"Fresh Airedale" is a 1945 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Chuck Jones.
After a narrator gives a description of how dogs are loyal companions, we are introduced to an exception - "good ol" Shep, a greedy jerk of a dog who gives the appearance of the perfect dog, but is willing to steal his master's food and even allow the house to be robbed in exchange for a bone; all the while the owner's good-natured cat ends up getting all the blame. When Shep reads about a Scottish champ declared the country's #1 dog, he becomes consumed with jealousy, and goes out to eliminate the competition while the cat follows in an attempt to stop him and expose him for the vile beast that he really is. Unfortunately, as the ending of the cartoon shows, Shep's facade may never be broken.
Tropes appearing in this cartoon:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Shep is never exposed for the no-good dog he really is and praised as a hero at the end, much to the cat's dismay.
- Beware of Vicious Dog: Shep is a very nasty and conniving piece of work, but he knows how to put this "reputation" and predetermined status of a dog to his advantage.
- Butt-Monkey: The poor cat. Every good deed he does backfires on him and only makes Shep look better.
- Cats Are Mean: Averted. The cat in this cartoon is the real hero while the dog, Shep, is the true mean one.
- Deconstruction: A deconstruction of the Heroic Dog trope. Shep by virtue of being a dog is designated the "great hero", when in reality is a conniving and criminal dog. It reflects in the Aesop: Cats aren't always mean and the Dog isn't always "Man's Best Friend".Narrator: But- there are exceptions...
- Downer Ending: Particularly for the cat.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Shep, of course.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Sometimes, there are characters out there who get away with everything while those who are good-hearted don't get the respect they deserve. And who you think is "the hero" isn't who you think they are.
- Jerkass: Shep, but his master is a close second due to the way he looks down on the cat.
- Karma Houdini: Shep may be one of the nastiest examples of this in all of fiction.
- Not What It Looks Like: After Shep takes his master's steak, the cat generously places his own meal, fish bones, on the master's plate. Unfortunately, the owner assumes that the cat took his steak and left the bones there to mock him.
- Visual Metaphor: After Shep is hailed as a hero at the end of the cartoon, the cat frustratingly beats his fists on a statue of Justice, causing its scales to fall off and hit the cat in the head. In this instance, sadly, Justice is blind.
