"Work Force," with the ones that stuff prizes into the cereal boxes are "prize stuffers" and those that lick the boxes closed are "box lickers." Think about it.
Having a character named "Lube" doesn't necessarily qualify for this...but one of the episodes is titled "All You Need Is Lube." Which could be read as both a Shout-Out and something else...
Awesome Music: The theme song, which is often considered the best part of the show. Even people who hate the show agree that it's pretty good. The extended version, if you're lucky enough to hear it, gives us two additional verses and a rippin' guitar/harmonica solo.
Is Shriek a good love interest or just another one of The Bullies on the show who doesn't deserve Dog as her love interest, especially when Cat would suffer as a result of that union?
On the flip side, Cat himself also qualifies. He may come off as more cultured and civilized, but his bossy attitude and manipulative streak have some fans feeling sorry for Dog as well.
Lola has her fans, but there are a number of people who find her Spicy Latina attitude annoying.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In "The Island," Cat and Dog get sucked into a street sweeper. We are then given a colorless dark void that Cat refers to as "the eye of the sweeper" where CatDog and much of the garbage that was sucked up is spinning around in a circle. In the next scene they are somehow shown to be back on the island again.
Cult Classic: While there is a small but noticeable number of people who dislike the series due to how mean-spirited it can be toward Cat, most people look back on this show fondly and view it as a classic due to its funny slapstick, appealing animation, and original premise.
Cat, when he's not being selfish or greedy. Multiple times he is treated as cruel for trying to make Dog behave or just give him a moment doing what he wants. In most cases, Dog acts like a hypocrite and sulks about Cat being inconsiderate until he gets things his way, and continues ignoring Cat's well being entirely. In all cases, the Idiot Houdini trumps pushy social climber.
Rancid Rabbit can border as such. In some cases he's just a corrupt authority figure, in others he is merely punishing CatDog for genuine misbehavior. In "All You Can't Eat" he bans Dog from his restaurant for taking liberties last time he came (Even Cat was on Rancid's side for that one). His only truly unscrupulous act was waiting till after they'd already paid to throw them out (and even that could be considered a small back payment for all the damage they caused).
Fanon Discontinuity: While the "Great Parent Mystery" movie has its redeeming qualities, some fans prefer to disregard the revelation that Winslow was the one who looked after CatDog when they were separated from their parents.
In "Guess Who's Going to Be Dinner!", Cat says of the blue-furred Winslow, "I could make a rodent Ratatouille."
In 2014, paleontologists announced the discovery of Dormaalocyon◊, the earliest known common ancestor to both cats and dogs. In other words, a literal catdog.
The opening theme song, which recounts the tale of CatDog's birth, refers to them as "no blue buzzard, no three-eyed frog". "The Great Parent Mystery" eventually reveals that CatDog's father is a frog, and their mother is a strange blue-furred creature.
Eddie The Squirrel. As obnoxious as he is, he's constantly being treated like garbage by the Greasers. It's especially evident in episodes like "Shriek on Ice", where he's actually driven to tears over the Greasers' rejection of him. In another episode, he snaps and becomes a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
Just Here for Godzilla: Most people watching CatDog for the first time will say that they were led to the show by Winslow, either because he's a Fountain of Memes, or because of "Winslow's Home Videos" appearing on the video release of The Rugrats Movie.
>ShadmanExplanation A still of Winslow walking back into his door in the wall with this caption at the bottom, referencing an infamous Rule 34 artist. The edit became a popular reaction image in response to said artist's off-color material and spawned a series of similar images depicting characters going through doorways with the names of other NSFW artists attached as captions. In the case of the latter, the juxtaposition is used to highlight one's enjoyment of or distaste towards the namedropped artists' output.
Questionable Casting: The final episode finally introduced us to the pair's parents. Their father is a frog with a human nose... played by Billy Bob Thornton.
Ron the Death Eater: Dog has suffered this as of late due to most fans berating his actions towards Cat in episodes such as "Dummy Dummy" and "Trespassing". While yes, he was a genuine jerk in both of those episodes, many fans often exaggerate his actions to a point where they treat him as a sociopath, even going as far to say he should be euthanized because of his jerkish moments. In reality, Dog, in spite of his selfish tendencies, still loves and cares for his brother and has even defended him in certain plights. Plus fans tend to ignore the fact that Cat, who they often victimize, has abused and manipulated Dog just as much, such as "All About Cat" where he deliberately sickened Dog just to get the part he wanted in a local play. (Granted a bigger garnering of sympathy is that Cat Can't Get Away with Nuthin', Jerkass or not, while Dog is almost always an Idiot Houdini or at least often ultimately gets his way in the end.)
Strawman Has a Point: As explained above, Rancid Rabbit was justified in banning CatDog from eating at Taco Depot in the episode "All You Can't Eat" due to Dog's impulsive behavior.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: This can be said of the Ingrid Twins, who seemed to be set up as love interests to the titular characters with similar implied sibling dynamic. Their appearances are scarce, however, where you can count their total appearances on one hand.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: "The Great Parent Mystery". It had a lot of buildup to it and generated some interest into the identity of CatDog's parents. Only, it turns out that the bigreveal was that we get to see CatDog's adoptive parents. One could imagine a few people being annoyed by this.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Winslow in "Guess Who's Gonna Be Dinner?" is portrayed as the sympathetic victim who desperately tries to avoid Cat's sudden pursuit. But when you take in account of the many times he's mistreated Cat and his brother (who still views Winslow as a friend despite all that), it's difficult to feel sorry for him and it mostly comes off as a Kick the Dog move on Cat's part.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The show looks pretty tame at first, as it didn't have quite as much demographically inappropriate humor as other Nicktoons of its time. However, it was also a pretty violent show with some very disturbing imagery, on top of nearing Family Guy levels of Sadist Show.
Dog. While most of the time, he's a cheerful and happy go lucky sort of guy, whenever he gets hit with Break the Cutie, he gets hit. Hard. He's been laughed at by the entire town of Nearberg for being a failure hero (Dog The Mighty), worked to the point of hypothermia in a sled dog race (Mush Dog Mush), almost sold off as a freak show attraction by his own brother after contacting a disease (Dog's Strange Condition), bullied by mailmen while in a depressed state (Fistful Of Mail), driven to the brink of paranoia (Safety Dog), spent an entire episode thinking he was allergic to his own brother (Sneezy Dog) and has been cheated and lied to several times by his own brother. He also came dangerously close to crossing the Despair Event Horizon in the Great Parents Mystery special. Basically, any time Dog looks emotionally hurt or starts shedding tears, it's enough to just want to reach into your screen and cuddle the poor pooch to make him his happy self again.
Cat can never catch a break. Even though he deserves it sometimes when he's selfish or insensitive to Dog, most of the time he's just trying to mind his own business or enjoy his day, yet the universe still never lets up on him, and he's constantly getting beat up, mugged, ignored, humiliated, discriminated against, hated on, injured, shocked by lightning in one episode, and just in general getting screwed over at the end of nearly every episode whether he deserves it or not. Cat just really needs a big hug to make everything better.
, if you're lucky enough to hear it, gives us two additional verses and a rippin' guitar/harmonica solo.
