Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,518
edits
Crazy Cat Lady: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (→Web Original) |
No edit summary |
||
| (21 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:crazy-cat-lady.jpg|link=The Simpsons (animation)|frame| Meet Eleanor Abernathy: once [[The Medic|M.D.]], once [[Hello, Attorney!|A.A.L.]], now
{{quote|''Old Ella Mason keeps cats, eleven at last count,''
Line 8 ⟶ 7:
''On seeing our neighbor’s cat-haunt,''
''Saying: "Something's addled in a woman who accommodates''
''That many cats."''
|"Ella Mason and Her Eleven Cats" by Sylvia Plath, 1956}}
{{quote|''"So instead of having children, I'm going to get more cats!"''|'''Kathleen''', ''[[Loading Ready Run]]''}}
Line 20:
Three guesses who [[Pet Heir|inherits the house when they go]]. See [[Kindhearted Cat Lover]] for examples when liking cats is not a symptom of being socially inept. See [[All Witches Have Cats]], where the many cats are a sign of a magic caster.
Not to be confused with "[[:Category:Madness Tropes|Crazy]] [[Catgirl]]".
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* A "Got Milk?" ad featured an old lady with a house full of cats discovering she was out of milk. She mixed up a batch of non-dairy creamer. "Just like milk!" The cats hate it. The last thing we see is one of the cats closing the blinds...
* A Geico commercial had the Gecko and spokesperson visiting customers, in this case an older lady. The spokesman asks what she feeds her cats; cut to a shot of the Gecko surrounded by cats and looking very nervous as she says, "I usually like to feed them fresh food." The pair are then shown back at the office with the Gecko's arm in a little sling.
* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130920125720/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VObFc64OnEk When you pay too much for cable], you throw things. When you throw things, people think you have anger issues. When people think you have anger issues, your schedule clears up. When your schedule clears up, you grow a scraggly beard. When you grow a scraggly beard, *man picks up stray cat* [[Insane Troll Logic|you start taking in stray animals]]. And when you start taking in stray animals, you can't stop taking in stray animals. Stop taking in stray animals!"
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* Orochimaru from ''[[Naruto]]'' is the definitive Crazy Snake Man.
* ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]'' featured a Crazy Reptile Man (an actor who bought a basilisk) as well as humorous Nutty Poodle Gangster.
Line 40:
* Cathy, or "Cat-chan" from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Ze Xal]]'', although only in middle school, has a horde of cats and is definitely crazy, [[Stalker with a Crush|mostly for Yuma]]. She also wears her hair up to look like cat ears and can communicate with her cats through hisses and purrs.
== [[Comic
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has ''three'' cards with Crazy Squirrel Men, [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=12458 Deranged Hermit], [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=29987 Nut Collector], and [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=24672 Squirrel Wrangler].▼
== Comics ==▼
* A 1955 issue of ''Superman's Pal, [[Jimmy Olsen]]'' features a wealthy Crazy Cat Lady who owns 49 felines and rewards Jimmy with a million dollars after he rescues one of them.
* [[DC Comics]] series ''Armageddon 2001'' was a series of "what if" stories picturing the fates that were going to befall various DC superheroes as the world was turning into a dystopia. One of the stories shows super heroine Ice as a crazy cat lady.
Line 49 ⟶ 46:
* Felicia Hardy in ''[[Spider-Man]] Noir'' is a reclusive nightclub owner who not only owns many cats, but takes them to work! Her club's called "The Black Cat" and the waitresses are dressed in [[Catgirl]] fetish gear, as well. After {{spoiler|being disfigured by the Crime Master}}, she becomes a total shut-in who never leaves the house, never has any visitors besides her doorman Lippy, and does little but care for her cats.
== [[Film]] ==
* The bird lady from ''[[Mary Poppins]]''.
* The Crazy Squirrel Lady from ''[[Rat Race]]''. Though she seems to want to get rid of them. If you don't buy a squirrel, she gives you directions off a cliff.
Line 56 ⟶ 53:
* ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067991/ Willard]'' and his rats.
* Madame from ''[[The Aristocats]]'' becomes one after waking up in the middle of the night and discovering that her cats have been kidnapped by her evil butler while she is still sleeping and leaving them all for dead in the French countryside.
* Although technically disqualified because he hoards so many ''different'' species, Raoul from ''[[UHF (film)|UHF]]'''s "Raoul's Wild Kingdom" segments deserves honorary
** He qualifies based on the number of poodles he sacrifices out the window in teaching them to fly. They make a pile about 8 feet high easily filling the trope, at least until they all die.
* Taken to a truly disturbing degree in ''[[Good Neighbours]]'': {{spoiler|Louise}} loves all cats to an extreme degree and is rather socially awkward and distant... and is also {{spoiler|a sociopathic murderer.}}
* The fiendish Mrs. Deagle from [[Gremlins]] has no problem with cruelty to ''dogs'' (she threatens Billy's with a ride in her spin dryer at high heat for breaking a yard decoration), but when we see her home life it turns out her house is full of cats. And since she's a greedy old hag, she has [[Theme Naming|given them all names like "Kopec" and "Dollar Bill"]].
== [[Literature]] ==
* The old lady that Alex kills in ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' lives in a home surrounded by fifty or more cats. (After he is imprisoned, the government sells all of his stuff. Why? To pay for the upkeep of the cats.)
* "Breaking out in chronic cats" is mentioned as a sign of senility in the [[Discworld]] novel ''[[
** And Lady Sybil Vimes has her dragons.
{{quote|'''Sybil:''' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Good boys.]]}}
Line 75 ⟶ 72:
** Considering that all those cats were outdoor/strays to begin with, you have to wonder why the hell he didn't just put them outside when he left town.
* In ''[[Harriet the Spy]]'', one of Harriet's spy targets is a very seclusive man with some twenty cats. He's constantly attempting to avoid Animal Control, who have him pegged as a hoarder. By the end of the book, they catch him and take the cats away. He's despondent... until the last time we see him, when [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|he's started over with one little kitten.]]
* [[Stephen Colbert]]'s book ''I Am America! (And So Can You!)'' includes a short article written by a
* Jonathan of ''[[Jonathan Strange
* Gösta in ''[[Let the Right One In]]'', the book and the movie. In his case the cat hoarding most likely ended up {{spoiler|[[Evil-Detecting Dog|saving his life.]] }}
* Bagabond in the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series has a telepathic link with all the animals in Manhattan but most especially cats.
*
* In ''The Bad Place'', by [[Dean Koontz]], most of the main characters belong to the same [[Dysfunctional Family]]: their grandparents are [[Brother-Sister Incest|brother and sister]], their parent is a hermaphrodite who managed to impregnate herself several times. Two sisters in the youngest generation are identical twins who share a telepathic link with each other, as well as with any animal of their choice. They surround themselves with a flock of cats that they are permanently linked to.
* In one of the [[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Jeeves and Wooster]] stories, it becomes necessary to make Sir Roderick Glossop believe that Bertie is insane. One of the methods by which this is accomplished is to make it look like he's some sort of Crazy Cat Gentleman.
Line 90 ⟶ 87:
* The young adult novel ''Jacob Have I Loved'' has a cat lady who's portrayed as mildly dotty. When she ends up in the hospital, the main characters must decide what to do with all of her cats. They consider drowning them, even going so far as to throw them all in sacks and take them out in a boat, but in the end can't go through with it. The solution they finally come up with is to drug the ([[Cats Are Mean|rather vicious]]) cats with opiates so they seem meek and compliant, and convince several of the local residents that adopting a cat is a good idea.
== [[Live
* There is a ''[[CSI]]'' episode ("Cat's in the Cradle") where a murdered crazy cat lady is partially eaten by her cats.
* There was an episode of ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'' with a bird lady who believed that people are reincarnated as birds, and that one parakeet in particular was her late husband.
* In one episode of the ''[[The Flash]]'' live-action TV series, The Trickster, when given a chance to find out, goes on a rant about how he doesn't ''care'' who's behind the [[Flash]]'s mask, because he's just some guy, who will end up alone living alone with a lot of cats.
* An episode of ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'' features Robert
* The first episode of ''[[A Touch of Frost]]'' features a
* This is doubtlessly the future of Angela in the US version of ''[[The Office]]''.
* There's a crazy cat lady in the neighbourhood in ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' Randy also dates a cat hobbyist, who realizes she's slipping into the mold, after Randy points out she treats him like a cat.
Line 114 ⟶ 111:
* In ''[[Grandma's House|Grandmas House]]'', Simon appears to be a male version:
{{quote|"The cat didn't make me any less lonely. It just became a mascot for my loneliness."}}
* In ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' the cast once went to a bed and breakfast ran by a
* In the ''[[Friends]]'' episode "The One Where Mr Heckles Dies", Chandler worries that he's going to end up alone and imagines his future self as a "Crazy Snake Man".
* In ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' episode "The Zazzy Substitution", Sheldon deals with a falling out with Amy by adopting lots and lots of cats.
Line 124 ⟶ 121:
* In ''[[The Closer]]'', Brenda lives in fear of turning into one of these and, after her cat ([[Your Tomcat Is Pregnant|who she thought was male]]) has kittens, she wonders how she became one of those single women with too many cats.
▲== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* How do you make a crazy cat lady even crazier? Simply see [http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=37158 this
==
=== Card Games ===
▲* How do you make a crazy cat lady even crazier? Simply see [http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=37158 this installment of ''Bizarro'']
▲* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has ''three'' cards with Crazy Squirrel Men
=== Tabletop
* In ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'', one of the character templates for the Nosferatu (a [[Splat]] of vampires horribly disfigured by the Embrace who live secluded lives or utilize illusion powers to maintain the [[Masquerade]]) is a crazy small animal person. The character's gender is up to you, as is the type of small animals he hoards. He seldom leaves his lair, preferring to use animal mind-control to have one of his pets act as a proxy when dealing with the coterie.
** There's a Creepy Cat Lady in the ''Horror Recognition Guide'' for ''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]''. She's just that /little/ bit creepier than normal, thanks to what she can do with her cats...
* ''[[In Nomine]]'' sourcebook Liber Servitorum includes an old woman who seems to be a crazy cat lady. She is, in fact, a servant of an angel who inhabits her cats.
==
* Aaron Henne's play [https://web.archive.org/web/20120103040306/http://www.originalworksonline.com/kingcat.htm King Cat Calico Finally Flies Free!] is a [[Black Comedy]] that uses crazy-cat-ladiness as a lens upon the modern world.
== Toys ==
* You can get a Crazy Cat Lady action figure. [
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The ''[[Touhou]]'' series has Satori Komeiji, who lives alone in a [[Fire and Brimstone Hell|huge underground palace]] with an army of crows and cats. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that her ability to read minds means that she tends to attract a lot of animals who can't otherwise communicate with her. She's actually rather friendly, but has a habit of [[Psychic Powers|responding to what people are thinking rather than what they're saying]], which causes people to avoid her. Some of her fans [[media:
* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' one room in the Altamira hotel is ''teeming'' with ginger cats; it also contains one eccentric elderly man who says odd things when you talk to him.
** The Crazy Cat Old Man is a recurring [[Continuity Cameo]] in the Tales series. He's in just about every game as a sort of an [[Easter Egg]].
Line 148:
*** Also, her cats FUCKING HURT.
* In ''[[Harvester]]'', there's the Crazy '''Wasp''' Lady complete with long creepy rant about how the wasps' ability to sting again and again is reminiscent of multiple orgasm...
* In ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' it's [[The Hypnotoad|the cats are the ones adopting the dwarves]]. As a result, Dwarves [[media:
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic|KOTOR 2]]'', in the restored content there is a deranged padawin living in the ruins of an old temple who raises and trains Laigrek (large cockroaches) to kill any trespassers or treasure-hunters on sight. Noble characters can dissuade her while Villains can kill or corrupt her.
* ''[[
* Edna Strickland in Telltale Games' ''[[Back to The Future|Back to the Future: The Game]]''. [[From Nobody to Nightmare|She becomes worse.]]
==
* ''[[Drowtales]]'': Mel'anarch is another example of a younger character fitting this trope, replacing cats with spiders, including a giant one {{spoiler|that she had a child with}}.
* Natalie of ''[[Fur Will Fly]]'' has has cats, [http://www.jadephoenix.org/fwf/comics/index.php?date=furwillfly67.jpg lots] and [http://www.jadephoenix.org/fwf/comics/index.php?date=furwillfly20030212.jpg lots] of cats, despite being a cat herself. She's also quite energetic, so one could argue that she's a twofer of this trope.
Line 165:
** Also helps that she's one of the last two humans on Earth.
==
* In a recent episode of ''[[The Guild]]'' its shown that Vork keeps dozens of birds in his home. He apparently uses them for food (since he is unemployed and only barely gets by on his dead grandfather's benefit checks).
* Katherine, of ''[[Manwhores]]'' is an unusual version of this trope in that she is in her 20's and doesn't actually own any cats (being allergic.) This doesn't stop her from filling her house with cat posters, cat models, and cat movies filling her
* In ''[[Cracked.com]]'':
** Parodied by Christina H., whose column is called "Let Me Tell You About My Cats."
** Pets are #5 of the [http://www.cracked.com/article_16220_6-things-you-didnt-know-you-could-get-addicted-to.html 6 Things You Didn't Know You Could Get Addicted To], and this article links it to ''Toxoplasma gondii'' parasites.
** Photoplasty [https://web.archive.org/web/20140901202419/http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_581_17-famous-images-as-seen-from-different-angle_p2/?view=article Famous Images, As Seen From a Different Angle] shows a dozen cats on the side of the room that we don't see in James McNeill Whistler's famous portrait of his mother.
* ''[[(The Customer is) Not Always Right]]'' got these popping up now and then. Like [http://notalwaysright.com/makes-you-wish-you-were-cat-atonic this] or [http://notalwaysright.com/hiss-terical this].
* [https://4archive.org/board/b/thread/594955368/so-im-pretty-sure-that-my-neighbor-just-called-the-cops Geese vs. Cats vs. Eagle] thread on 4chan /b/. Even the cats clearly understood she's crazy.
{{quote|The funny thing is that the cats really don't care for her. She interacts with each of them for maybe a total of 20 minutes across their entire lives before they get mauled to death by geese or eagles.
So she walks around outside talking to these cats going "Hello my babies. How are you today? You are such a pretty little baby" - meanwhile the cats have established a 20 foot buffer zone around her, which they maintain any time she walks closer. They remain close to her, but they fear her. }}
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* There's a recurring
* ''[[Kids Next Door]]'' has a
* There's Hatty MacDoogal, a crazy cat lady on ''[[Futurama]]'' who tends to carry a cat around with her and calls anything she doesn't know the word for a "kajigger" or a "whatchacallit".
* Rhino's owner in ''[[Bolt]]'' is a crazy hamster lady.
* ''[[Lilo
* The herbalist healer in two episodes of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' lives alone on a mountain with her spoiled cat, Miyuki.
{{quote|'''Aang''': You're insane, aren't you?
Line 189 ⟶ 192:
'''Pinkie Pie''': Give her time... }}
* One ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' Sylvester and Tweety cartoon has Granny with what looks like hundreds of dogs in her yard, which makes it harder than usual for Sylvester to get at Tweety.
* Gayle from ''[[Bob's Burgers]]''. She doesn't seem to know much about cats.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
▲== Real Life ==
* [[Truth in Television]] as anyone who's watched a lot of animal rescue shows like ''[[Animal Planet Heroes]]'' can tell you. It's called [[wikipedia:Animal hoarding|Animal hoarding]] and many consider it a mental health issue. There's [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09_10_catcoat.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin one theory] regarding the parasite ''Toxoplasma gondii'' which reproduces only in cat intestines which may mean some people who are attracted to cats (specifically the smell of cat pee) have this parasite, making them more like to be eaten by cats if they die.
* Karen Kuykendall, the artist behind the [http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2916419&pagenumber=4#post347671346 The Tarot of the Cat People] was (naturally) a Crazy Cat Lady, with the added horror bonus of dying of a heart attack and her body being partially devoured by her own pets.
* Read [https://web.archive.org/web/20131108212620/http://www.laweekly.com/2008-07-31/news/rathouse-of-the-palisades/ this story] about the so-called "Palisades Rathouse". This also verges into [[Nightmare Fuel]] territory.
* Very, very slightly averted by Big Edie and Little Edie Beals-Bouvier of the "Gray Gardens" documentary, [[The Musical|musical]], and [[The Movie|movie]]. They were very fond of cats, but they also liked their "housemate", a raccoon.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp0Q3UJHrkU&feature=related This woman] in Russia has 130 cats that are all strays. She takes them in because she feels bad for all the cats. Sure some people say she's crazy, but others actually say she has a ''really'' big heart, given that she lives in Siberia and many house cats really wouldn't be able to survive most winters.
* As a putdown to a woman who supposedly says something negative about men: "You know, you can get kittens at the animal shelter for free. As many as you like." Somehow men who say this never quite realize that acting like a bitter misogynistic jerk to women is part of how they end up in the [[Does Not Like Men]] category.
* Robert Brunette of Boulder Creek, California kept 38 malnourished dogs, crates full of feces and urine, and even decapitated dog heads and skulls. When he was arrested near a local high school and interviewed by police, he said that the skulls were of [[Cloudcuckoolander|dogs he wanted to remember]]. Unfortunately, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080930182634/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=
* Unlike most domesticated animals, cats are very self-sustaining, as they can hunt for their own food and don't really need much human attention save for the occasional neutering or trip to the vet. Since they pretty much care for themselves, they're relatively low-maintenance and thus a very popular choice for hoarders.
* Animal hoarders can be shockingly unaware of the reality of their situation. They honestly don't see the problem that's obvious to everyone, and can even see those trying to help as enemies out to kill their friends. Sadly, because so many of the animals hoarded are in terrible shape, sometimes the majority of animals rescued do have to be put to sleep on humanitarian grounds. Less serious but still surprising is the attitude of the police, who were generally kind and understanding with male hoarders but absolutely blisteringly cruel to female ones, even though the damage to the animals was the same. One wonders how much of the trope derives from the [[Real Life]] [[Double Standard]].
Line 209 ⟶ 212:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:All the Tropes Superhero Team]]
[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Always Female]]▼
[[Category:Index With a Heart of Gold]]
[[Category:Pet and Animal Companion Tropes]]
[[Category:
| |||