield in his natural habitat.

"All I ever do is eat and sleep, eat and sleep, eat and sleep. There must be more to a cat's life than that. But I hope not."
Garfield, Garfieldnote 

A trait cats are commonly associated with is laziness. Cats are known for spending long portions of the day sleeping. On average, cats sleep from 15 to 20 hours per day.

This trope goes hand-in-hand with Cats Are Superior and Cats Are Snarkers. Many cat characters are under the impression they should be pampered and that, as a result, it's fine to lay around all day doing nothing.

A large reason for this portrayal is that cats are crepuscular animals (unlike diurnal humans), and spend most of their active time during the hours around the morning and evening. Cats are most active when a majority of humans are still asleep, and tend to be inactive when humans are at their most active. As a result, it looks like your housecat is just lazing around all day. They also do sleep a lot (as mentioned, on average between 15 and 20 hours a day). Incidentally, dogs also sleep a lot, but aren't known for this like cats are (save for bassethounds and bloodhounds), probably because dogs are generally more visibly energetic when they aren't sleeping and have a sleep-wake cycle more similar to humans'.

This trope also affects to wild cats to various degrees. Less glamorous portrayals of lions (especially males) will show them as lazy and pompous, rather than their more common regal "king of the jungle" portrayal.note  Again, this is due partly due to most wild cat species (save cheetahs and jaguarundis) being crepuscular or nocturnal, and partly due to them genuinely spending a lot of time sleeping or resting; felines as a class are ambush and rapid pursuit predators who prefer to spend most of their time at rest between their very energy-intensive hunts, and even cheetahs will spend most of their time lounging around.

Compare Dogs Are Dumb, which usually involves lazy dogs when not surprisingly, just like dogs, cats can be just as dumb when they are lazy, in which dumbness and laziness go hand-in-hand. Contrast Cheetah Speedsta. Also compare and contrast with Buffoonish Tomcat, in which where cats are portrayed as dumb, but are more prone to slapstick, being comically stupid, comical and cartoony or just lack common-sense than being like a everyday housecat. For other lazy creatures, see Lazy Dragon, Sluggish Seal, Sluggish Sloths, and Laid-Back Koala.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • The Morris the Cat ad campaign revolves around a lazy, sarcastic tomcat who won't eat anything but 9-Lives.
  • The British cat food brand Whiskas once ran an ad campaign which showed a cat lazing on someone's bed as a child recited the following poem:
    This is Fred
    He sleeps on my bed
    Apart from when he's being fed
    You'll find him on my bed
    So that's Fred
    The bed-head

    Anime & Manga 
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: As a child, Tama envied cats because they can just laze around all day long. After burning out from her office job, she decided to abandon her humanity and live as a cat, even if it meant she'd eventually become homeless and starve to death. Although she finds a part-time job after getting picked up by Rentarou, she otherwise embodies this trope as a lazy pretend-catgirl.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Out of his hobbies, Lord Beerus (a cat-looking being designed after Akira Toriyama's pet Cornish Rex, Debu) frequently prefers to dine on planetary cuisine and sleep for years. It also gets noted that he doesn't take his job as seriously as the other gods of destruction, as he destroys planets that don't meet his tastes rather than the planets that are he is supposed to be destroying.
    • His brother, Champa, is even lazier. His mind is often on food, to the point where he challenged Beerus for the Earth of his universe, and then makes his angel, Vados, do the work of collecting fighters to compete for his side rather than put any effort into finding some himself, which bites him hard regarding Frost.
      Champa: How could you go and pick that creep to be on my team?
      Vados: My lord, you didn't ask me to take the candidate's morality into consideration. In fact, I believe your exact words were "I don't want to be bothered with this. Just find fighters who will do whatever it takes to win their rounds no matter what."
  • Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God: The Egyptian cat goddess Bastet is depicted as being easily bored and sleeps a lot, often dropping whatever she was doing to doze off.
  • Red Cat Ramen: The feline employees of Red Cat Ramen are considered unusually hard-working for cats, the vast majority of them don't see the point of hard work. This behaviour means that whilst most cats can learn to talk and walk on their hind legs, they don't want to.

    Asian Animation 
  • Planet of 7 Colors: The green kingdom represents the deadly sin of slothfulness and is inhabited by cat people who find their environment very comfortable.

    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Hobbes:
    • Hobbes (being a tiger) is often seen napping, with Calvin even composing an ode to it.
      Still and quiet feline form,
      in the sun, asleep and warm.
      His tail is limp, his whiskers drooped,
      Man, what could make this cat so pooped?
    • Another time, Calvin mused that animals always seem so relaxed when compared to people. Hobbes believes that it's because animals are aware of their superiority to humans; Calvin theorizes it's because they get an average of 15 hours of sleep a day. Calvin then concludes that animals are just as crabby as people... from atop the tree limb that Hobbes evidently chased him onto.
  • Garfield: Garfield is one of the most iconic examples. He's a lazy cat that prefers to sleep and eat over anything else.
  • Peanuts: Frieda's cat Faron was so lazy, he was never seen walking on his own. He always was carried around, either by Frieda or whoever she could talk into doing it for her.

    Fan Works 
  • Ambition of the Red Princess: Kate, a Cat Girl assigned to collect herbs for Sophia, instead chooses to slack off from her job to take a nap at a room in the monastery.
  • The Bolt Chronicles: In some of the stories, Mittens references herself as being averse to regular exercise, often coupled with the parallel observation that she should be more active. An example from "The Funkmeister":
    Mittens: Yeah — maybe that's it. I'm just exhausted from all that healthy exercise I never indulge in. Who knows — might feel a little better if I got off my duff more than once a year and got the old ticker pumping.
  • Codex Equus: Tenya is the Abyssinian goddess of sleep, rest, and dreams. She spends most of her time asleep, yet this is because she's a benevolent goddess of sleep whose role is to protect her mortal subjects from nightmares by overseeing their dreams. Due to differing views on work and sleep, non-Abyssinians see her as a very lazy goddess, yet her own people are okay with this because in their culture, there is no "right" time for sleeping. Once, she put herself in a deep sleep in order to do her role better, but this wore away at her sanity. Her subjects made a promise for her to take an hour-long break in return for them staying awake during that time, something that she deeply treasures.
  • Pokémon Uranium: When the nimble and active Felunge levels up while knowing the move Rest, it evolves into the lazy, indolent Feliger, a lion-like 'mon that spends most of its time lying around. Feliger's ability, Lazy, renders it unable to attack for its first two turns into battle —which blunts the impact of its otherwise very high stats— unless it uses Sleep Talk.
  • World War Etheria: Discussed and averted. Catra is noted to have put in a lot more effort to surpass Adora than her canon self, to the point the narration notes how uncharacteristic it is for a cat to be such a hard worker.

    Films — Animation 
  • Catwoman: Hunted. Batwoman notes to Catwoman that she's been pulling a lot of thefts lately, saying she's usually more lazy. Catwoman reclines on the bed she's sitting on, saying she's "languid, not lazy" as she just plans her crimes meticulously.
  • Tom and Jerry: The Lost Dragon: Tom usually takes naps rather than doing chores, and, when Athena tasks him in getting water from the river, he makes Jerry carry the bucket.
  • Turning Red: The temple cats are often shown sleeping or lazing about and half the kittens that climb up on Mei fall asleep on her.

    Literature 
  • Animal Farm: The cat avoids doing work as much as possible, vanishing during the day and returning at meal-time all purrs and charm and good excuses.
    The behaviour of the cat was somewhat peculiar. It was soon noticed that when there was work to be done the cat could never be found. She would vanish for hours on end, and then reappear at meal-times, or in the evening after work was over, as though nothing had happened. But she always made such excellent excuses, and purred so affectionately, that it was impossible not to believe in her good intentions.
  • Bad Kitty: Several books begin with Kitty lying in her bed sleeping, not caring about the antics of her owner or Puppy... unless it involves something that catches her interest, like food or a new cat toy.
  • Bravelands: Even amongst other African cat species, lions have a bad reputation. They're seen as lazy animals who steal other's prey. They also think they're better than other animals and even the Great Spirit.
  • A Dog's Purpose: Bailey, a dog, thinks that cats are just annoying freeloaders.
  • Guardian Cats and the Lost Books of Alexandria: Discussed and subverted. Cicero says that humans think cats just sleep all day, but they're unaware of how their cats guard them all day.
  • The King's Stilts: Downplayed. The patrol cats are naturally inclined to laze around all day and neglect their duties, but when the king is diligent they work twelve-hour shifts defending the dike trees from Nizzards.
  • Legends & Lattes: Amity, a dire cat the size of a wolf, spends most of her time lounging in sunbeams.
  • Old Kingdom: A horrifically powerful Free Magic spirit Yrael, one of the Nine Bright Shiners, is bound by a Restraining Bolt in feline form as "Mogget", a Brilliant, but Lazy sapient cat that spends most of his time in Lirael and Abhorsen asleep. This sleep is supposedly because of the enchantment that keeps him bound, but several characters correctly suspect that he only listens when he wants to.
  • Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats plays with this with several of its characters.
    • Jennyanydots is a "Gumby Cat", which means she "sits and sits and sits and sits" all day — but when her family is asleep she is extremely active in rehabilitating errant mice and cockroaches.
    • The Jellicle Cats spend all day resting, napping, and grooming themselves — "If it happens the sun is shining bright, you would say they had nothing to do at all". This is because they are resting up for the night, when they gather under the moon to sing and dance.
    • Justified for Old Deuteronomy given his extreme age. His poem is just about him sleeping in various places and the villagers being careful not to disturb his rest.
  • Slobcat sets up and subverts this trope. The narrator spends the book explaining, in detail, how their pet cat does nothing but sleep and eat all day, practically embodying the trope. But the pictures show that as soon as the narrator stops watching him, Slobcat sneaks off to have adventures, protect kittens and children, stop burglars, and generally save the day.
  • Socks: When Socks puts on a bit of weight, he mostly dozes around the house and stops playing with his toys.
  • Tailchaser's Song explains that dreaming is important to cats. Dreams contrast so much with normal cat life that it's necessary for proper balance.
  • Warrior Cats: Played with. Most characters are anything but lazy because being lazy means you're unlikely to survive in the wild. However, this trope does apply to pet cats (or "kittypets" as they're called). Most kittypets are timid and cowardly. Clan cats see them as lazy oafs and they're prone to being a little plump. It doesn't help that many are neutered, which makes them even more lazy.
  • Whos Zoo, a collection of children's poems about a zoo full of Mix and Match Critters, includes the Jaguarmadillo, who's so tired that he can't do anything but sleep all day after taking a single sip of soup.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Chockablock: After spending most of its segment complaining about how boring it is to only be allowed to do things which rhyme with "cat", and wishing it was some other kind of animal so it could do things which rhyme with that animal, the Rhyming Cat settles down to sleep on its mat. It does briefly consider chasing a rat which appears on the scene, but decides that it is too tired. Chockagirl even comments that the Rhyming Cat "sleeps a lot" when she introduces the segment.
  • Our Miss Brooks: Minerva, Mrs. Davis' pet cat, has her moments:
    • In "The Frog", Minerva spends all day sleeping inside the piano.
    • In "The Magic Tree", Minerva gets drunk sipping on pine needles. She then spends hours sleeping in Miss Brooks' lap as they rock in a chair:
      Miss Brooks: Jingle Bells!
      Jingle Bells!
      Merry stuff like that!
      Oh what fun it is to rock!
      With a big fat drunken cat!
  • Red Dwarf: The Cat generally avoids work whenever he can help it.
    The Cat: If I don't nap nine or ten times a day, I don't have enough energy for my main snooze.

    Myths 
  • In one interpretation of "The Great Race", the story that tells the origin of the Chinese zodiac, the cat arrived too late due to being told by the rat that the feast would be a day later than announced and as a result, slept through the entire happening.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Golden Sky Stories: This is a gameplay mechanic. Cat henge can take the weakness Lazy, which severely limits their ability to succeed at strenuous tasks, but in return, they get the Sleeping Soundly special ability, which gives them bonus Dreams points if they spend an entire scene just lazying around without actually doing anything.

    Theatre 
  • Cats: Subverted with Jennyanydots. She seem like a lazy cat who doesn't do much, but she's very active at night.

    Video Games 
  • Animal Crossing: There are four lazy cat villagers (Bob, Felyne, Moe, and Punchy), and one lazy lion villager (Rex).
    Pocket Camp description: Sunday is Rex's favorite day of the week. Why wouldn't it be? It's the day of rest! Of course, that's pretty much what he does Monday through Saturday too.
  • Baldur's Gate III features a variety of cats with differing personalities, but you encounter two cats named Tambourine and Zambomba that live in the Elfsong Tavern kitchen who are exceptionally lazy and give you a Rat Stomp quest, because they can't be bothered to deal with them.
  • Dave the Diver: Momo, Bancho's cat, doesn't do much during the day but lay on the counter and demand cat food. He's far more active at night, although what he does at night is a mystery until Dave follows him.
  • Feed the Cat: The cats are all rather chubby, and they rely on you throwing fish right into their mouths to eat.
  • Hades II: If Melinoë doesn't dash into her, Toula the cat is content to sleep through any encounter the two find themselves in.
  • Kittens Game: The kittens are normally pretty industrious. The "Anarchy" Challenge Run changes that — kittens will eat extra catnip, none of them are willing to serve as the city's leader, and only half of them are willing to do any job at all.
  • Kitty May Cry averts this with the titular character, Kitty, a feline who's on an adventure, but there's a white cat in the same area Kitty starts off with who's content with spending the whole game snoozing. It's possible to finish the last level and backtrack to the beginning stage... and the white cat is still lounging there.
  • Little Kitty, Big City:
    • While the kitty certainly gets things done, one sidequest is specifically to seek out seven ideal napping locations. When intervening with Beetle's overwork, they note that today is the only time they've ever had a to-do list, and they still made sure to put naps and messing around on it.
    • The Mayor, another cat, embodies this trope wholesale, sending the kitty on a quest so he can get back to napping.
  • Maze Mice: Cats won't wake up, no matter how much you attack them, until you run past them.
  • Pokémon: According to its Shield Pokédex entry, the lion-like Luxray sleeps for long periods of time to store up energy, because its ability to see through walls uses up a lot of electricity.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: Big the Cat is a very fat cat who spends most of his time fishing, rarely ever partaking in the series' adventures. Whenever he does, it's usually to find his pet frog, Froggy, whenever he goes missing.
  • Soundtrack Attack: While talking about how lonely Lion must've been living in the desert, Steven mentions that the big cat can't go without five naps a day.
  • Splatoon: Judd, when he's not judging Turf War matches, can always be found napping near the lobby. During a Splatfest, which takes place at night, he will instead be awake dancing in the plaza.
  • Sushi Cat: Sushi Cat is a chubby feline who just likes to lay around and eat.
  • Twisted-Wonderland: Leona Kingscholar is a Little Bit Beastly lion-man and an extremely powerful mage. He is also the epitome of both Brilliant, but Lazy and Apathetic Student; he could easily excel at anything he wanted to if he put forth any effort and when he does get off his ass and do something the results tend to be impressive. Unfortunately, Leona would rather laze around in dormitory all day and he has a tendency to give up easily when things don't go as planned despite his intelligence and high levels of magical power.
  • WarioWare: Twisted!: Dribble the dog accuses Spitz the cat of sleeping between the courses in their intro, and in their ending cutscene he sleeps again.
  • Yo-kai Watch:
    • Jibanyan is a lazy Yo-kai cat who enjoys laying around and eating candy bars.
    • The Win Pose 3 for many cat Yo-kai is yawning and falling asleep while still on the battlefield.

    Web Animation 
  • Garfielf: Jon repeatedly insults Garfielf for his laziness and Garfielf himself does little to contest the notion, constantly lazing around the house and gorging himself on food when he isn't kicking Odie off the table.

    Web Comics 
  • Chainsawsuit has the recurring character Lazy Cat, an American super-spy whose adventures routinely get interrupted by regular cat behavior. For example, he and Ruskitty delay their final showdown to play with a rug instead, and he goes to sleep in the light from an open window in the middle of retrieving important documents from Destructo.
  • Dean & Nala + Vinny: Nala's reaction to Vinny saying that she just lies around in boxes all day merely proves his point:
    Nala: (curled up in a box) Not true! I can barely relax for thinking about… ZZZ"
  • Forestdale: Izabelle Carroll is a tabby cat and by far the laziest member of her friend group, spending much of her free time taking naps and lazing the day away.
  • Precocious: Tiffany Et, a Calico cat, is known for frequently falling asleep. Sometimes, on very short notice.
  • Pusheen the Cat: Pusheen is a fat cat who sleeps frequently and can sleep anywhere.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2024: Klunk, Michelangelo's pet kitten, is sometimes seen either sleeping in Mikey's bed or a bean bag. note 

    Web Videos 
  • Kittisaurus:
    • DD whenever there is a Kittisaurus challenge. He will usually start the challenge and then sit down off to the side until another cat (usually TT) tells him to get a move on. This comes to a head in the bridges challenge where the cats are supposed to cross increasingly narrow bridges in order to obtain treats. DD walks up to the stools where the treats are placed and reaches up to grab them rather than use the bridges. Claire even notes this is a "high IQ move" from him.
    • Chuchu can also be fairly lazy, preferring to stay in her tent or any low down container she can find rather than join in the action of the other cats. Although this might be a combination of her being a Shrinking Violet and having overly narrow nostrils, making it harder for her to breathe and smell (at least until she has surgery).

    Western Animation 
  • 64 Zoo Lane: Reginald the lion naps a lot and is grouchy whenever he's disturbed.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball" Gumball, a cartoon cat, is a chronic underachiever, both from a fear of looking bad if he tries and outright laziness.
  • DuckTales (2017): The Dream Walker episode "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!" reveals that Louie's favourite dream is that he's a lazy, Garfield-like cat. The other kids are bewildered enough that he's a cat, but even more so that he's dreaming about being asleep.
  • Flatworld (1997): Geoff, Matt's pet cat, prefers sleeping, eating, and relaxing.
  • Handy Manny: "Table For Too Many": When Mr. Lopart builds a cotton-candy machine that’s supposed to be powered by Fluffy the cat running in a giant hamster wheel, Fluffy just lies down in the wheel and naps.
  • James The Cat: James is very fat and lazy most of the time.
  • Kid Cosmic: Tuna Sandwich is the only known fat cat in the series. Whenever he's not seeing into the future, he mostly sleeps around the diner all day, and eating tuna sandwiches given to him by Kid.
  • Looney Tunes: Dodsworth is a character with only two cartoons to his name — a fat, lazy cat who tried to con a little kitten into doing his work for him. He had Sheldon Leonard's voice but could easily be mistaken for Rodney Dangerfield.
  • Madagascar: A Little Wild: Alex is frequently seen taking catnaps throughout the show, based on how long lions need to rest, something that his adult counterpart rarely did in the films.
  • Moshi Monsters: Zigzagged. Some catlike characters are lazy and some aren't. Whinger Cats hardly get up except to eat, Tubby Huggishis are said to lounge around a lot, and Purr-fection, a normal cat, is usually asleep when you see him.
  • Oggy and the Cockroaches: The titular blue feline likes to spend his days watching TV, eating, and occasionally listening to music.
  • Inverted in the Pixie, Dixie and Mr. Jinks short "Home Flea," as circus strong-flea Mighty Mite says fleas find cats too lively and prefer to live on lazy dogs, although Pixie and Dixie are themselves firm believers in the trope and convince him that Jinks is a lazy cat.
  • Princess Power: Fussy, Penny's cat, is often seen lounging around, usually eating fruit or sitting in her chaise.
  • Puppy Dog Pals: Hissy would rather nap than play with or watch over Bingo and Rolly.
  • Steven Universe: Lion is a magical lion that spends most of his time sleeping. Despite being sapient and understanding human speech, he usually ignores Steven unless it's an emergency. Real male lions do need to rest most of the day, but it's unclear if Lion does (it's implied he doesn't need to eat, but does anyway).
  • Tom and Jerry: Tom, when not chasing Jerry. He usually likes to nap around, at one point where he doesn't lift a finger to catch Jerry when he sees him stealing food, that is unless one of his owners orders him to get rid of the mouse.

Alternative Title(s): Fat Cat

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