Thomas "Tom" Jasper Cat, commonly referred to as Tom Cat, or more simply referred to as Tom, and originally known as Jasper, is one of the two anti-heroic protagonists in Tom and Jerry, alongside Jerry Mouse, created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Despite being referred as an anti-heroic, Tom is more often placed in the role of the antagonist, with Jerry often being the protagonist just as much.
Tom is a bluish-grey and white anthropomorphic domestic short haired tuxedo British cat who first appeared in the 1940 MGM animated short Puss Gets the Boot. The cat was known as Jasper during his debut in the short; however, beginning with his next appearance in The Midnight Snack he was known as Tom or Thomas.
Tom and Jerry cartoons
His name, "Tom Cat", is based on "tomcat", a word which refers to male cats. He is usually mute and rarely heard speaking with the exception of a few cartoons (such as 1943's The Lonesome Mouse, 1944's The Zoot Cat, 1947's Part Time Pal, 1953's Puppy Tale and 1992's Tom and Jerry: The Movie). His only notable vocal sounds outside of this are his various screams whenever he is subjected to panic or, more frequently, pain. He is continuously after Jerry Mouse, for whom he sets traps, many of which backfire and cause damage to him rather than Jerry. His trademark scream was provided by creator William Hanna. Hanna's recordings of Tom screaming were later used as a stock sound effect for other MGM cartoon characters, including a majority of Tex Avery's shorts.
Tom is usually defeated in the end (or very rarely, killed, like in Mouse Trouble, where he explodes), although there are some stories where he outwits and defeats Jerry. Besides Jerry, he also has trouble with other mouse or cat characters. One of them that appears frequently is Spike Bulldog. Spike regularly appears and usually assists Jerry and beats up Tom. Though in some occasions Tom beats him or he turns on Jerry (like his debut appearance in Dog Trouble). Usually when Tom is chasing Jerry after a bit Jerry turns the tables on Tom and beats him or uses an outside character such as Spike to beat Tom.
Tom has variously been portrayed as a house cat doing his job, and a victim of Jerry's blackmail attempts, sometimes within the same short. He is almost always called by his full name "Thomas" by Mammy Two Shoes. In 1961 short Switchin' Kitten Tom has a membership card as belong to the "International Brotherhood of Cats".
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Had to get a ride from far away from home yesterday, guy who picked me up was a Somali dude who very quickly started telling me about how he's a huge Trump supporter, even showed me pictures of him from his facebook page in Trump merch out and about advocating for him. His reasoning was that he believed that countries should focus on their own problems, instead of meddling in others, so he took the bait on that particular part of the inconsistent slurry that Trump endlessly spouts. Oh, he also briefly mentioned that "Trump is against the gays and so are we" ("we" being the Somali).
Outside of that, among other things I listened to him talk quite a lot about having been to many countries, speaking four languages (Somali, Ethiopian, English and Arabic). He even went into the Israel-Iran war in support of Iran, saying what so many have said - that Iranians are extremely kind, well educated people and that they are justified in their self-defense. He also went out of his way to say that he liked Jewish people, but that Zionism is a terrible thing, and that countries should make friends with their neighbors, not enemies.
I asked him what he thought about what was happening in Burkina Faso, he said he didn't really know much but that he was in favor of any way in which a country tries to improve its own independence and standard of living, but that he was confident Traore will get merc'd by "the West".
It was pretty fun to get his perspective on things, and overall we both enjoyed the 30-minute conversation even though obviously there was some turbo-cringe shit right up front. He was very friendly, though I imagine he would not have spoken so freely if he thought I was in any way queer.