Krazy Kat was just as dim as the brick that would him her.
Wasn’t Ignatz the mouse the smart one there? Same dynamic as Tom and Jerry.
Two Lumps. One Eeeeevil World Dominating Wannabe kitty, and one dumber-than-dumb kitty.
While you’re right that Stimpy is dumb as a bag of hammers (and shaped like one, too), I wouldn’t call Ren ‘the intelligent one’.
He’s cynical and nasty, and certainly THINKS he’s the smart one - and he’s the brains of the operation, mostly by dint of Stimpy’s willingness to go along with him - but he’s really not all that bright himself.
It’s much the same dynamic as Satch/Bucky in Get Fuzzy, only without the human playing straightman for the boys, and the species reversed.
Satch and Stimpy are good natured, dumpy and dumb. Ren and Bucky are nasty, cynical, and nowhere near as smart as they think they are.
When that cat in Peanuts “appeared” it was only a big swipe sound and the cat always leaving his response scratched in Snoopy’s doghouse.
Regarding this discussion: the cat showed how smart he was by scratching in one swipe a nice violin in reply to a musical question Snoopy made!
Although the cat next door never appeared “onscreen,” it did have a name: World War II (as mentioned earlier in this thread).
I really think this is most of the reason. And it’s not just applicable to cats. Cats are smarter than dogs, but then mice and canaries are smarter than cats, wabbits are smarter than Elmers, roosters are smarter than dogs, chickenhawks or weasels and so forth.
IMO part of it is that we all like to see the underdog win. The weak should triumph over the strong, especially of the stroing osbeing aggresive. Another factor is that we need to be able to avoid violence. If the predator is stronger, faster, smarter and with bigger teeth or guns then there’s gonna be violence. and that’s not conceivable in a kid’s cartoon. The little guy needs some way to escape and that will usually be through brains. In some cases of course the little guy has other ways such as Speedy Gonzales or the Roadrunner and in those cases they aren’t portrayed as any smarter than the predator.
Now that you mention it, that sounds right! :smack: