Crazy Cat Lady: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

{{quote|''"So instead of having children, I'm going to get more cats!"''|'''Kathleen''', ''[[Loading Ready Run]]''}}

 

 

 

This trope definitely seems skewed towards female characters, and can be read as an extension of the traditional negative characterisation of spinsters, especially when it's implied that the cats are a stand-in for human children that she never had before it was [[My Biological Clock Is Ticking|too late]]. Men, apart from an occasional trend toward [[Homeless Pigeon Person|living on a rooftop surrounded by pigeons]], tend towards either [[Hermit Guru|more complete isolation]] or a [[Nature Hero|more diversified set of friends]]. Male or female, however, animal hoarders tend to do a poor job of caring for their pets. Sanitation is often [[Trash of the Titans|a nightmare]]: many of the animals die from malnourishment, and the owner themselves might die from related illnesses.

 

 

 

* 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.

 

* 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.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. Dr Akagi's liking for cats is a subtle use of this trope, hinting (along with her [[Room Full of Crazy|post-it notes]]) that she's more [[Mad Scientist]] than [[Hot Scientist]].

* Then there's Soi Fon from ''[[Bleach]]'', but there is a good reason: {{spoiler|her former boss was Yoruichi, who just happened to transform into a cat.}} [[Les Yay]], anyone?

** [[Shaped Like Itself|Snake likes snakes.]]

* A minor character in ''[[Living Game]]'' keeps an apartment full of snakes (mostly behind glass), with predictable results on her love life.

 

* 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.

* 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.

 

* 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.

* A character in ''[[Mirror Mask]]'' is an old lady who lives alone with a lot of small cat-like sphinxes. (In a line cut from the final film, she explains that she's a widow; her husband just disappeared one day, and apparently the sphinxes were so upset they didn't touch their food for days...)

* ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067991/ Willard]'' and his rats.

** 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"]].

 

* One of the thirteen Black Ajah Aes Sedai the female protagonists are sent out to hunt early in the ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' series was a noted cat-lover; cats flock to Aes Sedai in general but this particular character seeks out strays and injured cats to Heal and feed up

** [[Word of God]] has said that the reason she keeps so many cats is because she breeds them as familiars for wizards. She also has a few Kneazles (highly intelligent, cat-like magical creatures which can sense deception and breed with regular cats), and uses them as spies.

*** As does Voldemort himself. He has only one live snake, but showers her with affection he wouldn't dream of showing to another human being, even going to far as to {{spoiler|put part of his soul in her}}. And that's not even going into the recurring snake motif associated with him...

** [[Word of God]] has also stated that there was originally going to be a Crazy Dog Woman living in Hogsmeade who took in several strays, including Sirius. JK Rowling soon decided that would make the meetings of Harry and Sirius difficult, and moved him into a cave.

** 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.]]

* Bagabond in the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series has a telepathic link with all the animals in Manhattan but most especially cats.

** Note that this works especially well because Sir Roderick already knows that Bertie's Uncle Henry was a Crazy ''Rabbit'' Gentleman who kept eleven of them in his bedroom and spent his last days in an asylum, "happy to the last and completely surrounded by rabbits".

** Later, in "Without The Option", Bertie meets an actual Crazy Cat Lady, the Pringle's Aunt Jane. He's impersonating his friend Sippy at the time, and since Sippy shot arrows at one of Aunt Jane's cats when he was about six years old, Aunt Jane now is highly suspicious that Bertie wants to harm her cats. This causes problems, since Bertie really ''is'' something of a [[Kindhearted Cat Lover]] and Aunt Jane's cats take to him instinctively.

* 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.

 

* There is a ''[[CSI]]'' episode ("Cat's in the Cradle") where a murdered crazy cat lady is partially eaten by her cats.

* 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.

* 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.

** The scene playing during the credits for that episode is filmed through the eyes of one of her cats, who jumps up on her bed as she's sleeping and paws at one of her eyes. She wakes up and says something like "I'm not dead yet, Mittens."

* Matthew of ''[[News Radio]]'' owns many, many cats. One episode, Bill dismisses Matthew's friends as shut-ins.

'''Bill:''' Well, it's hard to get out when you're taking care of 16 stray cats... each named after a child you never had... }}

* An episode of ''[[New Tricks]]'' focused on the re-opened case of the death of a woman whose body had been partially eaten by her cats. {{spoiler|It turned out she'd been accidentally killed. Her body had been locked in her house along with all of her cats with all of the doors and windows shut, no food, no water and well...nature took its course.}}

* In one episode of ''[[Castle]]'' the only witness to a crime has amnesia, in an attempt to discover who he is they put a photo of him on TV asking for anyone who knows him. A woman turns up claiming to be his wife but turns out to be a crazy lady who owns 8 cats.

** In another episode, a police swat team busts into a house, thinking it's the house of a terrorist. It turns out the name was misspelled, cut to a scene of Castle, Esposito and Ryan, drinking tea from fussy teacups whilst being climbed on by a hoard of cats.

* There are several [[Hoarders]] who had hoards of animals in their houses. A few even had dead animals in the piles of trash.

** In fact, there is a new TV spin-off from ''Hoarders'' called ''[[Animal Hoarding]]'' which focuses on this type of behavior. Some episodes have had people with: 2000 rats, 80 dogs or 50 cats. In all of these cases, the animals aren't receiving good care simply because there are so many of them.

* In an episode of ''[[Hannah Montana|Hannah Montana Forever]]'', Miley was busy dealing with the fallout of revealing herself as the titular idol singer to the world. Not wanting to deal with anymore negativity, she contemplated staying in her house with nothing but cats. Her friend Lily [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] this and resorted to dragging her out.

'''Sheldon:''' You don't have to sell me on cats, Leonard, I'm already a fan! }}

* In ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' spin off, ''[[The Suite Life On Deck]]'', their teacher Miss Tutweiller has her room full of cats. It is suggested that she gets a new one every time she gets dumped. After her sister has a more sucessful Valentines Day than her she announces that she's about one bad relationship away from being one of those women who has thirty cats and pathetically names them after ex-boyfriends.

* 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.

 

 

 

 

 

== Toys ==

 

** 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]].

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', there's an NPC named Donni Anthania in Elwynn Forest, with the subtext <Crazy Cat Lady>. As expected, her house and the surrounding area is crawling with cats. She also sells cat pets to players.

*** 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...

* ''[[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.]]

 

* 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.

* ''[[Nobody Scores]]'' both subverts and plays this trope straight in a one-shot where Jane tries to become a literal Crazy Cat Lady.

* The entire point of ''[http://catversushuman.blogspot.com/ Cat vs. Human]''

* ''[[Homestuck]]'' has Roxy Lalonde, who achieves the unique feat of being this trope while only 15 years old and a protagonist.

''Why do they all have to be so friendly???'' }}

** On the other hand, she's not your typical Cat Lady, as she doesn't begrudge the displaced Dersites their hunting of her cats.

** 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).

 

* 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".

'''Herbalist''': Thaaat's right. }}

'''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.

 

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* Another case of insane cat ladyness in the news, a cop apparently [http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2010/06/24/20100624south-dakota-cats-seized-from-car.html#reply20456515 stopped a car with 15 cats running around inside it]. As in, the cats were loose inside the car as it was being driven and it nearly crashed due to the driver not being able to see past the cats in the backseat.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]

[[Category:Index With a Heart of Gold]]

[[Category:Pet and Animal Companion Tropes]]