History Main / SnakeVersusMongoose

Compare CatDogDichotomy and TigerVersusDragon for other common forms of AnimalJingoism. See also PrimateVersusReptile.

* The anime adaptation of ''Manga/YuruYuri'' uses a mongoose and a snake to represent the rivalry between Sakurako and Himawari.
* Subverted in ''Manga/LovePistols'' -- Shima, the mongoose, is in love with Aogiri, the viper.

* In one episode of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', Nanami is trying to ruin Anthy's reputation, and one of her plans is to hide a snake in Anthy's home and spread rumours that Anthy is the kind of girl who keeps snakes - her plan fails when Anthy's pet mongoose eats the snake.
* In Episode 3 of ''Anime/MagicalWitchPuniechan'', Elise summons some cobras to attack Punie, who summons some mongoose to counter this. The result is a rather gory scene of the mongoose killing and eating the cobras.

* Obscure Creator/MarvelComics superhero The Whizzer is a rather bizarre take on this trope. He was bitten by a snake and saved with an infusion of mongoose blood, which gave him SuperSpeed... somehow.
* The first transformation [[Comicbook/DoomPatrol Beast]] [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Boy]] was able to perform was transforming into a lime green mongoose to protect his parents from a cobra.
* You'd think Franchise/GiJoe would be all over this trope like a HurricaneOfPuns, since "Cobra" is the name of the villain's organization. Surprisingly, it barely mentions it. However, in the ''[[ComicBook/GiJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel A Real American Hero]]'' comics, Destro has a sculpture of a mongoose and a cobra on his desk.

It's one of the most famous instances of AnimalJingoism out there. Mongooses -- weasel-like carnivores belonging to the family Herpestidae -- are universally thought of as the mortal enemies of snakes. The snake can be one of many kinds, but it's usually a cobra, especially if the work is set in [[ArabianNightsDays the Middle East]] or [[SimSimSalabim India]]. Cobras play a major role in the lore of both of these places, and mongooses were renowned for their ability to hunt and kill them while evading their venomous fangs.

* In Episode 3 of ''Anime/DaiMahouTouge'', Elise summons some cobras to attack Punie, who summons some mongoose to counter this. The result is a rather gory scene of the mongoose killing and eating the cobras.

* In ''Manga/KodomoNoOmocha'', "natural enemies" Sana and Akito are represented as a mongoose and cobra, respectively.

-> ''"Austin Powers... he's the snake to my mongoose, or the mongoose to my snake. Either way it's bad. I don't know animals."''

* Series/WayneAndShuster had a sketch where Johnny Wayne plays a detective twho discovers that Frank Shuster's character is the villain. The villain tries to get away by wielding a snake as a weapon to ward off pursuers, but when he gets out of sight, Wayne's character is relaxed considering the villain is heading for the mongoose compound. Sure enough, the mongoose makes short work of the snake.

Compare CatDogDichotomy and TigerVersusDragon for other common forms of AnimalJingoism.

* There was a ''Toys/BeanieBabies'' character named Runner the Mongoose, whose poem was all about how much he loved to kill snakes.

The association of mongooses with cobras specifically was introduced to the world at large in ''Rikki-Tikki-Tavi'', a story from ''Literature/TheJungleBook''. Many depictions of the animosity between mongooses and snakes since then have been based on the one in that story, with the mongoose as a heroic defender of the innocent and the snake as a cruel, cunning villain. This dichotomy extends even to fantasy creatures, as the BasiliskAndCockatrice's reputed arch-enemy is the mongoose's cousin, weasels. It is worth noting that in RealLife, mongooses do not actively seek out snakes in preference to other prey (they feed mainly on other small mammals). However, their legendary ability to kill snakes has made them popular as semi-domesticated pets in India and the Middle East.

** The page image is from the episode "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak", in which a Gastly transforms into a mongoose (as in, an ''actual'' real-world, non-superpowered mongoose, and not a mongoose-like Pokémon) to scare Jessie's Ekans. The games would later take the trope to its obvious conclusion, as noted below and in the Video Games section.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Hey, wait a minute... YOU'RE NOT A POKÉMON!"]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'' Sunil the mongoose is terrified of everything, except cobras, which he will gladly beat the the ever-loving tar out of.

** The page image is from the episode "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak", in which a Gastly transforms into a mongoose (as in, an ''actual'' real-world, non-superpowered mongoose, and not a mongoose-like Pokémon) to scare Jessie's Ekans.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Hey, wait a minute...YOU'RE NOT A POKÉMON!"]]

It's one of the most famous instances of AnimalJingoism out there. Mongooses--weasel-like carnivores belonging to the family Herpestidae-- are universally thought of as the mortal enemies of snakes. The snake can be one of many kinds, but it's usually a cobra, especially if the work is set in [[ArabianNightsDays the Middle East]] or [[SimSimSalabim India]]. Cobras play a major role in the lore of both of these places, and mongooses were renowned for their ability to hunt and kill them while evading their venomous fangs.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''
** The page image is from the episode ''The Ghost of Maiden's Peak'', in which a Gastly transforms into a mongoose (as in, an ''actual'' real-world, non-superpowered mongoose, and not a mongoose-like Pokemon) to scare Jessie's Ekans.
** Jessie herself later acquires a Seviper, a snake Pokemon noted for its rivalry with the mongoose-based Zangoose, resulting in a minor RunningGag where Seviper would drop everything and disobey Jessie if there was a Zangoose around.

* Subverted in ''Manga/LovePistols''-- Shima, the mongoose, is in love with Aogiri, the viper.

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* Obscure Creator/MarvelComics superhero The Whizzer is a rather bizarre take on this trope. He was bitten by a snake and saved with an infusion of mongoose blood, which gave him SuperSpeed. . . somehow.
* The first transformation [[Comicbook/DoomPatrol Beast]] [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Boy]] was able to perform was transforming into a lime green mongoose to protect his parents from a cobra.

[[folder: Film- Live Action]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: Toys]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' Zangoose and Seviper are based on a mongoose and a snake respectively, and their defining traits are their mutual hatred of each other. In ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', if you encounter them in a Horde Battle together, they will focus their attention on fighting each other instead of attacking your Pokemon!
* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVAbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder'': ends with a wizard's duel a la ''Sword in the Stone'' between King Graham and the evil wizard Mordack. When Mordack becomes a cobra Graham turns into a mongoose. The manual actually calls this spell Rikki Tiki Tavi after the Rudyard Kipling story. It also speculates that people who knew of the story told the creator of the moongoose spell, who named it after it. Take this with a grain of salt, as Word of God puts the series in Earth's past, not a parallel dimension in intermittent contact with our present.

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* Creator/ChuckJones's adaptation of ''Rikki-Tikki-Tavi'': It's an adaptation of the TropeCodifier, Rudyard Kipling's story about a heroic mongoose saving the humans who adopted him from a family of cobras.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToasterToTheRescue'', Murgatroid the snake describes how Rob once saved him from a mongoose. [[MisplacedWildlife In the United States.]]

* In Episode 3 of ''Anime/DaiMahouTouge'', Elise summons some cobras to attack Punie, who summons some mongoose to counter this. The result is a rather gory seen of the mongoose killing and eating the cobras.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Scribblenauts}} Scriblenauts Unmasked]]'', during the boss fight with SelfDemonstrating/{{Sinestro}} on Oa, Maxwell has to counter everything Sinestro creates with something that scares Sinestro's creation. One of the things Sinestro can summon is a snake, and the correct response from Maxwell is to create a mongoose.

* In ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe'', Dr. Evil says, "Austin Powers... he's the snake to my mongoose, or the mongoose to my snake. Either way it's bad. I don't know animals."

* ''Film/CasinoRoyale'' opens to a group of gamblers betting on a fight between a mongoose and a cobra.

The association of mongooses with cobras specifically was introduced to the world at large in ''Rikki-Tikki-Tavi'', a story from ''Literature/TheJungleBook''. Many depictions of the animosity between mongooses and snakes since then have been based on the one in that story, with the mongoose as a heroic defender of the innocent and the snake as a cruel, cunning villain. It is worth noting that in RealLife, mongooses do not actively seek out snakes in preference to other prey (they feed mainly on other small mammals). However, their legendary ability to kill snakes has made them popular as semi-domesticated pets in India and the Middle East.

If a mongoose and a snake are on opposing sides, the mongoose will typically default to the heroic position, since SnakesAreSinister, however this is not necessary and it is entirely possible for the trope to be neutral in its portrayal. If this is the case, and neither the mongoose nor the snake are depicted as good or evil, then the emphasis is usually on their opposing natures rather than the desire of the mongoose to kill the snake.

Even if a work doesn't actually depict the two animals fighting, the image of the mongoose and the cobra as mortal enemies is such a popular one that it has become a common visual shorthand in visual media for two evenly-matched adversaries.