Favorite Fictional Character --- Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr.

 

"Sufferin' succotash!"

When I was a kid, I’d get lost in Saturday morning cartoons. I would park myself on the floor in front of the TV and spend the next few hours watching all the fun and joy my adolescent heart could handle. The Bugs Bunny Show was one of those cartoons, and today’s Favorite Fictional Character was a big part of my enjoyment.

Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr. is a cat with a voracious appetite—an appetite that makes his pursuit of Tweety, Speedy, and Hippety Hopper a tad frantic at times. What makes it even worse, at least from Sylvester’s point of view, is that it’s an appetite that will never be sated. Because, like Wile E. Coyote, Elmer Fudd, and Ralph Wolf, he’s doomed to fail every single time. This poor guy gets beaten up on the regular, but he has the spirit of a fighter. He never gives up, never gives in, much to the chagrin of his son, Sylvester J. Pussycat, Jr.

As a kid, there was nothing here not to find funny. Sylvester was—and still is—a hoot and a half. Granted, most of that laughter comes at Sylvester’s expense and is due to the bodily harm that befalls him over and over and over again, and that’s okay. There’s something inherently hilarious about his outsized confidence constantly crashing headfirst into reality. What I appreciate more now is just how much personality Sylvester brings to the table. He’s emotional, dramatic, and endlessly persistent. No matter how many times he fails, he always gets back up and tries again, fully convinced that this time will be different—and that belief is what has kept me laughing all these years later.