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Animal Jingoism: Difference between revisions
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[[File:dogcatfight_5092.jpg|frame]]
Sometimes, different species, such as cats and dogs, are written so that they have a built-in and unquestioned animosity for no other reason than that they are stereotypically considered to be adversaries. A dog that doesn't chase cats will be considered 'weird', even if they were raised together from birth. On the other hand, those same dogs will almost never chase after mice unless provoked.
[[Real Life]] has both this and its subversion: there are dogs who bully cats, and there are cats who bully dogs.
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** Garfield also subverts this trope by befriending a mouse named Floyd (and letting him bring other mice over for house parties), much to Jon's annoyance.
* ''[[Gear]]'' is about a war between four nations of small cats, larger cats, dogs, and insects, doing battle by means of [[Humongous Mecha]]!
* The basis for the animal metaphor in Art Spiegelman's graphic-novel-style biography about his parents' experiences in the Holocaust, ''[[Maus]]''. The Nazis are portrayed as cats, the Jews as mice; other nationalities are also portrayed as animals, depending on certain stereotypes of those nationalities and those animals.
** Same deal in the Manga ''[[Apocalypse Meow]]'', except it's a Japanese writer examining the Vietnam conflict. Americans are rabbits, Vietnamese are cats, Russians are bears, Chinese are pandas, French are pigs, and Japanese are monkeys (including an unflattering [[Author Avatar]]).
* Subverted in George Herriman's comic strip, ''[[Krazy Kat]],'' as noted under [[Cats Are Mean]].
* According to Stephen Notley's comic strip, ''[[Bob the Angry Flower]]'', robots and bears are natural enemies. This makes as much sense as anything else in ''Bob the Angry Flower.''
* In a parody of [[Marvel Comics]]' ''House of M'' and [[DC Comics]]' ''Identity Crisis'', which both ended with the revelation that a female character had undergone a [[Face Heel Turn]] for [[Dork Age|flimsy reasons]], an issue of ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' shows the [[Funny Animal]] [[Superhero|Superheroes]] of ''[[Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew]]'' learning that feline former teammate Alley-Kat-Abra is responsible for various crimes, including the murder of Little Cheese, the micro-mouse. The reason given is "I'm a ''cat''! Cats ''hate'' mice!"
** The trope is [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in ''Captain Carrot and the Final Arc''; the ''real'' murderer is revealed to be Alley's magically created [[Evil Twin]], and the true Alley vows to resurrect Little Cheese.
*** Interestingly, the story of Little Cheese' murder by Alley Kat Abra was apparently written under [[Executive Meddling|editorial fiat]]- Scott Shaw! (yes, the exclamation point is part of his name), the creator of the characters, when encountered at a Con, said that he was strongly opposed to the story idea, but pretty much told he had to do it anyway. The 'evil twin' retcon was his just revenge upon those editors after they'd gotten the boot.
** Considering on Earth-C, cats and mice * don't* hate each other (and any cat or mouse that did would be considered a bigot/speciesist), it makes the above-cited "reason" as all the more out-of-character for Alley (and thus should've given reason for the Crew to be suspicious). Supporting this is one story where the Zoo Crew, while visiting other dimensions briefly, encounter one resembling ''[[Tom and Jerry]]''; Alley found the sight of seeing "a planet terrorized by...primitive felines" to be disturbing.
* Partially subverted in the comic strip ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'', using sensitive, intelligent character Zebra, whose never-ending efforts to reach detente with various predators (lions, more recently crocs) inevitably fail miserably. In one strip, he writes a moving letter asking why; the lions' response is 'Yu taste gud!'
* In ''[[Peanuts]]'', Snoopy has always hated cats. On many occasions, he has taunted the "stupid cat next door".
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== Films -- Live-Action ==
* The film ''[[Cats and Dogs]]'' had unwaveringly heroic dogs constantly defending humanity from [[
** Averted somewhat in the sequel, which features a cat agency dedicated to protecting humanity.
* Averted in ''[[Milo and Otis]]'', a story about a cat and a pug dog who are friends. Though it is kind of seen as an [[Odd Friendship]] by other animals.
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* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' features Reynardine and Ysengrin, the fox and wolf of legend. While neither of them can really claim to be those animals anymore, Ysengrin was very upset to see Reynardine take the form of a wolf.
* Percival and Pooch in ''[[Sinfest]]'' -- [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3255 at least professed on Percy's part]
* ''Girly'' has made that [http://girlyyy.com/go/510 chickens and ducks are sworn enemies].
* In ''[[Poharex]]'', the dinosaurs have a mortal emnity with the Rakair, a species of evolved rauisuchians. They also hate humans, though to a lesser extent.
* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', {{spoiler|Jade}} can't help but growl and bark at Jaspersprite when he starts meowing, because the latter is a cat, and the former, through a very complex series of events, has the instincts of a dog.
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* The [[Lion King]] features a lion/hyena rivalry, which actually reflects the reality of the African savannahs, to a certain extent.
** Though The Lion King inverts it, based on the old misunderstanding of their interactions. Newer research suggests that its the Hyenas who do the hunting and the Lions who muscle them away from their kills. Even newer research suggest that both sides play both roles when it suits their purposes.
* ''[[My Gym Partner's a Monkey]]''. Here, the animals are sentient and speak and are humanoid (mostly) but the snake kid still fights with the mongoose kid.
* Subverted in the "Rita and Runt" segments of ''[[Animaniacs]]'' in which Runt habitually goes into an aggressive posture/attitude at the mere mention of a cat, yet is too stupid to recognize that [[You Know I'm Black, Right?|his best friend Rita is a cat]].
* Most of the [[Tom and Jerry]] cartoons fall into this. Jerry is chased by Tom who is in turn chased by Spike solely because they are a mouse, cat, and dog.
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* In ''[[Adventure Time]]'', Dogs and the fictional Rainicorns are enemies, though unlike most examples, there's a reason. They fought over territories in the Crystal Dimension.
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'': Tweety and Sylvester. "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!"
* In ''[[Thundercats 2011]]'', this is very much [[Played for Drama]]. Third Earth is presented as a "''[[World of Funny Animals|world of warring animals]]''" where Thundera's [[Proud Warrior Race]] the [[Catfolk|Cats]] rule their [[The Empire|empire]] as the self-styled [[Superior Species]] that brought order to their world. They've fought a generations-long war with the [[Lizard Folk|Lizards]], and see [[Fantastic Racism|little problem]] with [[Made a Slave|enslaving]] those hungry Lizards they catch raiding their crops due to the Cats' systematic monopolization of arable land, even ''[[Vigilante Execution|lynching]]'' them, if they feel like it. The "Alley Cats" of Thundera's [[Urban Segregation|slums]] think nothing of beating and mugging hapless Specific minorities like [[Dogfaces|Dogs]]. All tailed Cats are themselves [[Fantastic Ghetto|confined]] to the slums while tailless nobles live lives of wealth and privilege, and [[King of Beasts|right-to-rule]] is granted only to Lions.
* [[Felix the Cat]]'s relationships with mice range from friendly to [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]-ish. Notably, he has a mouse friend, Skidoo, living in his house.
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