~ Sylvester's catchphrase, said example heard in "A Mouse Divided" (1953).
“
AAAAAAAH! SHADDUP!!!!
„
~ Sylvester's main shut up, this example is heard in "Trick or Tweet".
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Tweety! You're ALIVE!!! HA! Gotcha right where I, WANT ya!! (Tweety: Don't, do it puddy!) I love you, buddy! You're the, best!! (Tweety: See why cartoons are so special? ANYTHING can happen.)
„
~ Sylvester's redemption in the Mysteries series, the last episode of the show "This Is the End". Where Sylvester expresses his love towards Tweety.
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I don't know if this counts as a miracle, but I found Michael Jordan! He was in the audience. I know he can help.
„
~ Sylvester to LeBron James and the Tune Squad he found "Michael Jordan" before realizing he actually found Michael B. Jordan.
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr. (Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester) is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic cat and a major character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper. He is also the titular main protagonist of the animated series The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries.
He was voiced by the late Mel Blanc (1937–1989), Bill Farmer (1989, 1996), late Joe Alaskey (1990–2011), late Greg Burson (1993–1997), Terry Klassen (2001–2006), Jeff Bennett (2003), Eric Bauza (2018, 2021-2022), and currently, Jeff Bergman (1990–1993, 2007, 2011–present). In the Japanese dub, he was voiced by Masashi Ebara.
The character debuted in Friz Freleng's Life With Feathers (1945). Freleng's 1947 cartoon, Tweetie Pie was the first pairing of Tweety with Sylvester, and the Bob Clampett-directed Kitty Kornered (1946) was Sylvester's first pairing with Porky Pig. Sylvester appeared in 103 cartoons in the golden age.
Personality
Pitted against Tweety, Sylvester is a brutal and smart but rather clumsy predator who remains determined and persistent as an archnemesis/rival of Tweety no matter how much Sylvester suffers from not being able to catch Tweety (at least most of the time).
While prideful, he is a lazy mouser and an incompetent hunter, so his focus on catching Tweety is mostly obsession with an egotistical, arrogant and sly side to him in his sneaky yet ill-fated attempts to catch Tweety, so his focus on catching Tweety is mostly treated as his obsession, when in reality, he's only doing this because he is not really fed any cat food in the house as seen in the episode "Snow Business"; where Sylvester tries not to eat Tweety but can't help himself but felt like eating Tweety is his only way of surviving since there was nothing but bird food in the house, and given his nature as a cat with naturally being able to eat mice or birds, this further explains why he's so dedicated to catching Tweety or Speedy. Despite being a luckless bird eater, he is still capable of making good decisions despite his worries and anxieties of not being able to eat Tweety, let alone being tormented by Tweety or other characters for it.
As a cat, he is naturally terrified of dogs. He would say "AHHH SHADDUP!!!" when the dogs are keep barking when he is out of their reach even tossing flowerpot toward them to keep their "ugly" traps shut.
In "Catch as Cats Can", he originally started off as a simple-minded, emaciated cat with a dopey voice who ate garbage and was tasked to eat birds even though his cluelessness couldn't allow him to successfully eat the bird. Over time in later cartoons, while often silly and having a clownish personality, he becomes much less of an idiot and slowly becomes much wittier, more sarcastic, envious, intelligent and keen but still accident-prone and unlucky by nature no matter how hard he tries to catch Tweety with concocting either well thought out plans or some ridiculous plans, and despite his pride and persistence, it's shown that Sylvester is consistently a tragic character since he's Tweety's mean-spirited nemesis (and sometimes acted villainous) because of how much he's disrespected, mocked, shunned and mistreated throughout his life even though he's just a cat and naturally goes to catch Tweety since it's in his nature to do so (and gets badly treated for it every time, as well as scolded by his own mother for not succeeding at hunting in The Looney Tunes Show episode "Point, Laser Point"), which led to Sylvester continuing this rivalry throughout.
In other appearances such as the Space Jam films and especially The Looney Tunes Show, he's shown to be humane and amicable to the point of being kind and well-meaning. Where in both Space Jam films, he's shown to be thoughtful and helpful despite his pride and insecurities, and in The Looney Tunes Show; outside his sarcasm, he's shown to be a good person at heart and is willing to be a good listener and not be a monster as Tweety's hopeless rival, and in the episode "Point, Laser Point", before going to an appointment, he has also showed expressed genuine sympathy and kindness towards Wile E. Coyote for his endeavors even though Wile couldn't care less about what he said.
Role in Cartoons
Sylvester's personality in the early shorts tends to vary depending on which director handled him. Friz Freleng first paired him against Tweety Bird and Speedy, but other directors paired him with other characters, and not always as a villain.
In Bob Clampett's cartoon Kitty Kornered, Sylvester teams up with other cats and plays the role of a mischievous leader who desires to lock Porky out of the house in revenge for putting them out for the night.
Robert McKimson gave Sylvester a son named Sylvester Jr., who Sylvester tries (and fails) to train him in mouse-catching. These cartoons also pit him against Hippety Hopper, a baby kangaroo Sylvester always mistakes for a giant mouse.
In Chuck Jones' shorts, he is Porky's cowardly yet noble pet cat, and most differently, does not speak. These are cartoons that show Sylvester as a hero, trying to protect an oblivious Porky from danger all around him despite being neurotic and paranoid of mice that try to kill Porky without him knowing, and is always using resourceful means to protect Porky even if Porky mocks him and mistakes him for a troublemaker (and is often left in bad situations no matter how sensible Sylvester is).
Heroic Acts
In Chuck Jones' shorts ("Scaredy Cat", "Claws For Alarm", and "Jumpin' Jupiter"), Sylvester repeatedly tries to protect Porky Pig from danger.
The most admirable part of this is the fact Porky often forces Sylvester to be in haunted hotels Sylvester happens to be afraid of, which has infested rodents that tries killing Porky without him knowing, and Sylvester is driven to insanity in his efforts to protect Porky. Receiving nothing but insults and belittlement by Porky (with the ONE exception of "Scaredy-Cat"; which has Porky thanking Sylvester for once).
In "A Mouse Divided", Sylvester protects a baby mouse he adopted from several other alley cats attempting to eat him.
In "Birds Anonymous", Sylvester protects Tweety from the B.A. cat who he tried to eat him and restrains him.
In "Catty Cornered", Sylvester retrieved Tweety from two criminalistic gangsters who stole Tweety for monetary gain.
In "Space Jam", he helped the other Looney Tunes, and Michael Jordan to defeat the Nerdlucks/Monstars.
In "Curse of De Nile", he saves Granny, Tweety and Hector, who were oblivious to the danger they were in. (In fact, Sylvester ALWAYS protects his family from danger when the time comes).
In "Don't Polka Me", he was willing to save Tweety from two other cats trying to eat him.
Attempts to save his son Sylvester Jr. from danger on numerous occasions.
In "Tree For Two" and "Dr Jerkyl's Hide", he stands up against a pair of dogs (Spike and Chester) who attempt to harass him.
In "Father of the Bird", he protects a baby bird from danger.
In "Lighthouse Mouse", he attempts to help his owner sleep in peace by keeping the lighthouse on against a mouse.
In "Tweet and Sour", he was willing to save Tweety from an orange alley cat attempting to eat him.
In "The Tail End?", he saves the no tail from a group of tailless cats.
In "Life With Feathers", he constantly does his best to prevent a bird from committing suicide.
In the final episode of the series "This Is the End", he really redeemed himself following his dream then hugs the still alive Tweety and abandons his desires to eat him.
In The Ridiculous Journey,
In Bugs Bunny Builders,
Quotes
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From now on, birds are off my list.
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~ Sylvester when giving up birds from his list in "Tweet Zoo".
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Sheesh! The things I suffer for sustenance!!
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~ Sylvester.
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Help! Pussycat overboard!
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~ Sylvester being launched in the sky during his rivalry in his 90s series episode "Tweety's High-Flying Adventure".
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Helpless?! She's about as helpless as a porcupine in a nudist colony!
Uhh.. good luck! Y'know with uh, whatever you're, going, through.
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~ Sylvester to Wile E. Coyote in "Point, Laser Point".
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I suppose so. After all, I'm a animal, not a monster.
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~ Sylvester showing honor to Tweety's request in "Point, Laser Point".
Trivia
Sylvester once had a black nose (which was only in Kitty Kornered), but his nose has since always been red like a Conrad's.
Sylvester's character design (according to his original creator Friz Freleng) stated that it is based on a typical circus clown (evidenced by the messy hair, red nose, and baggy legs).
Sylvester has one of the lowest win records out of Looney Tunes, beaten only by Wile E. Coyote. Notably even in cartoons where he is doing good deeds such as a A Mouse Divided, he still ends up losing.
Sylvester could be heard in an episode of the game show Press Your Luck. Host Peter Tomarken had earlier incorrectly credited his catchphrase "Sufferin' Succotash!" to Daffy Duck. Even though all three contestants had correctly answered "Sylvester", they were ruled incorrect. In a segment produced later and edited into the broadcast, Sylvester phoned Tomarken and told him, "Daffy Duck steals from me all the time." This was a joke because Daffy was the first to actually say it.
In The Looney Tunes Show, Sylvester's appearance has changed in the series. His body is shorter and slenderer, and his fangs are sharper and more prominent, making him look more like a housecat.
His name Sylvester comes from a play on the term Felis silvestris, the scientific name for the European wildcat (and also the scientific name for the wild cat species). That's because Sylvester was a wild cat in the oldest cartoons, later he became a pet owned cat or a domestic cat, and scientific name for domestic cats is actually Felis catus
Sylvester's trademark exclamation, "Sufferin' succotash!", is said to be a minced oath of "Suffering savior".
Sylvester's voice is based on that of Daffy Duck, plus the even more slobbery lisp it gets and minus the post-production speed-up that was done with Daffy's.
