Saturday Six – Pop Culture Cats

Welcome to the Saturday Six, where each week I let you get to know me a bit better with the help of a list. Any idiot can do a Top 5 list, which is why I kicked it up a notch to a Top 6. This week’s topic: Pop Culture Cats.

I’m kind of doing the animal hierarchy backwards, since last week was all about dogs, and this week has gone to the cats. Will next week be about mice? It’s a definite possibility.

1. Meowth – That’s right! While I was always a little old to be in Pokemon‘s demo, that didn’t stop me from cutting class in college to watch it. I always loved Meowth, so much so I own an original Meowth production Cel, and am getting him tattooed on my arm next month. Just something about his voice, and the fact that he gave up all his moves to teach himself how to talk to try to impress Meowsie, and she rejected him anyway, struct me as tragic. He was like the the worst bad guy ever, because you knew he wasn’t bad in his heart.

 

2. Garfield – It was hard to miss Garfield back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Back in my younger days, I used to cheat on the Book It! forms and say it took me 5 hours to read a Garfield book just so I could get my free pizza certificate.

 

3. Heathcliff – While Garfield got all the merchandise and attention, Heathcliff kind of was under the radar. Well, as under the radar as one can get when your show in being shown on Nickelodeon incessantly. While most people were on one side or the other in the great Garfield/Heathcliff debate, I could never pick a side and loved them both equally. In fact, when I was very young I had an imaginary friend name Heathcliff.

 

4. Furrball – While most people would pick Sylvester as their Warner Brothers cartoon cat, I always had a soft spot for Furrball. Even though he never talked, he was one of the most expressive characters on Tiny Toons. Plus he was almost constantly being shit on by life, what with being homeless, infested with fleas, and being constantly chased by either FiFi or Elmyra, it was hard not to feel bad for the guy.

 

5. Eek – It never hurts to help! How could you not love a show from Better Off Dead writer and Press Your Luck Whammy animator Savage Steve Holland? While Fox Kids never showed it much love, the weird dark humor was always hilarious.

 

6. Felix – Felix was the first animated cartoon character to be merchandised. . . back in 1919. He’s nearly 100 years old, and he’s still going strong. In fact, I ran into him, quite literally, at New York Comic Con last year. He may not have his own theme park, but I’d argue he’s just as popular if not more so than Mickey Mouse. Plus Mickey doesn’t have his own bag of holding.

 

JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook